The Sibert Family: January 2015

This is my attempt at summing up the whirlwind of the last 6 weeks of 2014.

November 18

We celebrated my 32nd birthday. We kept it simple. This was what Aspen and I woke up to on my birthday morn. Cute Nick.

Now onto the craziness.

November 19

The very next day little Aspen had to have her tonsils and adenoids removed. I felt so bad for her as she didn't understand what was about to go down, but it she desperately needed this surgery. She was sleeping horribly and was exhausted all the time because of the obstruction. Luckily all went well. And amazingly, her speech has improved considerably! Another reason their removal was absolutely necessary.

That same morning, before Aspen's surgery, I discovered blood after I used the bathroom. Obviously very concerned, I called my doctor. They wanted me to come in immediately. After two ultrasounds my doc said that I had placenta previa - basically my placenta was right over my cervix. Funny thing is, just two weeks earlier another doctor from the same clinic ruled out me having placenta previa. So I was pretty shocked (and irritated with the previous doc) by this news. Immediately I asked what this meant for me and baby boy. Just then the doc was paged to Labor and Delivery so as fast as he could he told me that I had to basically go on bed rest the next 72 hours, that I was most likely going to deliver via c-section at 36 weeks (the chances of the placenta moving at 34+ weeks is less than .5% chance), and that I if I started to bleed again, I was to go to the hospital where baby would probably would be delivered via emergency c-section. (Also, another thing I found out at my next appt. was that there was a chance I could bleed very heavily because of the placenta being right over the cervix, this is why I would need to go to the hospital ASAP if I began bleeding again and why they would need to hook up an extra IV during delivery in the case I needed a blood transfusion) Holy moly! This was a lot to take in.

Oh and keep in mind this all went down right when Aspen had her little surgery. So I was on bed rest, Aspen was recovering, which meant Nick had to take care of everything and everyone for the next 3 days. Fortunately, I am blessed with amazing friends and family who helped out with carpooling, meals, comfort, kids...I can't even express the love I felt during the craziness.

November 26

About 7 days after Aspen her tonsils out, T-man had to have his out. His tonsils were huge (adenoids were gone, had those out at age 4) and he was having lots of sleep problems as well so the doc advised to get them out ASAP. We opted to do this about a week before my scheduled c-section. I know, it sounds nuts but with insurance deductibles starting over in January and with a brand new baby coming sooner than planned, we felt we couldn't put it off.

So here's cute Toby pre and post operation...

Notice how pale he is in the post-op pic. Poor guy is just like his mama and doesn't handle anesthesia well. The vomiting lasted all the way till we got home (even had to pull over once on the way home). :(

November 27

Thanksgiving came to us since I was not allowed to travel. The doc said it was just too risky with placenta previa. Nick's family were kind enough to come to our home and made a fabulous Thanksgiving feast. Toby is all smiles in this pic even though he is just 1 day post op. Aspen was being a good sport even though her scabs in her throat were starting to come off. She was in a lot of pain that day. Poor kiddos! I hate to see them miserable.

So this is me the day before my c-section. I was 36 weeks.

Can I just say how insane it felt to know I was delivering a whole month early? Toby and Aspen were vaginal births. Toby arrived just 1 day shy of 41 weeks. Aspen was induced right at 40 weeks. This c-section/placenta previa business was all new territory for me. So many questions kept swirling around in my brain: Would he be healthy? How big would he be? How would my delivery go? Would I bleed too much? What is the recovery like for a c-section?

Sometimes I felt at peace about things. Sometimes I was scared out of my mind.

December 5

Thanks to a blessing given by my wonderful husband and the prayers offered by friends and family for me and baby, I was feeling a lot better about things by the time I got into my lovely hospital gown.

And it all went well. Way better than all the worse case scenarios that were replaying over and over again in my head. The delivery went smoothly (minus the moment of barfing right before they cut me open. Dumb anesthesia.) and baby boy was surprisingly big for being a 36 weeker: 6 lbs 8 oz 19 inches! Right after he was born he was having some issues breathing so they had him on a CPAP for about an hour. After that he was just fine! No NICU needed, no more breathing treatments, nothing!

I was beyond happy and so very humbled with how well everything played out.

After about 4 or 5 hours of indecisiveness, we gave him a name:

Zachary Ryan Sibert

Reason behind the name: Zachary was the only name we could agree on (so profound, I know)

And Ryan is Nick's middle name.

But just look at our handsome little guy. He's just perfect.

OK, OK. So not everything was smooth sailing during my hospital stay. Right after the delivery, I began vomiting. Probably some of the worst pain I've experienced is throwing up with a fresh incision across my lower abdomen. Horrible. And then my nurse just vanished for a good 4 hours. It was the strangest thing. I had an IV that needed to be changed, I needed to be changed, (so much blood!) and I was barfing it up but my nurse was MIA. Not a fun night.

Thankfully, the rest of my hospital stay was much better. I enjoyed the one-on-one time with little Zack.

December 8

Due to the crazy flu outbreak, the kids were not allowed to come visit me in the hospital. I sure missed those cuties. I actually came home a day early because I was going a little stir crazy and wanted to see them. And, of course, I wanted them to see their new baby brother.

Loki was quite curious of our newest member of the fam.

Nick had two weeks off. It was so nice having him home. He took care of everything in the home and made sure I took it easy. I gotta admit, I wasn't prepared for how bad the incision pain would be. Getting out of bed or even just standing for longer than a few moments was SO painful. Still is a bit, but it's getting a lot better.

Love this guy.

December 20

So the day Nick went back to work, both Toby and Aspen got fevers, chills, runny noses, coughs - the whole shebang. I immediately quarantined Zachary to my room and hand sanitizer was our friend. My anxiety level was a little high. I was SO scared of him getting sick being so fresh out of the womb and being early. Plus, I felt bad I couldn't really be there 100% for my sick kiddos. Every couple of hours I had to say "Mommy's gotta go nurse/hold/change Zack." They were so sweet and understanding though. I felt so blessed on that alone. But then some good friends brought over some DVD's as well as coloring books, markers, play dough to help keep the kids occupied. I have awesome people in my life.

And so far (knock on wood), Zack hasn't caught anything.

Here are the grandparents getting to know their new grandbaby.

December 24

Growing up my dad would read out of Luke 2 and we would all dress up as a shepherd or angel, etc. I felt we needed to start this tradition in our own family.

Zack made a perfect baby Jesus. And Toby did great doubling as a shepherd and wise man. Aspen loved saying, "Fear not!"

December 25

Christmas was wonderful. Well, except the part where Aspen's ear drum ruptured because of an ear infection and Nick had to rush her to the Instacare before it closed (we were so happy to find one that was open!).

But in spite of all that, we still had a nice, quiet Christmas together.