The First Week

Life as a mother of four has been a giant change for me. Before I had Quinn, all I heard was that the 4th child is the hardest--not one person said it was the easiest. I guess I should have taken that advice to heart because it proved to be true this first week!

The two weeks leading up to Quinn's birth, I didn't get any sleep. The toilet and I became best friends, and then my children tag-teamed waking up at night. Plus, we all had colds those two weeks, so none of us slept very well. It was really hard to come from a sleep deprived place and venture into a more sleep deprived place!

Macey: the first week was hard on Macey. As predicted, she had the hardest time adjusting to change, but she has adjusted better than I thought! She has her on days and her off days--we are all still trying to adjust to change, I guess!

She had someone new take to and from preschool and dance class. Every time we dropped her off, she asked if we were picking her up. (That may be because one day Grandma dropped her off, and she had to deal with dad taking her home from preschool. Evidently, Grandma is more fun than dad!)

In the middle of the chaos, Macey got a cool new alarm clock that changes colors when it's time to wake up (I couldn't handle 2 kids awake at 4 in the morning. Our house isn't big enough for all the screaming and crying that took place--who would have thought that sleep was such a terrible thing?!) and she lost her 3rd tooth!!

Cooper: I figured he would be the most easy going out of the group, and he was. He has already settled into his place as one of the middle children, and he is okay with most changes that take place in our lives. The hardest part of his week was Cooper realizing it would be a while before Quinn could play Batman legos with him. We did have to deal with a few potty accidents, but for the most part, we are smooth sailing again!

Jemma: I wasn't quite sure how she would react to Quinn. She has moments where she wants attention, and she lets you know that it's time to focus on her! :) More than anything, she loves her little brother SO much! Anytime he is awake, being fed, or in the same room as her. She sits right next to him and says, "Tinn! Tinn! Baby-Tinn!" and she gives him lots of kisses. It warms this mama's heart, and it makes me hopeful that I didn't ruin everyone's life by adding another baby to the mix! :)

Quinn: Oh, I love him! He is the sweetest, calmest boy. With each child, I feel like I can enjoy them more (which should be the opposite...because our lives get WAY crazier with each addition!). He is so calm, and I know what tricks work to calm him down. He has the softest skin, and a head full of dark hair. He hates baths (but as you may have guessed, Jemma is there to comfort him the ENTIRE time!). He is eating like a champ, and he is steadily growing!

Sleep was few and far in between for the first week. Scott and I had broken Quinn time into two shifts--12 AM to 4 AM and 4AM to 8AM. We each got 4 hours of sleep, and we survived like this for several days. For the first few days, Quinn would only sleep in arms, sitting up. Our beloved bouncer wouldn't cut it for him. One night, I was beyond exhausted and had to use the bathroom. I laid Quinn down next to Scott, and they both passed out. I didn't want to move him when I got back!

Grandpa and Grandma Bagley were able to come visit Quinn a few days after he was born. Quinn's older siblings especially enjoyed the visit--I think they were sick of Scott and I that first week. Grandparents are so much better than mom or dad.

We have let Macey take the big sister thing at her own pace. She is such a great sister, and she asks to hold Quinn whenever she can!

Jemma is her own person! She is one spunky lady! One day, for about an hour, she put on Macey CLEAN underwear, some necklaces, and danced around the house.

This has been the hardest recovery for me yet! I don't know if it's having four kids, or if it is just because I gave birth to a 9 pound, 13 ounce child. I left the hospital without any pain medicine. I was doing fine without it, and my doctor told me that if I changed my mind to call in and he would get some to the pharmacy.

It took about 24 hours to realize that I wanted that pain medicine. My back was killing me. With the change of computer systems, I called, and it took 1 hour for my call to get through. My prescription hadn't been called in by that afternoon, so I called from 3-5 only to get an answering machine every time. So...I waited. It took 2 days to get that medicine called in!

Breastfeeding has always been a touchy subject/gamble for me. I was able to do it with Jemma for about 6 weeks, so I decided I would try it with Quinn. I pumped every 3 hours for 3 days and nothing happened. We had a supply of formula from the hospital we worked off of, and it was great! My milk supply definitely came in, but nothing came out--no matter what I tried. It got to the point of having fevers and chills--just like I had with Cooper and double mastitis. Scott gave me a blessing, and I went to sleep under about 6 blankets until my fever broke at about 3 in the morning.

