Harlow Robin:2 years old

Harlow you are such an amazing little girl!  Your second year has been so much fun! We have loved watching you change from a sweet baby into a smart and funny toddler! You are our best buddy! Here are the things you are up to these days...

-you weigh about 21 lbs

-you wear size 3 diapers(just moved to 4 and pull-ups)

-you are transitioning into size 2T clothes (mostly for length) 

-you wear size 5 shoes

-you started sleeping in your big girl bed all night and for naps right around the week before your birthday party

-you love your baby doll and you don't like for her to have clothes on, you rock her, push her in the stroller and change her diaper 

-you love Mickey Mouse clubhouse and ask to watch it all the time 

-you take 1 nap after lunch for about and hour and a half 

-you started going to KDO on Thursdays in January 

-you love Monroe and you are always trying to give her a paci or you are tickling her 

-you do a great job holding her and you are helpful by going to get mommy a diaper when we need it 

- you love to watch good luck Charlie and home alone  

- your favorite foods are pizza, sabetti (spaghetti),pepperoni,grilled cheese and cookies 

-you love to dance and your favorite music to dance to is the Momma Mia sound track

-you love to sing, your favs are twinkle twinkle, wheels on the bus,abc's,holy holy holy, you know all the words to every frozen song

-you are obsessed with Nea Nea and Mimi and you ask to stay with them almost everyday..

- you can say anything and everything we hold significant conversations with you about all kinds of topics (.. I would prob be better off saying things you can't say 

-you can count to 10 

-you say your birthday is "febduary two four" not 24th 

-you know your name starts with an H and you can write it, you say "straight straight across" any time you are coloring 

-you love to take pictures on our phones and you say "cheese me" and you call he phone a shone 

-you asked to have an Elsa birthday party , so we celebrated the weekend before your birthday (pics to come) 

-you suck your thumb 

-when you don't want to do something or you don't want something you say "I don't" 

I have been writing down funny things you say in a little journal! It's fun to look back and read it!  A couple of our favorites, "you wanna see my butt?" "Shakin my booty" "Dance a me?" "Do you want to see my bed?" (She is proud of her big girl bed) You love everyone and you love to include others you are always saying "come on" and taking your friends by the hand wanting them to play with you! You are really smart and really mature for a 2 year old. Sometimes what you say and what you understand is a little scary! We have been working on going in the potty, but you keep talking me," I like my diaper.." Soo we will keep trying. You are a super independent little gal, and we love watching you learn to do things on your own! 

Monroe Birth Story: Part 2 (written by Jacob)

Monroe in the nursery

 

Right after Monroe was born they were a little worried about her temperature being low so for the first hour they had Kaitlyn do skin to skin and would monitor her before taking her back to the nursery if it were necessary. The grandparents were a little bummed because they did not get to hold her but we were praying her temperature would come back up. The same thing happened with Harlow just because of their low birth weight so we didn’t think much of it..

 

Around 8 the nurse came in and checked her temp and it was just below where they wanted so they told us they were going to take her to the nursery to put her under the lamp and would bring her back in an hour after they bathed her. A few hours passed and finally at 10:00 we had called multiple times and was able to get the nursery nurse to come tell us what was going on. While they were monitoring Monroe’s temperature they had noticed she was breathing really fast so they put her on oxygen. The nurse wasn’t very informative but told us the Pediatrician would come tell us what was going on. After 2 more hours of no answer or any sign of them bringing Monroe back Jacob was able to flag down the pediatrician as she was leaving the hospital. She came in to our room and told us that Monroe had TTN. TTN is where a newborn has respiratory rates of 60-90 breathes per minute where a normal newborn has around 40 breathes per minute. Monroe’s respiration rate hovered around 90 for those first few hours. You can read about it here.  Monroe had an unusually large amount of fluids on her lungs; they drained about 4 vials from her lungs when she was born so they said this might be the cause of it. The doctor said this is a small bump in the road and typically babies even their breathing out over the next 48 hours. This was good news to hear but we were itching to have our little Monroe back with us. The worst part was the pediatrician told us Kaitlyn could not feed her until she is off oxygen because she would choke on my milk as she was trying to eat. They inserted a feeding tube with sugar to keep her levels maintained while she was on oxygen. After the pediatrician left they let us go down to the nursery to see her. You hear people say it, but nothing prepares you to see your helpless newborn hooked up to tubes in obvious discomfort. Your heart hurts in ways you never thought it could. We couldn’t pick her up yet but Kaitlyn would lay her head on the bed next to Monroe and sing softly to her. We made multiple trips back to the nursery throughout the night, since we didn’t sleep so much knowing our little girl was down there. 

