Easton Gordon Hensel

Welcome to the world sweet little baby boy.  Easton Gordon Hensel was born November 18, 2017 at 6:25pm weighing 9 pounds 10 oz, 21.5 inches long grey/blue eyes and lots of dark brown hair. 

We were instantly put skin to skin after birth and held him there until after the first nursing session.  He had a nucal cord (cord around his neck) and needed a bit of crying after delivery to open those lungs up.  He latched on to breastfeed around 45 minutes of life.  After cuddling him, feeding and taking a lot of pictures, we finally put him on the scale and did his measurements.

Once my legs were no longer numb from the epidural we moved up to our post-partum room on 5th floor.  What a joy it was to be on my home unit and surrounded with my lovely co workers.  Seriously they are all the best!  Big brother Jackson, Mom, Dad, Kenzie and Jon were all there to welcome us to our new room and Jackson was so excited to meet his little brother.  He hopped right up into bed with us and wanted to hold him. 

After sending the family home that evening we tried to settle down for a little sleep.  Ha ha yea right... adrenaline from delivery still at a high and excited to see our little man.  Most newborns go through a first 24 hour sleepy stage.  Ours did not.  He wanted to nurse constantly, which I let him go to town as much as possible, but did take advantage of a little 2-3 hour stretch of sleep around midnight having him go to the nursery (thank goodness for that nursery).

The next morning Jackson and my family came back up for Easton's first bath, that Jackson helped me give him.  He wasn't to sure of the crying but was excited to see him again.

Sunday and Monday were spent nursing, trying to nap, eating yummy hospital food, and visiting with friends family and co workers. Monday afternoon we headed home after getting a nap in after the circumcision.  We were excited to be home and get settled with our family of four.

It's a ...

BOY!!!!

Goodness I was so shocked and surprised.  I still think I am in shock as I was so certain it was girl.  We are over the moon excited though for all that this little man will add to our family.

Team Girl

Team Boy

Big Brother Jackson filling out the questionnaire 

We had our family over on July 10th for a BBQ, and gender reveal.  After quickly eating dinner we headed out to the yard for our big news.  My mom and sister had created an amazing night, topped off with a cute box with the gender correlating balloons inside.  Jackson helped us to open the box and peek inside.  Out popped the big blue balloons!!!

We had been attempting to teach Jackson what the two different colors meant for the balloons.  I think he was mostly excited to play with them after the box opened.  We are so excited to see this little baby in a few months, and look to see if he looks just like his big brother Jackson.  Jackson and baby boy will have so much fun being best buds.

In starting to talk about names Jackson has decided the baby should be named "Dragon".  This little one quickly has a new nickname, until the official name is decided upon. (Girl names are much easier to decide upon than boy names! Wish us luck!)

For now we will enjoy the news and work to get Jackson transitioned into his big boy train room (at the other end of the hall) and then we will begin cleaning/working on the nursery for Dragon.

Gosh.... I am the momma of two boys!?!?




(Thank you to my bestie Andrea Wilkins and sister McKenzie for snapping these pics!)

20 Week Growth Scan

On July 6th, 2018 we went in bright and early at 730 am for our big exciting nerve wrecking growth scan.  Although, we were excited to have the gender of the baby written down from this appointment for a gender reveal party we would have later that week, we were also nervous knowing there are many growth check marks that needed to occur to get our "Healthy and happy" report.

Thankfully, (Praise GOD), baby looked amazing! Baby H was sitting breech the whole time, and did fairly good at showing us its face, arms, legs, and yet again we were able to see that beautiful heart beating.  Now to wait a few more days to have the gender reveal and share the exciting news with our family.

Breastfeeding is Amazing

Working in the unit that I do at the hospital, we learn so much about breast milk and the power that it has.  I knew from the beginning that I wanted to breastfeed, and I wanted to make it work for us.  I started hand expressing colostrum at 37-38 weeks and saving it in the freezer until we went in to deliver.  With Jackson being a big baby we ended up needing to supplement, we were able to use my colostrum that I had brought in for that purpose, so that we could avoid formula.  Now at the hospital there is the option to supplement with donor breast milk which is a wonderful thing that they offer, but at the time we delivered this wasn't an option yet.  I wanted to avoid formula supplementation, because even the smallest amount changes the inside of the baby's tummy. (I understand that there are a few specific reasons of why formula would need to be given in the hospital, for prematurity for extra calorie supplementation, however this didn't apply to us.)

