Henry Beau Groninger

We loaded up the car with all the goods needed to successfully have a baby.  Having done this once before, we learned from our mistakes and brought ALL necessary items that would keep everyone happy for three days.  I also had to plan for Charlee, which was new to me because she isn't away from me that often but mom, Greg, and Mackenzie took good care of my baby.  I told mom I would let her know when they should come up with the new big sister.

As we drove, I was surprisingly calm and only discussed horrible outcomes for half the ride, the other half was how Charlee was going to handle having her world flipped.  Gavin continuously reminded me Charlee and I would be fine and every now and again would add that this baby was a girl for sure.

IU Health North

We both tried to be better at taking pictures this time so we were "on it" as we drove up to the hospital to welcome our second child.

My calm, comforting, loving, patient husband driving the crazy, hormonal, worried, huge 39 week pregnant lady.

They (staff) didn't waist any time.  I was changed and had my IV within 30 minutes.  This is what Gavin did while I was doing my admission history.

Um... yeah hello swelling. Goodness

I'm all hooked up and ready for my cytotec to start working.  The nurse gave me my first dose at 7pm.  I was having consistent contractions, but not painful, and not really regular at this point.

He's super excited. 


and we have a baby...


 haha, let me explain.

The nurse came back in at 11pm and said I was dilated to 3cm and was still 50%. She gave me more cytotec. I told her my contractions weren't picking up on the monitor because they were stronger and starting to feel uncomfortable, but I was going to try to sleep through them.  She said she would be back at 3 and if I was the same Gallagher wanted to start Pitocin. 
I woke up at 2:15 and couldn't go back to sleep through the contractions.  They were every five minutes and lasted for about 30 seconds.  Gavin was snoring so I was going to let him sleep.  I thought I could just make it to 3am for the nurse to check me but at 2:45 I was uncomfortable and they were starting to hurt pretty bad.  I hit my call light at 2:50 because I just couldn't wait 10 minutes.  The nurse (Elizabeth) came in and said she would check me and I was still 3cm but about 70%.  I told her I was ready for my epidural because I knew it would take a little bit to get it.  She hooked up my IV (I had to have a bag of fluid in before my epidural). I'm not sure if it was when she checked me that it started to be extremely unbearable, or right after but she must have knocked something into action, because I was starting to get tense and nervous that I wasn't going to get my epidural in time. She helped me up to go to the bathroom and I'm not kidding, it took me 10 minutes to get there because my contractions were coming much faster now.  Gavin was up at this point because I think he knew the shit was starting to hit the fan and I'm pretty sure he knew that his ass needed to be up. I think he helped me to the bathroom and back.  He saw that I started shaking uncontrollably and remembered that that happened with Charlee when I was in labor "for real"... also known as Megan cant even talk anymore. I made it back to bed and my sweet nurse had already called the anesthesiologist to let them know I was ready for them.  She then started squeezing the bag of fluid to get it in faster because I was looking at her like, something is going on.
    The smallest movements were killer.  I got to the side of the bed and waited for the slowest moving anesthesiologist to do her thing.  She was asking me questions that I couldn't even respond to... so Gavin answered them until it was time for him to leave the room.  He went out with his phone and was going to send some updates via text so he didn't wake anyone up.
    FINALLY... a little relief from the horrid pain.  They got me laying down and I kept telling the anesthesiologist that I could still feel a lot on my left side so she is tilting me and moving me over to my left so the medicine could work by gravity.  She is priming the tubing and I feel a "pop" and remember saying "I think I just peed myself"  and my nurse looked up and I was having a contraction... and she said "I bet that was your water breaking" She checked to make sure it was clear, because if I could have physically checked I would have. Oh being a NICU nurse makes you crazy when your having a baby.  During this 5 minute time frame I asked if she could just check me again because I just feel a lot of pressure in my "booty" (as Charlee would say).  She said "Oh, well that's because your a 10 and complete"
    I asked her to find my husband who was nowhere to be found.  My nurse yelled to another nurse "He's 6'5" and its 3:45 am how can you not find him!!!!"  Some other nurse found him thankfully. He didn't really have a clue what he was walking into.  He was ordered to call my mom and his mom ASAP because baby is almost here.
    Dr. Gallagher was on her way. Gavin set up the video camera on the mattress propped up behind my head so all he had to do was press record.  The camera was in reach so we thought we had it under control.  We did a few practice pushes with the nurse before Dr. G arrived.
     Side note: The nurse left me and Gavin to do 1 practice push.  She brought over the mirror because she said it helps with effective pushing.  So we used it for that 1 push. After that 1 push I told Gavin to get that thing out of here... He was in agreement! Seriously.... NO, that did not help me, it scarred me.  We were laughing too hard to even get a practice push in.  The nurse came back in and chuckled when I said "who the hell does that help?"
    About 5-6 practice pushes later Dr. G arrived.  She was surprised we were ready to have a baby after I just left her office 11hrs ago. This experience was much different compared to when I had Charlee. This was very enjoyable.  I had my epidural in and working for about 20 minutes.  I just felt contractions in my left butt cheek.  I pushed about 4-5 times with Dr. G and she said we will have a baby on the next push.  She asked us both last minute predictions.  I don't remember what we said because it was time to find out.  I remember looking at Gavin's face and he shook his head in disbelief and said "Oh my GOD... its a BOY!" We both started crying. She put him on my chest and I was much calmer this time and just enjoyed looking at him for the first time.  I remember he had big lips and eyes like his big sister and lots of dark hair.  I held him for a while with Gavin right there the whole time still in shock that he has a son.  After a few minutes, the nurse came and took him to give him a bath.  I reminded Gavin to get pictures... and then we realized everything happened so fast we forgot to hit record on the video camera, and we didn't have many pictures up until he was getting his bath.
   