 

The next morning we waited in the nursery for the pediatrician to make his rounds. Monroe’s respiratory rate still was around 80, but the doctor said he saw some improvement. They took X-Rays of her lungs to make sure it was just fluid and there was no sign of infection of pneumonia. The X-Rays came back negative. Kaitlyn was able to pump and we could feed Monroe with a tiny dropper. This helped soothed Kaitlyn over because she was worried Monroe wouldn’t know her milk and she was missing those first few crucial hours of feeding Monroe her colostrum. Around noon on Thursday, the day after she was born, they weaned Monroe off her oxygen. They still left some air on so all it was doing was making sure there was some flow through her lungs. Her breathing would come back down to 40 then jump quickly back up to 80-90. Since she was never consistent they wouldn’t let her come back to the room with us.

 

Let me tell you through this whole thing the nursery nurses at Parkhill were God sends. These women told us everything we needed to know, and were so sweet to Kaitlyn and Monroe. They obviously knew the feelings of a parent not being able to hold or feed their baby. They had a NICU nurse that would come and check on Monroe periodically since she was on the border line of being premature, but they said she was strong enough to stay in the regular nursery. 

 

That afternoon I was able to finally hold Monroe around 20 hours after she was born. She was still hooked up to all her IV’s and oxygen but it felt good to hold my girl in my arms. Kaitlyn is a rock. That girl was so strong as her baby looked so helpless, but it was obviously getting to her that we didn’t know she would come out of the nursery. That afternoon I saw one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen, a baby who just needed her mommy. Kaitlyn was obviously tired from giving birth and not sleeping but she didn’t leave Monroe’s side. That afternoon she laid next to M in the nursery held her hand, and started singing to her. When Kaitlyn would sing to her her breathing rate would slow down and she would relax. I have a picture of this I will cherish forever. Kaitlyn begged the nurses to let us take Monroe back to the room with us so she could hold her skin to skin and let her be with her mom. She kept telling the nurses “She just needs me. She will be fine, she just needs me.” One of the nurses said we could her since we’ve been so awesome, but only for 1 hour.  They had to take her glucose test first. The nurse said if she passes that then she can go with us. The magic number for her to be over was 40. First test came back… 34. She was well below where she needed to be. You could see the disappointment in the nurses face. She was rooting for M just as much as we were. She said let’s warm her little foot up and try again in 5 minutes. Second test comes back 44! The nursery cheered for our us and our little girl. They unplugged us, and we wheeled Monroe back to the room at 6:00 pm on Thursday. 24 hours after she was born. The 1 hour window they gave us came and went. A nurse came and checked her breathing and it was holding steady at 40, her temperature was great, and so was her sugar levels. That girl truly did just need her mommy.

 

Monroe was able to stay with us most of the night on Thursday night, they took her back to have her hearing test in the middle of the night, but we knew that would be fine, that little nugget would jump and raise her hands above her head with the smallest of noises. On Friday the pediatrician made his rounds and said Monroe was doing great! They were going to have us stay 1 more night since it hadn’t been 24 hours since she had been on Oxygen. They discharged Kaitlyn and moved us to a smaller room. Friday was so much fun. We were at ease knowing Monroe was going to be okay, all of our family was still in town, and Big Sis Harlow wanted to hold Sissy Roe every chance she got (She was skeptical of her when she had her IV tubes still in.) 