To read more on the benefits on Antenatal Expression of Colostrum look here: La Leche UK

To see more information on risks of supplementation of formula look here : Just One Bottle

Even with my knowledge of how to latch a baby and breastfeeding, I was still having difficulty getting Jackson to latch without having some discomfort.  It wasn't terrible but I knew that it was a pain more than just my nipples getting use to having a baby suckling for hours, but a positional thing that we needed to overcome in order to be successful in the long run.  I visited with my fellow Lactation Nurses at Bryan which were very helpful, and I visited a local breastfeeding support office in Lincoln called Milkworks.

I would highly suggest checking out Milkworks or your local breastfeeding support group/ office in your area.  I can't say enough good things about all that they did for us.  Milkworks has scales available for the public to stop in and weight your baby.  I would occasionally go in and weigh Jackson before a feeding, sit down and nurse him there and then re weigh him to see how much he was successfully transferring at breast.  This also helped later on when we started giving bottles so that I knew approximately how much breast milk he would take from me at a feeding.

The lactation consultant worked with me during our appointments to do a weight, and then help me to get Jackson situated, latch him on, and continue with an entire feeding and re weigh.  All while the lactation consultant stayed right at my side, to help to trouble shoot, and answer any questions that popped into my head.  I owe a part of our huge breastfeeding success to Milkworks!

You can visit Milkworks website here to look at their wonderful information or call/stop in to visit with their breastfeeding educators or schedule an appointment.  Plus they have an adorable baby shop attached with the cutest items for baby and mom.  Milkworks

We continued to breastfeed until Jackson's 2nd birthday.  It was such a wonderful experience and I know that we both benefited from it.  

Welcome Jackson Lee

My due date was May 6th, 2014, that afternoon my contractions started slowly building up.  By mid evening I was in labor and having to breathe through contractions.  We stayed at home for a few hours and tried methods like birthing ball, warm shower, music, swaying, breathing, but around midnight we made the treck to the hospital.  The odd ball, money pincher I am we stayed in the truck for about 15 minutes having contractions so that we could wait to check in after midnight.  We checked in and they watched me for a while to see if I continued to progress.  I was 3cm when we checked in at 12AM, over the next few hours we would breathe through contractions and sway back and forth.

Around 3 AM I was able to get my epidural, and then was able to relax and was dilated to 5cm at that point.  We were able to get a little bit of rest as they continued to let my body contract and labor on its own.  Around 6 AM my contractions were slowing down a bit so they added in a little Pitocin to keep the contractions going.  At 7 AM Dr. Friesen came in to break my water and then I was 7cm.  Again around 9 AM they checked me and I was 8cm, at 10 AM I was 9 cm and at 11:30 AM I was 10 cm.  Our nurse started to prepare us for pushing and called the doctor.

Dr. Friesen showed up around 12PM and we started pushing, we pushed for about 20 minutes and Jackson was moving down and was getting closer to deliver, however his heart rate started to dip with my contractions and he was starting to slow down with his decent.  Dr. Friesen made the decision to use forceps to assist with delivery.  I completely trusted his opinion and his decisions to use forceps.  I think it is very important to go to an OB that you trust with your life and the life of your child whole heartedly, and you also trust their partners, since there is a chance your OB wont be available. More on Forcep delivery here: Mayo Clinic- Forceps

Thankfully just a few minutes later Jackson was delivered with forceps with one push.  He had meconium (his stool) in his amniotic fluid so the NICU and respiratory therapists were at the delivery in case he needed more support.  He came out crying, and big and beautiful.  Our Jackson was a big boy at 9 pounds 3 oz, 21 inches long born at 12:41PM on May 7th, 2014.

More on Meconium Aspiration Syndrome and risks of Meconium in amniotic fluid here: Medline Plus

After delivery we delivered the placenta at which time Dr. Friesen found a few clots and a bit more bleeding.  With the blood loss along with the delivery I wasn't feeling very good, I would get light headed and feel like I was going to pass out.  We stayed on L&D for a few hours prior to being transferred up to my post partum room where my co workers were anxiously awaiting.

After getting to post partum our stay went very quickly.  My hemoglobin dropped after delivery due to the blood loss and clots and I felt dizzy when standing so we transfused two units of blood and I felt much better afterwards.  Jackson was wonderful at breastfeeding from the beginning, staying awake for feeds.

I had started hand expressing and saving my colostrum around 37-38 weeks pregnant, I was able to bring 12cc of colostrum into the hospital for us to supplement to Jackson if he had low blood sugars due to his large size.

Two days later we went home and followed up with the pediatrician, although Jackson was nursing good, my milk had not come in yet and his weight was dropping close to 10%.  There was talk of supplementing with formula but I chose to feed more frequently and add pumping to supplement with my own colostrum/breast milk.  Thankfully a day later my milk came in and I had a wonderful supply.

Our delivery was amazing, I loved going in to labor on my own, and there was no greater feeling than meeting my little baby boy that we had worked so hard for.