Henry Beau Groninger 

Born October 5th @ 4:47am

8 lbs. 7 oz  21.5 inches long.

After his bath I held him and nursed him while we waited for family to get there.  He was pretty good at nursing just like his big sis.  He nursed for a while and I felt great, probably because I was totally numb still from my epidural bolus.  I'm not sure she got it all hooked up before we were pushing so I couldn't move really for a while.  We just finished up nursing and Gavin's parents called to tell us they were here. Gavin hadn't told them yet that it was a boy until they walked in the room.  They were in shock, but extremely excited.  They got to hold and cuddle for about an hour before Mom, Greg, Mackenzie, and my baby girl came.  When Gavin called them, he told them that they weren't going to make it so not to rush.  I remember when Charlee came in.  She was in her Big Sister dress and had pig tails and sleepy eyes.  Daddy got her all set up on the couch to hold her little brother and meet him for the first time.  She was so sweet with him.  It was such a great feeling looking at my babies on the couch together. They are going to be best friends.

Mimi holding our baby.  

I finally got movement in my legs at 7am right at shift change.  My new nurse got me up to the bathroom and I really had to go.  Lots of the same stuff I remember with Charlee about getting up for the first time.  Gavin was super excited and ready to get to our post-partum room tno see what his sleeping conditions were going to be like.  Basically if he had a chair that pulled out or a window bed was the deciding factor if he was going to stay the whole time with me or go home to be with Charlee.  We made it up to our new room successfully and only forgot Gavin's jacket in the closet.  Once we got there my new nurse had to do an assessment, and baby needed to nurse again so Gavin and all the family went down for breakfast.

Keekah was one of the first to hold our little Mr. 

He was much bigger than Charlee but he was long and skinny.  He had a stork bite (strawberry birth mark) right between his eyes and on his right eye lid.  He also had one on the back of his head at the bottom of his hair line, just like Charlee did. I will say this is day one, just a few hours after having him and it was a much faster/easier recovery.  I guess your body isn't as traumatized the second time.  I was surprised how good I felt.  With Charlee I could barely walk to the car when we were going home.  Gavin commented a few times that he couldn't believe how much better this time was.  

