Dane Eugene Neilson was born on 11/25. He was 7lbs 6oz and 20 inches long
...just a little bit bigger than Brady in both weight and height
His middle name is a tribute to my Grandpa Brisco, who passed away just a few months ago
We absolutely adore him and he fits into our family PERFECTLY!
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There is not much of a birth story to tell this time around since we had a scheduled C-section. We woke up early Monday morning, headed to the hospital, got checked in, hooked up, numbed, and had a baby. No pain ... but a HUGE gain! :)
I've never had a surgery before, so the entire experience was pretty strange to me. I was shocked at how fast it all happened. One minute Ryan and I were talking about stuffing recipes (The doctor told him to distract me because I didn't want to hear any medical talk like "I'm slicing into her abdomen") and the next minute they were announcing that we had a baby boy! It felt a little anti-climactic. They showed him to me and then called Ryan over to clip the cord and take pictures. I couldn't see them so I just laid there getting sewed up. I was pretty nauseous and had this crazy pain in my shoulder so I was talking to the anesthesiologist trying to manage that, and then I was kind of falling asleep. The medicine made me SOOO sleepy. Eventually they brought Dane to me and kind of held him up to my face and took some pictures and then he and Ryan left the room to do skin to skin while they finished closing me up.
Once I was closed up, they wheeled me out to Ryan and Dane and I got to hold him and nurse him and after a while, we all went into the postpartum room where we stayed for the next few days until it was time to go home.
The recovery was definitely different. With Brady I was up and walking around within an hour or so of having him. With Dane, I didn't get out of the bed until midnight. I don't even remember why the nurse had me get up, but I remember waking Ryan up to show him that I was finally UP! I was pretty excited. By the next morning I was up using the bathroom and taking laps around the halls because everyone said you need to move as quickly as possible...and I'll be blunt - I was on a clear liquid diet until I could pass gas. And I couldn't do it (because I'm a LADY and I don't do that), so they encouraged me to walk around to get things moving. When they brought me chicken broth for breakfast, I cried. It had been more than 24 hours since I'd eaten real food and I just wanted to eat something other than broth. They decided to let me eat real food for lunch even though I hadn't...you know...
I was also super itchy for about 24 hours after delivery while the medicine left my system. It was miserable! Other than all of that, my incision was somewhat uncomfortable, but I was on a steady dose of pain killers, so really the only time it hurt was when I tried to sit up in bed or do anything that used my ab muscles. I really had to give myself a pep talk before sitting up to nurse the baby or get out of bed to do anything...and that was WITH the pain killers. But really, it wasn't that bad.
By Wednesday, Dane and I had been cleared to go home and we left that afternoon. I couldn't believe how short of a stay we had. I had heard people stay for up to 5 days with a C-section. I wasn't in there any longer than I was with Brady when I had a vaginal delivery. Weird.
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All in all, my c-section experience was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The main bummer for me was that I didn't get to hold Dane right away. That really made me sad, but I'm glad that Ryan got to hold him and do skin to skin with him. It's a special bonding moment that they got to share and I've had no problems bonding with him since, so I guess it's ok that I had to miss out on the first cuddles this time around.
Now, 2 weeks later, I'm feeling pretty great. I'm still taking ibuprofen to help with some pain at my incision site, but I forget doses all the time and I can manage. I'm out and about, mostly for doctors appointments, and I'm getting back to normal...as normal as I can be with TWO kids.
Dane is a dream. He mostly sleeps all day, so I haven't gotten a real taste of what life will be like with 2 active kids yet. So far, my favorite moment of the day with him is nap time. When Brady goes down, I lay on the couch with Dane on my chest and we snooze for a few hours. I just love to be able to hold him so close and feel him breathe. I also love having my hands full cuddling BOTH of my boys. Sometimes when I'm holding Dane, Brady squeezes up onto my lap saying that he needs to cuddle too. I really am so lucky to have these 2 cute boys in my life!
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