With this recovery, too, I have had problems with my epidural spot. I am fairly certain there was a problem with my epidural, and now I battle with headaches (and I NEVER had headaches before) constantly. In the worst of it, I can't turn my head side-to-side and I have black outs/see spots in my vision. I'm living off my IBprofen 800mg, and we are surviving.

I have been on a emotional roller coaster through this whole thing, as well. Scott has been so good to make sure I am emotionally sane. I don't know how he kept so on top of things that first week! We had Quinn on Monday, and he was able to be home Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with us (even the first part of Friday!). On his first whole day back to work, he made all the kids breakfast before he left and then made them their own bag lunches. Each kid had a different superhero, and they went crazy at lunch time!

I am a VERY independent person. It's really hard for me to accept help from others, and I thrive on being independent. Generally, I can turn down help and be just fine, but, oh, how I needed help that first week!!

In the blessing Scott gave me before I went to the hospital, I was instructed that I needed to accept help from my family members and ward members in the next couple of weeks. I thought that was strange advice and in my mind I responded back with "oh, I can do this alone!". Boy, was I wrong.

When my mom came to watch my kids she brought freezer meals from her and both my sisters. After Quinn's birth, my Visiting Teachers were the first ones at our house with a meal. The Relief Society brought two meals, and we have had 4 additional meals. On one particularly hard night, I was crying to Scott about needing a loaf of bread for the next day, and how I was so exhausted and didn't want to go to the grocery store. In the middle of my tears, at 9:00 at night, there was a knock on the door, and a new member of our ward stood there with a loaf of homemade bread and a present for Quinn.

It was hard not to meet all of these ward members and friends with tears in my eyes. I hope they could feel the sincerity of my thanks (not only because I told them all about 15 times) because I sure needed their love and support.

After that first week, I decided that I needed to figure out how to make our new normal work. Scott offered to run home and sit with the younger kids while I ran Macey to preschool (do you know how much work it is to hook 3 kids into carseats and 1 kid into a booster seat?!). He had a a prep hour at school, but I decided I was going to do it! It literally took an hour to get everyone ready and out the door, but we did it! Macey made it to preschool on time. I had driven my van for the first time in a week, and I did it by myself. (I know, it's that independent side of me.) This was right before we hopped into the car. (I think they like their brother.)

Ever wonder what a 9 pound, 13 ounce baby looks like in newborn sized clothes? Ta-da! (As Jemma would say...) Poor kid. The next day we retired the newborn clothes and newborn sized diapers! Quinn is officially a 0-3 month/size 1 diaper kid.

Jemma still likes mom's camera...

Scott has a magic touch with the kids--he always has, and it's not fair. One night, I told him that it wasn't fair. I worked all day for that kind of magic touch! He comes home from work and the kids swarm to him, and Quinn falls asleep on him. Fair? I'm still trying to decide...

Quinn's Birth!

With all of my children's births, my body has not progressed naturally on it's own. While others may think I would be bummed out by this fact, for this planning mom, it's been great to plan and feel totally prepared before going to the hospital and having a baby.

The doctor and I were able to plan early on an induction day, because we knew that this is how my pregnancies go! My doctor had a medical conference he had to attend, so the plan was to induce at 39.5 weeks. I would go in the night of February 14th, and hopefully, we would have a baby on the 15th!

I went to my last doctor's appointment at 38 weeks pregnant. The doctor did one last final check before sending me on my way, and he discovered that I was 3 cm dilated, my cervix was favorable, and I was 60% effaced. This was TOTALLY new for me! I immediately started to panic--would I get to plan like I had the rest of my pregnancies?! We discussed the possibility of me having a baby before my induction, but we would just wait it out and see what happened!

Thankfully, I made it the night of the 14th. No emergency hospital runs! My kids had terrible colds the 2 weeks leading up to Quinn's birth, so I was grateful to put off having a newborn baby for as long as possible--I wanted the sickness gone!

My mom came down from Mona to stay with our sleeping kids, and we headed in to the hospital. I had been warned going in that the IHC system was switching computer systems that weekend, and the staff and hospital would be a bit of a disaster. I am a pretty laid back person, but even with that laid back personality, it was a bit of a disaster! I am still trying to separate my feelings toward the hospital care I got--but I did come home with a healthy baby boy, and that's all that matters!