Daddy and son.  Still no name yet.  We just couldn't decide what we thought sounded better, or what we wanted to call him, or what name he looked like.  At about 36 hrs everyone was putting on the pressure to decide, but Gavin and I didn't really get to talk about it alone so we took a little bit longer to decide. We decided Henry Beau was what we like the most.  Henry is a family name, but if he didn't like that name and it was too "old" for him then he could go by Beau.  I think Henry is super cute for a baby so I'm going to call him  Henry.

He was a good baby from the start. He hardly cried.  I had a boy outfit in the diaper bag that was my favorite pale blue and white.  It fit him perfectly while he was in the hospital that first day until Nina brought some boy sleepers from home.

This was a great day, because Charlee finally wanted to sit with me.  The first day she wanted to leave at about 12:00 and she wanted to go home with whoever would take her.  I know she was tired, but when she wouldn't give me a kiss or hug I lost it.  I'm sure seeing me in the hospital gown and my IV it was uncomfortable for her, and she didn't want any part of it.  Everyone was telling me that it was fine, she was just tired, but it killed me.  Sister always wants her momma, and she did not that day.  I had myself a good cry with everyone still in the room (usually I would have waited, but it was too overwhelmingly sad) I'm sure it was a little ridiculous but it was heartbreaking for me.
    So the next day I showered and changed into my super awesome nursing accessible nightgown and robe so I didn't look all sickly when my girl got there.  I moved to the chair and covered the bed with one of our blankets from home. Gavin sat in the bed and I sat in the chair.  She was much better with that, because she sat in the chair with me and wanted to hold her brother again.  It was such a relief.  I was a happy momma, and yes I cried about that too.  Bahahaha.

Sister is taking it all in.  She was so gentle with him and wanted to hold him for a long time.  She was mesmerized by his little fingers and toes.  You could see the wheels in motion trying to grasp what had taken place in the last 24 hours.  She didn't ask many questions about how he got here, more about how/why he was eating my boob.  I explained the process and she seemed good with it, despite the looks she was giving me. She even said "Are you kidding me" in her sassy little voice.  Hilarious.

Papaw Danny and daddy wanted him to wear his Michigan hat.  Charlee wore that same hat in the hospital because both of my babies were born during football season.

Our first family photo as a family of four.  Charlee loved holding Henry all by herself. And... look who's in bed with me.  She came around, it took all three days, but my girl warmed up to the hospital.

Nina with her grandson.  She thought he was a boy the whole time. This is new for her, three daughters and a granddaughter is all she's known so this is all new.

Auntie Manny made it after her class on Friday! She was asleep when we called to tell her the news, i know she was bummed that she couldn't be here, but she came as soon as possible.  She was hoping for a boy.

Dr. G... We love her!! She got to circumcise Henry before we left. That was a harder decision than I thought it was going to be.  I was so sad when he was wheeled out of the room, it made me feel horrible that I was sending him off to get his weenie whacked... but he was perfectly fine when he came back.  He wasn't crying or whining which made it a little better for me.  I know he was uncomfortable later, because every time he peed he would cry... poor baby.

And we get to go home.  His little brother onesie that Mimi made for us was under his outfit because it was freezing outside when we got to go home. (Sun October 7th)

Ready to go.  Same car seat that we took Charlee home in.  I almost didn't have a car seat, because we couldn't locate it at our storage unit or at Mom's a week or so before.  Thankfully Jenny remembered seeing it at Gavin's parents house.  They didn't remember it being there, but when they looked in the attic it was there.

Several other people visited us in the hospital, but our camera decided to not take clear pictures and we couldn't figure it out.  Just our luck!! I have pictures on both of our phones so everyone will make it into the "year book" for sure.

So here are some of the good ones from our phones.

And we are leaving IU Health North to head home with our new bundle of joy.  We have poppy waiting for us to get there.  And the hardest part is Charlee is there, I didn't see her at all the day we left, we just told everyone we would see them when we got home.  It was the most relaxing time at the hospital.  But we both missed our baby girl.