1 Graham Abbott Kent

September 21, 2018

3:31 PM

7 lbs. 12 oz.

19.5 inches

He's here and he's perfect! At 17 weeks pregnant, I got a call from my OBGYN. My 15 week blood work was showing markers for down syndrome. I had something similar happen with both Christian and Piper, so I wasn't worried and knew no matter how he came to us, he would be loved completely. Over the next month and some genetic testing and meeting with counselors, we had pretty much ruled out down syndrome and any other genetic abnormalities and realized baby boy unfortunately was in a "bad placenta" which can have some scary risks after 34 weeks including preeclampsia and still birth. This led to what felt like a million doctor appointments/ultrasounds/NST/AFI's per week. It was frustrating feeling like I didn't know what to do with Christian and Piper during all these appointments but I was also incredibly grateful baby boy was being monitored so closely. With these complications and appointments, the last couple months of pregnancy felt like an exhausting, emotional roller coaster. My doctor thought it was best if we planned on inducing early with my risks.

Unfortunately, from about 34 weeks on, the baby was breech. I actually wasn't really concerned about this and knew that they can usually just flip breech babies. I was very naiive and it makes me laugh now.

On September 18th I was 36.5 weeks pregnant. I went in for just a normal visit and had a friend watching Christian and Piper. My doctor came in the room and said the protein in my urine was high and I had elevated blood pressure. I knew exactly what that meant because this has happened twice before. We were now talking preeclampsia. I headed over to labor and delivery until about 10pm where they monitored me and I spoke with my doctor. We decided I would come back in in a couple of days on the day I was 37 weeks and they would attempt to flip the baby and then hopefully induce me if flipping was successful. If not, they would do a c-section. Our plans had completely changed!

Friday, September 21st, Sean and I headed to labor and delivery at 9am. It was packed! They had moms all sharing rooms in recovery because so many babies were being born that day. Finally around 10:30, my doctor was able to get to me. She explained that flipping the baby can seem kind of barbaric. I have high pain tolerance so I really wasn't worried. Except, yeah, it was horrible. They laid me down and slanted to the table so my head was towards the floor, then they attempted to flip him. I was screaming and crying for them to stop. Finally, my doctor said, basically he was sitting deep in a bucket seat in my pelvis and was so low she didn't think it was going to happen. With my other risk factors, she didn't feel good about sending me home either.

C-section it was. I started bawling. She asked me what my concerns were and I was crying so hard I just pointed to Sean. I had told him so many times before that day how worried I was to have a c-section with two wild toddlers who I still had to lift in to car seats, high chairs and beds. Sean only had 5 days paternity leave so the thought of doing it all solo while recovering, completely wigged me out.

They could not get me back to the OR until 2:45. The nurse came to get me. I kept saying "I'm totally freaked out. I've never had surgery. Is it normal to freak out?" And she kept telling me I was normal but probably she was really just being nice.

They gave me my spinal tap but it took about an hour of rotating me on the table for everything to be numb enough for them to start. Finally they brought Sean back. They have a rule that dads must sit up by the moms during the procedure. Sean kept standing up and looking and he'd get in trouble. Finally the doctor said, "Sir, I know you're a surgeon but you need to sit down!" Poor Sean. He does love a good surgery!

After a few minutes, I hear the doctors say, "He's a BIG boy! Want to see him?" And they lifted him up! He wasn't crying yet and just looked really confused, poor guy! He was a doll and very mellow! They had to take him and clean him and he was having some minor breathing issues but was totally fine.

(This is the part of my post that I had to delete pictures because Sean told me they were too graphic. Apparently I have no pride left in me.)

I was so grateful! Pregnancy is so hard and adding on health complications and worries that things could go wrong makes it even harder. Seeing him here and healthy made it all worth it! I was finally able to hold him once his breathing was on track and we couldn't believe how much he looked like Christian! I totally thought from ultrasounds he was going to be a mini Piper.

We spent four days in the hospital and the recovery from the c-section the first week was really rough. Sean had to do bring Graham to me a lot of the time and getting up and down was hard. After week one though, I just have had some soreness but nothing too bad.

Graham is the sweetest boy! He seriously has made the transition to three as easy as it can be, I think!  He's my sleepiest and most mellow newborn for sure but also still has days and nights swapped. I'm usually up all night with him and up all day with Christian and Piper so sleep is definitely not happening for me anytime soon. Life is really wild with three kids three and under, but I'm so grateful we have Graham to join our crazy circus. It's cliche, but it feels like he's always been here with us. We love our Teddy Graham!