The lovely Sara Lanthorn with her daughter Addie-Lynne (2) and son Ri (6 months) she is also 10 weeks pregnant with baby number three, due in September. Sara has had all day nausea through the whole of her pregnancies but learned during her pregnancy with Addie that Zofran works for her so she was able to take it and have manageable nausea with Ri and her current pregnancy from the onset. Sara says that she makes big babies, so they had planned to induce her with Addie but she went into labor naturally the morning before her scheduled induction. It was Superbowl Sunday and she was one of 7 women laboring but the only non emergency so she labored with minimal intervention for most of the time. She had planned to decide on whether or not she would get an epidural until she was in the thick of things and labored for quite some time without one until her water broke and she swiftly changed her mind. She was able to push Addie out without complication but tore pretty severely. She pushed for 45 minutes and says it took even longer than that for them to stitch her up. She was able to initiate breastfeeding right away without complication and her daughter was a very efficient breastfeeder. Sara had a spinal headache 5 days postpartum and had to go to the ER for a blood patch. She had some intermittent issues with her supply and after struggling with her cycles was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS).
They knew that they wanted to have four children close together and with the fertility issues PCOS can involve decided to start Clomid. She was able to conceive Ri on her first cycle. She started Zofran early this time and was able to manage her nausea. Ri was a planned induction as well due to his anticipated size though he was just under 9lbs at birth. Sara was checked and told she was complete and ready to push only to find that she was pushing her son into her cervix. When she was finally ready his shoulders became stuck and the doctor had to manually pull out one arm to help minimize tearing. She had to hold off pushing after she birthed his head before the doctor arrived and again while they got his shoulder unstuck and says she learned the value of a gutteral scream. While Ri was born in good health his face was bruised and swollen from being pressed into her cervix. Breastfeeding was more challenging this time and at around 4 months Sara learned, much to her surprise that she was pregnant again. She has had to wean but has enough milk pumped and saved to provide him with one bottle of breastmilk per day until he is about 8 months old. She has learned that her energy is limited and the new baby she's growing needs her focus now.
Sara's body has changed quite a bit through her motherhood journey but she has tried to focus on how strong she is. She has grown and birthed and fed her babies and while her belly may be bigger it's because it grew her babies and though her arms may be bigger it's because they are stronger from holding her babies. She is better now, more beautiful and she is strong.