Tales from Our Fairytale: Bringing Home Bryleigh

Bryleigh’s Birth Story, Part Two

I recently shared Bryleigh's Birth Story on the blog. Those two days, and the hours of labor/delivery are definitely a blur and a whirlwind of memories and emotions. I remember questioning if I had the strength, physically and emotionally, to give birth, but I was even more terrified of what followed. I knew that I would expend all of my energy to get her here (already tired from the 40 weeks of pregnancy and then a long sleepless night of labor), but then the REAL work would begin. There would be no full night of rest after what I now refer to as "the ultimate workout of my life," and honestly - there wouldn't even be a power nap! I would immediately have to feed her, change her, bathe her, etc. Those thoughts alone made me feel EXHAUSTED beyond what I already was, but to my surprise, once she was here...I had SO much energy (or maybe we should more accurately call it adrenaline)! I WANTED to do all of those things, but most importantly I just wanted to HOLD her.

After briefly holding my sweet baby girl for the first time, my sweet husband took her over with the newborn nurse to get all of her stats and vitals. They immediately began to check out her collar bones, shoulders, neck, back and arms to make sure that nothing had been injured during the birth. Because she was a little bigger than the average baby, and because of the direction she was facing during our vaginal delivery, there was a possibility that there could be some injury or soreness in her little body. Thankfully, all of her stats and vitals, along with her tiny body were all perfectly normal!

During the time that Bryleigh was getting "checked out," Dr. Harris was finishing up with me. Thankfully I didn't have any major tearing on the outside, and only one place that required any stitches. The inside took a little more work though. I had two rather large tears, one on the right and one on the left side, which required quite a bit of stitches...and quite a bit of time. We almost ended up in the OR, but Dr. Harris and his resident ended up taking about 45 minutes to get all of the stitching completed, and they were able to complete it in our delivery room (thankfully!!).

Once Dr. Harris was done with his part, and Bryleigh was done getting all checked out, we had an hour of "Kangaroo" or "Skin-to-Skin" time down in the delivery room before moving up to our Post-Partum room where Bryleigh would get to meet some of her family!

My first picture with my daughter. How sweet it is!!

Fighting to Feed

During this time in the delivery room, we were able to give nursing our first shot...and we failed miserably. Miss Bryleigh would arch her back, push out her arms, and cry...you know, the cry where she loses her breath and the whole face turns a dark red, almost purply-blue?! Because of this, they went ahead and had a lactation consultant come down to our room to meet with us.

She wanted to get a good look at Bryleigh first, and then at me to see if there were any type of issues that might cause a problem for feeding. She was able to get Bryleigh to suck on her finger, which was definitely a promising start. She mentioned she had a pretty high pallet, but that she should be able to do everything just fine.

The first thing she said to me was, "Now the first thing I'm seeing here are signs for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome..." As she was beginning her follow up sentence to explain what that was, I said, "Oh I have that," not expecting that to really mean anything for breast feeding. I had no idea that PCOS could cause issues with your milk supply coming in, but she let me know very quickly that was a possibility.

Over the next three days (during day-time shift hours), each time we were ready for a feeding (every two hours), we would have a lactation consultant in our room (some times two AND a nurse) for about an hour trying to get Bryleigh to breastfeed. But she WASN'T having it...the arched back, pushing arms, and screaming cries would come out every time. We tried different positions, we tried the SNS (a system where a tube is set up so that she is feeding from me but also getting formula or pumped milk through a tiny tube), we tried EVERYTHING. As discouraging as this was, I didn't let it get to me. I wasn't going to give up yet. So we pumped occasionally, attempted to breast feed some more, and supplemented with formula when we needed to.

Bryleigh's first bottle and her first SNS feeding.

Glucose Protocol

Because of Bryleigh's "large" size, the staff let us know that Bryleigh would need to have her glucose levels monitored. The number we were looking to stay ABOVE was 45, and we'd have to have her levels checked at least 4 times (an initial check and then the first three times we fed her). If the number dropped below 45, Bryleigh would need to spend some time in the NICU, and each time our number was too low, we'd have to start over. She would need 3 glucose tests above 45 in a row. The first test took place immediately after she was born, and we got our "benchmark" of 54.

After moving upstairs, it was time for our next feeding. We had a lactation consultant that worked with us on this feeding, so it was one of the more "successful" ones, and her levels went up to 76.

The next feeding took place after the consultants went home and with a new night nurse on shift...she wasn't very nice, friendly, or helpful and left the room before Bryleigh even fed at all. She came back in less than 5 minutes...apparently someone let her know that Bryleigh was under the "glucose watch" and the feeding was even more important than normal. She was able to help me with "express feeding" where we got a little on a spoon and gave it to Bryleigh that way. Obviously that feeding wasn't too successful, and the glucose level ended up being RIGHT at 45.

Thankfully we had more help on the third one, and I was determined to get her something on that one because I did NOT want my baby in the NICU...and from sheer determination, we got the levels back up for the final test. We were SO thankful to have that stress behind us, and rather than focusing on numbers, we could strictly focus on FEEDING.

First Bath...and First Night!

Bryleigh wasn't able to get a bath until we were done with the Glucose testing, and even then because of her size they wanted to do the bath in the nursery, so I wasn't able to be there, but her daddy went and got it on video and took some pictures for me. :)

Two of my favorite (early) pictures of Miss Bryleigh :) THOSE. TOES!!!

