Hi Balanced Beauties!
It’s been a while, but I am always so happy to jump back on here and share parts of my life with you all. In this post I am going to share the end of my third trimester, all the way up to labor/delivery. Part of the reason why I am going to start with the end of my pregnancy is because certain things occurred that led me to getting induced one week earlier than my due date! So let’s just jump into all the good stuff.
End of third trimester
When I hit 37 weeks of pregnancy, I developed what is called the PUPPP rash. This is also known as the Pruritic Urticarial Papules and Plaques of pregnancy. Yep, I had no idea what this was either or that it even existed! It started off as severe itching all over my belly – to the point where I couldn’t even sleep through the night without feeling like I was going to itch my belly off (literally). Soon after, I woke up with a full blown itchy rash all over my body (legs, arms, belly, neck, hands and feet). The itching was so unbearable and worsened as my final weeks of pregnancy started approaching. I went to the OBGYN for them to monitor it, and once I reached the end of 38 weeks, my doctor said he wanted to induce me by 39 weeks since the rash, in his words, “did not look very happy”. My skin was hard to look at. I don’t want to make you itch, but I want to be transparent as possible with what it felt and looked like. Well, the itch was unbearable, similar to severe poison ivy. I scratched my skin so hard that I was bleeding on my legs and arms. One night, it got so bad that I decided to go to the ER to get extensive blood work to rule out anything else in my blood causing these issues. I wanted to be as safe as possible, knowing I could go into labor at any point, the worry became less about me and more about Saylor. I wanted to ensure that this rash was nothing more than the PUPPP rash and that it wouldn’t get to her, or affect her. Despite what my doctor told me, I felt the need to be my own advocate and double check via blood work instead of someone’s diagnosis through examination. Long story short, they gave me some liquids in the ER for hydration and took my blood work to make sure this had nothing to do with my liver. Everything came back good, and it was in the hospital that my OBGYN thought it was best to schedule my induction for two days later being that PUPPP rash is typically only resolved after birth due to hormones. I was so relieved he decided to schedule my induction, but so upset at the same time. I was praying to go into labor on my own the second time around, but I was so miserable, stressed, and physically worn down due to the fact that I did not sleep for at least 3 weeks. I couldn’t even attend to Brooklyn those last few weeks (thanks to my hubby and mom for stepping in and helping me so much). This is where my birth story begins..
Birth Story
On the morning of June 22, 2021, I was scheduled to be induced at 7am. Since I was already effaced and 1cm dilated on my own, the only thing I needed was pitocin (yay for no cervidil) to kick start my labor. Around 8am, they hooked me up to the pitocin and my contractions started soon after.
Side tracking: When I was giving birth to Brooklyn, I waited at least 5 hours of extremely painful contractions before ordering the epidural. As soon as I got the epidural with Brooklyn, my body was able to relax, and Brooklyn came cruising through only an hour and a half after getting the epidural! This assured me that with my body, the epidural only sped up my labor/delivery instead of slowing it down.
Knowing how much the epidural helped speed up my labor with Brooklyn, I decided to get it sooner with Saylor. After about 3 hours of contractions, I decided to order the epidural. Oh, the epidural. I am so scared of that damn epidural – every. single. time. Christian had to leave the room and I warned the nurse that I am deathly afraid of it (truly half of it is in my own head because it really is not that bad). So, I do what I do best; I grabbed the nurses arm and literally (she was an earth angel) squeezed her from beginning to end of that epidural being administered, lol. I sent her a fruit basket as soon as we got home because god. bless. maternity. nurses!!!
After the epidural, I was feeling GREAT! It kicked in pretty quick and I was able to relax. Right after the epidural was administered, they brought the small peanut ball in (LOVE AND SWEAR BY THE PEANUT BALL). The nurse put it in between my legs and kept turning my positions. By this point, everything was numb from my waist down. About an hour and a half after getting the epidural, I facetimed my mom and Brooklyn. I talked to Brooklyn for 20 minutes (my little good luck charm). As soon as we hung up on facetime, I looked at Christian and I said “ok I am feeling a lot of pressure in my butt”. Yes, in my butt lol. I knew this pressure all too well; the same pressure that I felt with Brooklyn. I told the nurse to check my progress because the pressure felt abnormally heavy. As she went to check me, we hear so loudly, there is her head! Call the doctor! Christian and I looked at each other like here we go again. Like a movie scene, the nurses ran in, the doctor came sprinting, throwing on all the gear and everyone is screaming to me saying “just don’t push, just don’t push or she will come out since she is right there!!!” So here I am, numb as can be, praying that I am not accidentally pushing since I honestly couldn’t feeling anything but pressure.