They got Scott and I back into a room and situated for the night. They checked me after I had been checked into the computer, and I was dilated to a 5, favorable cervix and 80% effaced...so I had progressed, again, on my own!

They started me on Pitocin, and I had regular contractions for about an hour. I decided I wanted to just get my epidural, so I knew I wouldn't have to do labor on my own. As soon as I decided that, there was an emergency c-section that came in. Her water had broken an hour before, and our anesthesiologist had to go back for that surgery. He didn't have time to do an epidural before he left. We had no idea how this c-section would go--I just knew I wanted an epidural. We knew he would be in surgery for a little over an hour to maybe 2 hours, and I didn't want to chance having a baby without drugs, so the decision was made to take me off Pitocin. I went and hopped in the bath, and my contractions slowed to a stop.

I waited 2 hours after that to get my epidural and start Pitocin again. I have never had a problem with the epidural. I have always had it go in, it stayed, and I was good with one dose. This one didn't go as smoothly. I saw the kit after he was done putting it in, and I lost quite a bit of blood in the process--which doesn't usually happen. I had to re-dose myself 4 different times, and when things got close to birth time, only half of my body was numb. The nurses quickly shifted me to my left side, and thankfully, I was numb enough when it came time to push out Quinn!

Every time I get an epidural, my body reacts to it. I don't handle pain meds well, and I guess this is no different! I get really nauseous. Thankfully, this time around, I didn't lose my cookies, I just got to dry heave several times (lovely, I know...). The other thing that usually happens is I can't catch my breath. My blood pressure dropped initially, and several times my oxygen levels dropped to the low 80s. I was put on oxygen, and we survived!

Labor seemed to move so slowly after that. At about 5 AM, they checked me, and I had progressed to a 7, 90% effaced, and then I just sat there for a while. I was checked again around 9 AM, and I was the exact same.

About 45 minutes later, I told my nurse that something felt different. She casually decided to check me, and Quinn was ready to be born. She told me to keep my legs together and not to laugh! Scott hopped up, and our doctor was called over from the clinic. It all happened so quickly! After 2 contractions and 4 pushes, Quinn Goodwin Bagley was born!!

Quinn had some fluid in his lungs that wouldn't come out, so he got an 8 and 9 APGAR score. After some work from the respiratory therapist, he was free to be held!

Having big kids has always been on the table for me. I felt like we haven't had too big of kids yet--at least that cause complications, so this time around I wasn't too concerned. When he came out, the doctor commented that it was a big baby, and then everyone guessed his weight. I guess 9 pounds 3 ounces, Scott guess 9 pounds 10 ounces, but our doctor guessed 8 pounds 10 ounces.

Quinn ended up being a whopping 9 pounds 13 ounces and 21 inches long!! We couldn't believe it! In a blink of an eye there went all our newborn clothes and diapers!

Once Quinn was born and I got some food, we were kind of forgotten about. We sat in the delivery room from 10:13 (when he was born) until a little after 2:00. Then I dealt with the product (being a little neglected) of switching computer systems. :) 

Another lady came in to have a baby, and they needed the delivery room. We did a quick clean up, and then we were wheeled down to our room for the night! From there, we didn't see a nurse for 5 hours and it took 10 hours after Quinn was born to get some pain medication...it was a little crazy!

Later that afternoon, my mom came with all three kids and because it was a holiday, my sister Amy and my dad showed up to surprise us too! 

Everyone left right before dinner--including Scott, he went home for the night. That left just me and Quinn! He slept like a babe, and I got to cuddle up with my Quinn, a big cup of ice water, the TV remote, a new soft blanket...and then I proceeded to eat an entire box chocolates my sister Amy brought. (Hey...no judgement! I just gave birth to a big boy!) It was the perfect way to recover after a whirlwind of 24 hours.

The day that I gave birth, 4 other women in Sevier County gave birth in that hospital, so it was a happening place! Quinn spent the night in the nursery with all the other babies, and I had my first real night of sleep in weeks!

Scott came back over the next morning, and he hung out with Quinn while I showered and packed up all our stuff. Right after Quinn was born, I was so anxious to just get home with the rest of the family! I asked  the nurse when the soonest was I could leave, and she started to laugh at me. I don't think too many people ask to go home to their husband and three small kids! I was able to go home the next day right before lunch, and it was great timing!

Macey and my mom made decorations for the door. Macey was SO excited about their project, and she still talks about it every time she walks up to the door.