The Barnes Family Blog

Well we were home for all of a day and a half before things went wrong! The first thing that happened was the fly infestation. They were all over our house and we couldn’t figure out where they came from (found out it was from outside trash cans!). I went upstairs because I wasn’t feeling well and I wanted to keep Alice away from the flies. Adrian came to check on me and I had the chill, so we took my temperature to find I had a fever of 104.3. We called the doctor and she had us go straight to the ER. I was so stressed out having to go to the hospital with Alice. I didn’t want to bring her but I didn’t have milk pumped for her. They were really nice and got me a private room so Alice would be safe. My mom came and brought my breast pump and picked up Alice, she also picked up formula because the nurse wasn’t sure if the antibiotics were safe with the breast milk, talk about adding stress! Also this whole time my blood pressure is not going down! After an ultrasound it was determined that I had an infection in my uterus, I was going to be admitted and on antibiotics for 24 hours. I’m a hot mess at this point thinking about my 3 day old baby. Luckily the dr. said I could still breastfeed. The ER got us a private room and said that Adrian and Alice could stay. However at 4 am a nurse came in and freaked out that Adrian and the baby were there… shift change maybe? Anyways a groggy Adrian had to leave the hospital only to come back during visiting hours. Luckily by that point I had pumped while in the ER so he had one bottle of breast milk. They ended up having me stay a second night because of my blood pressure and high levels of something in my blood (turns out I also have gallstones). Poor Adrian had all 4 girls alone that second night and I was an emotional wreck pumping every two hours in the hospital. I ended up needing to be on blood pressure medication… weaning off by 4 weeks. Thank goodness Alice is our 4th baby! I don’t know if I could have handled all of this with my first child.

Wow! It’s crazy, the hospital discharged us after only one night! I was a little shocked since I was having blood pressure issues and Alice could possibly have jaundice. I wonder if they were really busy and just needed the space? Well we are happy to be home and sleeping in our own bed! My mom will keep the girls another night or so since technically we should still be in the hospital. They loved meeting their baby sister!

Alice was born on Monday, August 28, 2017 at 12:49pm. She weighed 7lbs6oz and was 19.5 inches long. She is absolutely perfect!

Alice was was 41 weeks and 4 days, 11 days past her due date! Originally we had scheduled to be induced right at 41 weeks but I wasn’t feeling comfortable about it. Olivia’s birth was tough being induced. So we waited. I had one night of bad contractions, thinking it was it, but then I threw up and the contractions all stopped. On exactly 41 weeks, the doctor noticed that I had protein in my urine and really swollen feet. My blood pressure was still normal but she was concerned about preeclampsia, so we set up an appointment to be induced on Monday. All weekend long I was having contractions at night. They would be consistently regular, meaning. One night they were 20 min apart all night, then stopped in the morning. Then the next night they were 15 min apart all night stopping the morning. So when we went in on Monday morning, my body was ready to hAve this baby! They started me on pitocin to start the contractions going a little stronger. The doctor broke my amniotic sac yo move things even further along. The Nurse noticed a drop in Alice’s movements and my blood pressure was all over the place. They stopped the pitocin but by then my body took over. The epidural was a much welcomed pain and Alice was born after two big pushes.