Augustine Oliver Schultz

Early November 9th, we welcomed our fourth son, Augustine Oliver Schultz into the world! He was another scheduled c-section, at 39 weeks and 1 day. He weighed 9lbs 1oz, coming in 2nd only to Ben in terms of birth weight!

My mom came into town the Tuesday beforehand and we checked lots of things off our list. With the exception of organizing clothes (thanks friends!), I had literally done nothing to get ready. We cleaned the room that will become his bedroom, separated clothes and swaddles, bought a changing table/dresser combo and she even gifted us a deep freezer! It was a very productive 2 1/2 days!

The night before we continued a tradition of eating out at a mexican restaurant. Then came home and did all our normal bedtime routines. The boys knew that when they woke up they would be with my mom and we would be at the hospital.

Before we all went to bed, we ended up around the dining table brainstorming more names. Going into the summer/fall we were somewhat set on Ari Augustine Oliver Schultz and calling him Ari. Then during the last two months, Aaron made a stronger push for just Augustine. (#formerclassicalteacher and #seminarystudent haha!) And then that night before, we added Abbott and Easton. We went into the hospital and Aaron was polling almost every nurse while we were doing all the pre-op. Augustine was not everyone's favorite, btw.

Anyway, we arrived at the hospital at 5am and immediately were checked into our room. They started all the fluids, etc and by 7:30am I was in the operating room. This being my 4th c-section, I knew the routine and what to expect (numbness, tingling, tugging and pressure - then sweet relief!). He was born at 7:50am. They took him to the warmer and did all of his stats, then gave him to Aaron.

It took a good amount of time to finish up the procedure, and then we were brought into the recovery room. I felt pretty good afterwards, no nausea or or shaking. He started nursing, but pretty quickly the nurse called down a lactation consultant to check on things. Again, being that this was my 4th baby, I knew what to expect and already had a plan. The LC thankfully was on my side and gave me a nipple shield to continue. It was in the recovery room where they first mentioned we would need to watch out for a potential blood sugar issue. He was right on the line for being Large for Gestational Age, right at 90th %. He had some jitters when the nurses were changing a diaper, so they told us to watch his body for more of that. 

It was also in the recovery room that we decided on his name. Aaron was telling me that when he e-mailed the Dean of the Chapel to add him to the prayers, he went with Augustine Oliver Schultz. The nurse who was in the room at the time turned to us and asked Aaron to repeat the name he just said. She said she loved it and actually had goosebumps, which "never" happens. Well, that is all it took for us to finalize his name! Augustine, pronounced uh-gus-ten, which is apparently the more "classical" pronunciation, and Oliver, for my granddaddy. 

Aaron brought the big boys over to meet him that afternoon. It is always a little chaotic bringing our boys into hospital rooms, but they were mostly excited to meet him and hold him! 

Later in the afternoon, when they gave him a bath, the nurse noticed the he was jittery and decided to take his blood sugar. They want it to be above 45 or 50, and it was 44. So he was officially on watch. The next few times I nursed they would come in a take a reading about an hour afterwards and he continued to have low numbers, even when we started supplementing with donor breastmilk. Around 4:30am on Saturday morning they made the decision to take him in the NICU to keep a better watch. Into Saturday, with formula supplementing, his numbers weren't high enough or stable. Around noon a NICU nurse said we could either increase the frequency of his feedings, to every 2 hours, or go ahead and put an IV in him to get him stabilized with sugar. That would mean at least another 24 hours in the NICU, but seeing as the feedings weren't helping, I chose to go ahead and have them start the IV. 

Thankfully it didn't take super long for his numbers to shoot up into the 60s and 70s and stay there. I was discharged on Sunday afternoon and at that point the doctor had already okay'd dropping down his level of sugar in his IV after each feeding. By the time we got back over the hospital on Monday morning for his 9am feeding, he was disconnected from the IV. They were still monitoring his levels after each feeding and he was staying about 50! The NICU required him to do a 2 hour carseat test and us to watch 3 videos about caring for babies. Then right when he was done with his carseat test we were able to take him home!!

Welcome to this crazy family Augustine!!