The doctor said, ok, push for 10..9…8..7 and stop pushing…ok push again for for 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…& there she was. Our sweet beautiful baby girl, Saylor.
Saylor’s Arrival
My body was shaking, I was so cold and my teeth were chattering a mile a minute (all hormone related). They showed me her, but she wasn’t crying. All I could think was please just cry. She was blue and I looked at Christian and said is she ok? I knew something was off because they quickly took her to the table and she wasn’t able to come on my chest for 40 minutes. She finally cried, the sweetest little cry on the table. However, they were running tests on her to ensure everything else was ok. Since Saylor descended extremely quick (like Brooklyn did) they told me she experienced more trauma than a typical baby that naturally descends gradually. She was so bruised, swollen (see first picture we took of her in the labor/delivery room above) and had a lot of fluids in her airways that needed to be taken care of before she was able to lay on my chest. I sat there shaking from how quick everything happened, and just saw my little girl on the table in the corner of my eye. Tears rolled down my face, just silently praying she was ok. All I wanted to do was hold her, and every time I asked if everything was ok, the doctor assured me that this was just because she came down so fast. The room was so quiet and everyone was focused on Saylor.
Forty minutes later, which felt like a lifetime, they finally brought her to lay on my chest. The dark, silent room finally felt a bit more lively again. I have never felt more helpless and scared, not knowing what was going on since I did not experience this with Brooklyn (who they placed on my chest as soon as she was born). I can still feel the emotional uncertainty when I type this. When they put Saylor on my chest, I was completely relieved and tears strolled down my face. Finally, able to hold my sweet girl and to hear her little breath that my heart longed for, for 9 months. I was so relieved and Saylor was doing great.
Although this labor and delivery was easier than Brooklyn’s in ways and was just as fast, it was a little more scary after Saylor was born. Brooklyn was automatically placed on my chest and It was easier to be in the moment. However, Saylor needed a lot more monitoring and after delivering her, we didn’t get that automatic moment to meet her and feel her. I remember feeling as if I was in a dream, yearning for that bonding moment with her. I kept glancing at my husband who was keeping an eye on Saylor as she was monitored. Nothing is worse than having your baby away from you and truly not knowing what is happening, no matter the circumstance. To any mama’s with babies in the NICU or have experienced any sort of situation where your baby needed extra monitoring, I have only experienced something so small, and felt even the slightest of your pain. But I hear you and have felt this very feeling.
Thankfully, Saylor is healthy and all of her vitals and tests were passed. I am so thrilled to share our new addition with you all! We have been soaking up every little moment with our two babies, and figuring out our new normal as a family of four. I am so excited to continue sharing our journey with you all <3
Saylor’s Name
A lot of you asked about Saylor’s name and how we decided on it. When I was pregnant with Brooklyn, we also loved the name Saylor for a girl. We thought of giving Brooklyn the middle name Saylor, however, it didn’t flow as nice as Shea did. We figured we would save this name if we had another girl. Fast forward 16 months later, we had another girl. With that being said, we try to name our babies something meaningful to us. Although Christian and I were best friends in high school, we started dating and had our first kiss down the shore in Spring Lake, New Jersey. We spent that whole summer down the shore and it is where our true love story began. We both are total beach people and fell in love with the name Saylor since it has a beachy yet feminine vibe. We decided on Capri for her middle name because why not throw in another city for Saylor like we did with Brooklyn?! Christian and I are both half italian, so we were brainstorming the names of cities in Italy that flowed nice with Saylor. We both decided that Capri sounded the most feminine, beautiful and flowed the best with Saylor. This is how we came up with the name: Saylor Capri <3
Coming next week:
I received a lot of questions on instagram about having two kids, how Brooklyn has adjusted, and asking a lot of questions about postpartum round two. I am going to write up another post next week including all of these topics. I am also going to explain Saylor’s jaundice and weight scare, what our first few weeks home looked like as a family of four and am going to explain my postpartum experience the second time around. I will also include how it’s been having two kids under two and how Brooklyn has adapted. I have so much I want to share regarding this topic, so it will definitely need its own post! Keep an eye out next week for this!
I hope you enjoyed reading about Saylor’s birth story!
With love always,
Sammie Reed
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