Once she got back in the room, she slept right on my chest for the rest of the night...well off and on between feedings and nurses checking in and a choking scare! At some point, we aren't sure what happened, but Bryleigh wasn't able to swallow normally and she would start to choke on the saliva that was in her mouth. During these few hours, she would also gag anytime you put anything in her mouth (including fingers which is how we were doing the SNS feedings at that time). We called the nurses in both times, and the second time the nurse ended up taking her back down to the nursery for them to take a closer look. Bryleigh ended up having her stomach pumped and that seemed to do the trick! We haven't had any trouble since.

That first night will be one of my most favorite and earliest memories of being Bryleigh's mommy. We spent a lot of her first 24 hours skin-to-skin! I didn't do much sleeping that night. I spent most of my time just looking at her and thanking God for such a beautiful and perfect gift!

Nights 1 and 2...they sleep the same. Every. Single. Time!

Sweet skin-to-skin time with mommy and daddy!

Checking the "Belly"rubin Levels

The other thing we had working against us as far as feedings went was Bryleigh's bilirubin levels...or as her daddy like to call them "BellyRubin".

She was jaundice, and the way to get those levels down is sunlight and Bryleigh filling her diaper. Each time she peed or pooped, a little of the jaundice would go away. This meant feeding was important. The better she ate, the more she would fill up her diapers.

The nurses would check her levels with a piece of equipment that looked similar to a thermometer. If the levels were a certain amount (too high), they would come in and prick her heel to check the levels that way.

I'll be honest, this was a "Daddy-Issue." He spent a lot of time with the day nurse on Saturday and again on Sunday to get all of the information we needed for this issue. He knew what the levels were and what they were supposed to be. He knew what the high levels meant and what we needed to do to get them down. Her levels were high enough at the last check that we almost had to stay for some additional time. (I would have been dismissed, but Bryleigh would have had to stay and been checked a few more times.) Thankfully - her very last check on Sunday was low enough that we were both able to be dismissed and go home!

Bringing Home Bryleigh

Sunday was spent seeing the Pediatrician and Dr. Heckman (he was covering Dr. Harris' patients since he was out of town), as well as working a little more with the lactation consultants and Bryleigh's very last (and best) jaundice test. We had all of our discharge paperwork and a wealth of information to take home with us to help with our first days and weeks at home.

Daddy filling out the Birth Certificate information, changing one final diaper, and getting a last minute swaddling lesson.

We were so excited to finally be heading home with our baby girl!

Our baby girl, dressed (for the first time...) and ready to head home!

Some family pictures before heading downstairs and then HOME!

Bustin' out! Bryleigh's first car ride! And Daddy bringing in his baby girl!

*A few days after being home with Bryleigh, I was talking to my mom and she mentioned something that seemed extremely fitting to me.

I LOVE my granddad, which is her dad. He will always be one of my most favorite people in the world, and there have been plenty of times I've cried because he will never get to meet Brad...which has carried on to not knowing Bryleigh as well. He would have loved them both.

My mom let me know that she took my granddad to check in at Baylor Hospital for his surgery to remove a tumor on Wednesday, January 19, 2005. He never left, and we told him goodbye for the last time on February 23. And here we were on Sunday, January 19, 2014 - 9 years later - checking OUT of Baylor Hospital to take our sweet little miracle baby home with us!

At Home with Miss B

Our first full day at home with Bryleigh was Monday, January 20th - a day I'd had circled on my calendar for a very long time because I knew that it would be Bryleigh's first holiday - Martin Luther King Jr. Day :) And it meant that whether she'd been here for a few weeks, or just arrived...my momma and my hubby would be off for the day to enjoy our sweet girl with me!! We had a pretty calm relaxing day at home just getting adjusted to our new schedule.

Baby girl's FIRST bow! And first bottle of momma's milk!

This was also the first day that I spent any real time with my pump and we were honestly so excited to get about 5 ml...we had come a long way in a few short days and it was the first time I really had hope about that whole process! After all of the talk regarding PCOS and my milk not coming in at the hospital, I was thankful for any amount we saw!!

We had our first doctor's appointment on Tuesday morning after we came home on Sunday since the offices were closed on Monday due to the holiday. Bryleigh was NOT a fan of getting dressed and undressed, but she did great!! Everything looked pretty good, but they were a little concerned about her drop in weight, so they asked us to come back first thing Wednesday morning for another weigh-in. They also asked us to keep her in front of windows for the rest of the morning/afternoon to help in getting rid of any remaining jaundice. Thankfully they did not have to do a heel prick at that appointment!

All buckled in to her car seat for the first two doctor's appointments!

We obviously spent the rest of Tuesday making sure Bryleigh ate her full two ounces every two hours, followed up by tanning sessions after each bottle. When we went back on Wednesday, she had gained two ounces!

Suntan sessions with mom and dad

There were lots of "Firsts" for us during our first week at home, including Bryleigh's first bath. She's not quite a fan yet...but I'm almost sure she will be before too long!!

We wrapped up Bryleigh's first week with some serious family time!! My brother and his family came to the hospital the day before/day of Bryleigh's birth, but they had to head back to Conroe before she actually blessed us with her presence. They were able to come back to Arlington and spend part of the weekend with us!! It was so fun having Tate, Oliva, and Bryleigh all together in one place. Alan was excited to finally meet his niece, and Mimi and Pappy were over the moon with their very own "Three Ring Circus" - as my dad has dubbed them!