Our Growing Family

Hey there friends! I’m popping on here to introduce our second son, Rhett Andrew Schrag, born April 7, 2022! We are soaking in every newborn snuggle, and adjusting to life as a family of four.

I thought I’d share a quick recap about my pregnancy, and also his birth story!

PREGNANCY

We found out we were expecting again when I was about 9 months postpartum with Fletcher. We waited to publicly announce it until after Fletcher’s first birthday, because I really wanted to celebrate just him and give him the “spotlight.”

The first trimester was rough, much like it was last time. If I wasn’t in the bathroom throwing up, I was in bed sleeping… but by the middle of the second trimester I was back to feeling good! In fact, I didn’t even have to continue taking nausea medicine like I did the entire pregnancy last time.

FINDING OUT THE GENDER

We found out the gender at my 20 week ultrasound. We didn’t have a gender reveal party this time, but we did take some fun big brother pictures when we found out!

Fun fact: I was so certain we were going to have a girl that I went out and bought girl clothes! Needless to say I returned them lol. We were so happy to learn we would be having another son, and two so close in age is so exciting 🙂

HIS NAME

We’ve liked the name Rhett for awhile, and after we decided on the name Fletcher for our first, we knew if we had another son we would name him Rhett. His middle name, Andrew, is my dad’s middle name.

BABY SPRINKLE

My friends threw an adorable baby sprinkle to help celebrate our new little guy. The party was in February, and the theme was “little sweetheart.” 

We started praying from the very beginning that we would have a healthy, FULL TERM baby, and that I would be able to breastfeed.

Having a premie the first time made it extremely difficult to breastfeed, which ultimately lead to me exclusively pumping for 10 months. It was a HUGE commitment, and it was really hard on me mentally. I was really heartbroken that I couldn’t nurse Fletcher… and I just really wanted it to be different this time around.

As I got closer to my due date, I felt a peace about the whole thing. I knew that God would deliver this baby here safely, and He would give me everything I need to nourish him.

RHETT’S BIRTH STORY

I went to the doctor on April 6th, the day before my due date. My body was definitely progressing, dilated to 3cm and 70% effaced. I was feeling Braxton Hicks and lightening like crazy. My doctor swept my membranes and we went ahead and set an induction date for the next week (knowing I probably would go into labor before then).

April 7, 2022

DUE DATE

WE MADE IT! I was anticipating going into labor at anytime, but I was just going about my day normally. I lost my mucus plug in the morning, so I knew labor was close. It got to be later in the afternoon and still no contractions or anything. It looked like I was going to go past my due date (which is crazy because I didn’t even expect to make it all the way to my due date).

6:35pm

I was at home sitting on the exercise ball and suddenly I felt a gush of water. I knew right away that my water broke! Contractions started almost immediately, and I called Logan in from outside. “Time to go!” I said. I called my mom to come stay with Fletcher, and Logan’s mom to meet us at the hospital. I took a quick shower while we waited for my mom.

My contractions were getting stronger and we headed out after saying goodbye to Fletcher.

7:20pm

We got to the hospital and by this point, my contractions were less than 3 minutes apart and getting stronger. Logan’s mom, Susan showed up shortly after us. I could no longer talk through my contractions, and I started to get very lightheaded and thirsty.

For some stupid reason, we had to wait in the lobby for 20 minutes, even though I was clearly in active labor. It took Logan forcefully asking for a wheelchair and water for them to finally get a nurse to come get me...

7:45pm

The nurse took me to an exam room to check my cervix and to confirm that my water broke. She told me I was at 7cm and when I heard that I requested the epidural immediately. My contractions were so intense and so close together, I knew that it was happening QUICKLY. They took me to the delivery room.

8:05pm

They prepped me for the epidural, and I could barely hold still for the needle as my contractions were now back to back. Having Susan in the room was exactly what I needed. She knew how to coach me through each contraction, and told me to relax different muscles in my body and focus on controlling that.

8:20pm

The epidural was in, and they told me to lay back. Immediately when I moved, I felt an enormous amount of pressure and my body started involuntarily pushing. I started screaming, “how long until the epidural starts to work!? I feel like I have to push now!”

They checked me again and told me I was at 10cm. The on-call doctor was not even in the room yet, and the nurse and resident said to go ahead and push if I absolutely needed to. I couldn’t have stopped it if I tried. There weren’t even contractions at this point, it was just constant tightening and intense pressure to push.

I was screaming as I was pushing, and the nurse had to remind me to breath. Logan tells me that I started turning purple… I just remember feeling the head crowning and thinking “I have to get this baby out!” I thought I was going to pass out, and with one more big push, he was out.

8:28pm

Rhett Andrew Schrag entered the world.

Less than two hours from my water breaking… less than 5 minutes of pushing… and here he was. 7 lbs 4 oz of pure love laying on my chest.

I started crying, mostly from relief that it was over, if I’m being honest lol. It all happened so fast that the epidural didn’t kick in at all. I could feel everything, including when they started stitching me up… which was very unpleasant.

They finally gave me a local anesthetic to finish the stitches, so I could enjoy skin to skin with my new baby. I was NOT mentally prepared to deliver a baby without medication, but praise the Lord that He made my body to do this. AND PRAISE HIM THAT IT WASN’T A LONG LABOR. It was the most amazing, excruciating, fast, crazy, intense, surreal experience of my life.

The moment that was the most emotional for me was when Rhett latched for the first time and started nursing right away. It felt so natural instead of forced this time. This was such an answer to prayer, and confirmation from God. It was also the moment that it really sunk in… I have a new small human who completely relies on me, and I love him so much.

I don’t even know the names of the nurse and resident that delivered him… I didn’t have time to think about anything else!

When the doctor finally showed up, she joked to Logan that he should be prepared to catch a baby, because it will probably happen even faster next time. (I literally can’t even imagine labor going faster than that… but I guess we’ll deal with that when it comes lol).

We prayed for a different experience this time, and we definitely got it! I can’t say I would ever chose to go unmedicated again… but I am glad to know I could do it if I had to lol. If I’ve learned anything from giving birth, it’s that it usually goes differently than you expect it to. But God has everything under control.

I’m just so grateful to have a healthy baby that is breastfeeding so well. I’m so much less stressed this time because I’m not on a strict pumping schedule, and we aren’t in the middle of moving to a new home lol. Everything about this time around so far has been better.

I’m so excited to share more pictures and details from his nursery! I had so much fun designing this room, and seeing these pictures of him in here is a dream come true.

Big brother is just smitten with him, and I’m loving watching his love and curiosity grow towards him.

My very talented friend, Brittany Close, captured these pictures for us. Even though my toddler would not cooperate half the time, and I was still in so much pain from giving birth, I’m grateful to document the beautiful side of those precious, and tiring first weeks with our sweet baby boy.

Thank you so much for following and supporting my new journey of motherhood. I’m so excited to get back into sharing our home renovations with you on my blog soon! God bless!

XOXO

ASHLEY DIANN