 

Friday night Kaitlyn, Monroe, and I all laid in bed together, ate Mellow Mushroom calzones and watched Gossip Girl. Saturday morning, 4 days and 3 nights after Monroe was born they discharged us from the hospital at 9 am and we took our little girl home. Harlow greeted us at the door with a scream and our family was finally together. All 4 of us.

Monroe Eleanor: 37 Weeks and Birth Story

Monroe Eleanor Snelson

We had to wait a while in between the 36 and 37 week appointments since Christmas fell right in the middle of my change over day. So the Monday after Christmas Dec 28th at 3:00pm was my 37 week appointment. During the time in between appointments there were several days that I had heavy contractions, and there were days I was in pretty uncomfortable pain (back, cramping etc). Actually Christmas day we really thought about going to the hospital but didn't. So this appointment I was sure that they would tell me I was dilated enough to be sent down to have a baby (I was already at a 3)... Well that was not the case after 10 days from one appointment to the next I had not progressed at all.. Honestly I was pretty disappointed, after all those days of contractions nothing had changed! In all my pregnant hormonal glory I started crying... pretty intensely lol. Poor Dr. Gorman looked at me and asked, "Are those tears?" (dr gorman is my fav btw). He apolpgized to me many times like it was his fault :/ I am sure he thought I was nuts (jacob did). To be nice to me while I was crying for no reason he said, "ok come back on Wednesday, and we will just see if there are any changes"... 

So Tuesday night I was super uncomfortable all night. My back hurt, my crotch hurt, and I had what felt like cramping pain...None of it was like screaming pain, but def kept me from sleeping. Also the pain never came and went so it wasn't like I knew to time them as contractions. Which turns out it prob what they were. 

SO on Wednesday December 30th at 9:00am we go to the Bentonville office to see Dr. Gorman again, and Jacob has already told me that I need to apologize for my behavior at the last appointment. Also I am 100% prepared this time for there to be no changes and to be told that I am still a 3. So I am telling him sorry for being crazy blah blah... He is checking me, and says "Would it make you happy if I told you were 100% effaced and dilated to a 6!?" Um yes. So he proceeds to tell us that we need to go (hustle) down to Johnson and get checked in so I am not walking around this dilated too much longer. So we run through Krispy Kreme and get Harlow some donuts so we can go home and tell her that her baby sister is coming!

We go home and grab our bags, and at this point I am still not in a super amount of pain. So I curl my hair and make sure we have everything. I kiss Harlow and we leave for the hospital. We get there about 11:00 got checked in and were taken to our room. I get changed, and the nurse comes in and lets me know that they are really busy, because people are being induced to have their babies before 2016. So we wait until like 2:30 or 3:00 for the anesthesiologist to come and administer the epidural. At this time I am having contractions on my own about 6-8 min apart. They still never really hurt just the pressure and tightening. I am still at a 6. So I finally get the epidural and they start a "sprinkle" of pitocin, and the contractions start coming about every 1-3 min ish. Then around 5:00 Dr. Terry comes in and break my water. After that the contractions are much stronger and closer together, and in about 15 min I am 10 cm and really feeling like I have to push. After I start feeling the intense pressure to push I call the nurse and tell her I am ready or she is going to come out on her own.. Dr. Terry comes in and tells us that he has to run to an emergency C-section, and turns off my pitocin... I was literally crossing my legs for about 45 min waiting for him to come back. So then around 6:00pm Dr. Terry is back, and we start the pit back up. I start pushing, and she keeps getting stuck and every time she crowns she retreats back in... (come on girl!) As I am pushing one of the last few times her heart rates lowers, and Dr Terry is pushing my belly monitor around trying to hear her heart beat. When he finds it it must have been low, because about that time he kinda just yanks her out. Turns out the cord was wrapped around her little neck for the last few pushes. Also, she kept pulling back into the birth canal because she was "sunny side up" her little face was facing up instead of to the side or down. When their head is down they can navigate your pelvis a little easier. Still we only pushed for about 30 min, and there she was! Another tiny little RED HEADED daughter! She weighed 6 lbs and was 20" long (turns out her length was not an accurate measurement).. 

Monroe Eleanor Snelson 

born at 6:37pm 

6lbs

20"