welcome

Isaac Asher Meunier

Mr. Isaac Asher Meunier has finally arrived! He was born August 14th at 7:29 am, weighing 10lbs and 9 oz and 21 inches long. Yes, he is a hefty boy! Thankfully we are both doing well although his birth story is a little dramatic.

We arrived at the hospital at around 4:30 am after my contractions had been about 4-5 minutes apart for about an hour. My water still had not broken, but I wanted to at least be checked since my labor with Emma really wasn't that long. Unfortunately, I was only dilated at 5. I had been at 3 for the past few weeks. Initially the nurse said they were just going to monitor me for an hour in the triage room and if things didn't progress, they were going to send me home. At the next check, I was still at 5, but my blood pressure was starting to increase. I think at that time it was in the 140s. I had had normal blood pressures all through my pregnancy.

Since my blood pressure was elevated, they decided to go ahead and admit me and started some pitocin to hopefully get things going. The doctor came in a few minutes after the pitocin had started and broke my water. After about an hour, the contractions were getting really strong thanks to the pitocin and I still was only dilated to 5. At that time my blood pressure was in the 170s.

Even though I was planning to go "au naturale", the nursing staff strongly suggested I get an epidural to not only help the pain, but hopefully bring my blood pressure down. It didn't take much convincing and I agreed. One last check of vital signs before the anestheologist arrived revealed my blood pressure at 197/100 and Isaac's heart rate suddenly dropped to 90. Because of my blood pressure issues and Isaac's heart rate, the recently on-duty OB doc decided to rush me into the OR for an emergency C-section.

It was quite scary. The room suddenly filled with 10+ staff and they literally ran me to the OR. Because it was deemed an emergency, Nate wasn't able to scrub in for the procedure and so had to anxiously wait in the room until the doctor came in about 15 minutes later to let him know he was now the father of a healthy boy weighing over 10 pounds! They still aren't sure exactly why my blood pressure and his pulse responded in the way they did, but I think it's just because he is so darn big, he just didn't have room to get going (thankfully!)

First meeting

I came to about an hour later. Because it was emergent, I had to have general anesthesia. Although I am so thankful everything went well, it was sad that I wasn't able to hear his cries when he was first born. I was pretty much out of it the first day. I'm a bit of a light weight when it comes to strong painkillers. We spent the next 3 days in the hospital getting to know each other.

Siblings

We now are all doing well. I'm feeling surprisingly well given my abdomen was sliced open. The worst part is that I can't lift up Emma. My parents (who are the greatest people in the world BTW) took Emma home with them for a week or so to allow me to recuperate. It's probably the hormones, but I was very emotional to see her go. She is enthralled with Isaac and really does well with him, although did need frequent reminders to be gentle.

Gramma and Grandpa

Isaac eats all the time! He had his first check-up a few days ago and is basically back to his birth weight. He has lots of hair - I can even style it! The mohawk look is my favorite. He seems to have a pretty low-key personality, but at this point he's only awake about 4 hours out of the day, so it's hard to say. He has an assortment of silly faces and grunting noises. I'm still getting used to his, ahem, anatomical differences. I've been peed on a few times already.

Happy baby

I have a bit of anxiety about returning to work, mostly because I'm not sure how I'm going to handle the schedule in the morning. I feel like I'll have to get up at 4 am to get everyone dressed and ready to go. Two is certainly more challenging than one! Despite the challenges, I couldn't be happier. We have two beautiful, happy, healthy children and I can't wait to see them grow!