Ross Christopher Russell

Ross Christopher Russell was born in January 16 2020. The week leading up to his birth I had a ton of false labor with him, going in a few times to get checked. I fully lost my

Mucus plug on the Friday before and really thought I would have him by the following Monday. The Tuesday I woke up at 8 am and didn’t feel well. Around 430 I started getting very strong contractions while exercising at 630 pm we decided to go to the hospital to get checked. It was official I got admitted to the hospital as I was 4 cm dilated, we decided to stay at the hospital and do stairs, walk around to help my labor progress. An hour later I was fully effaced but I had not dilated at all. We decided to do more walking but this time we went home to labor at home for a few hours. At 1030 pm we went back to the hospital and I was 5 cm dilated so got to go to the delivery room since I needed antibiotics before his birth. While in the room my labor stopped so I asked the nurse if I was able to walk around the unit to hopefully make my labor progress more. Around 1 am I really got uncomfortable and asked to labor in the tub I was approximately 6 cm at this time. The labor in the tub got really intense and luckily Jesse was a great support and I just asked him to stand in front of me while I pulled his hand down to help “ground” a contraction. It wasn’t long after at 1130 that I wanted to go and have an epidural. The night I went into labor it was -58 with the wind chill and the anesthesiologist was doing 2 c sections before she would be able to give me an epidural. The labor was really hard, jesse was still amazing and again I just sat at the edge of the bed and pulled his hand down with both my hands to “ground” the contractions. Finally at around 1 30 am I was able to get an epidural, she shot my back 10 times with lidocaine to numb my back. She then tried 3 times to get the epidural catheter into my back. I got a contraction that was so bad that I couldn’t even feel the catheter go into my spine at this point she asked if that was a “pushing” contraction. It was but I was so resilient to not give birth naturally that I lied and said no I don’t feel like I have to push so I could get the epidural. My epidural didn’t end up taking anyway. Right after she was done at 245 am. I was already 10 cm and ready to push. I had a resident dr. Thomas, a family physician dr. Greig, my labor nurse Heidi and jesse help deliver him. The pushing was hard getting his head out was easy but delivering the shoulders really hurt. At 333 am he was born into the world. I guess when he was born he was completely black and Jesse knew he wasn’t alive at that point. I guess the nurse was giving him cpr while he was on my chest. A few nicu nurses were there and took him to reassess him and get him

Breathing. I saw him begin to get colour quickly and he peed on the nurse to make sure to let them know he was ok haha. They said he was 6 lbs 15 oz and 17 inches long. I was in complete shock, my dr said I was measuring 2 and a half weeks ahead so to prepare for a 9 lb baby. Since the epidural didn’t take I was able to get up half an hour later and shower take my things to recovery. I didn’t tear at all with him and he was observed in nicu for a few hours since he was a bit “grunty”. My delivery with him was so massively different from Macy’s. I was calm, the contractions hurt so bad but I was strong through them and focused on the end of the

Contraction. we are so grateful this sweet little being chose us and that he blessed his mom by coming early at 39+2 weeks. I am extremely proud of my body for going into labor naturally and pretty much delivering him

Naturally since that was not part of my birth plan. We love him so much already 💙

our first week as a complete family of 4

After the birth of our son..son can you believe it? I always imagined myself to have girls and instead I have my million dollar combination of a girl and a boy. I am so excited I get to experience both genders.
I got discharged from the hospital 2 days later, I was not happy about it at all. I wish it was sooner. I got no sleep in the hospital, to start off with it was cold as anything. I was the patient nearest to the window and normally nurses do not encourage for babes to cosleep with their moms, but they asked both my roomate and I to cosleep with babes to keep them warm. In the hospital all he did was cluster feed so again not much sleep that we ended up having. When we got home Macy pretty much loved up her brother, and he was her baby and no one else's. She loved to feed him a bottle or give him his soother.
When we got home, again we did not get much sleep he cluster fed again the following night. The day after that I thought he had jaundice and took him to emergency to get his levels looked at which wasnt bad at all. While I was leaving, I put his car seat onto the stretcher and when I went to grab the handle of his bucket seat my hand slipped. Poor Ross got flung across the floor but luckily he was buckled up really tight. On top of that I discovered that macy put almost a whole tin of peanuts in his car seat because they went all over the floor. The nurses just looked at me trying to calm me down and say accidents happen. I just burst out laughing saying "Didn't do it with the first kid haha but had to do it with the second."
Later on that day I went in to get some groceries and Macy and her dad waited in the car. When I was walking back with the groceries, I could hear macy singing "Let it go" from 10 cars away, let it go blaring, and when I got to the car Jesse was fast asleep on the drivers side, I only went in for groceries for about 10 minutes, and he was passed out.
We got our newborn photoshoot done with Aly, luckily she is a great photographer and she took the photos in less than 5 minutes. Both Mason and Macy were acting up and throwing tantrums where we got photos done, but they ended up being beautiful anyway.
My post partum healing isn't going as great as I thought it would, I have bad post natal contractions where it feels like I am in labor. Bad headaches, blistered and bleeding nipples from him having a bad latch the last few days. Luckily I have a friend that is a midwife that sent me videos on how to get him to properly latch, after that I didn't have engorgement anymore, or the stabbing pain when he would feed.
Macy would watch me feed her brother and whisper while pointing at my breast "titty". Something her dad taught her one day haha even though I wasn't pleased with that. She would watch me breastfeed him and she would mimick the motion with her puppy and "breastfeed" him. Its been a bit of a learning curve with macy, she is retaliating a tiny bit with her going through a phase of hitting and biting again. We are trying to do outings but its hard when all the adults are tired.
When we did get home our church organized for someone to feed us each night throughout the week. Its been great so far, we have had chicken tacos, sheperds pie with salad, pizza. Its been great to not have to worry about dinners as exhaustion is hard to deal with.
Ross is a good baby as well, he only ever cries when getting his diaper changed and when hes hungry.

Some members of the church provided us with some meals the first week being home. One of the nights one of the members also brought over some homemade cupcakes for us. I asked Macy to help me carry some stuff up the stairs I was expecting her to carry the bag of chips (enchilada soup that night) and instead chose the cupcakes. As she was going up the stairs she dropped the cupcakes and quickly in a worried voice kept on saying “oh no oh no oh no” over and over again. It was so cute!