The Calls

We are so excited that our baby boy is here! The last few weeks seem to have taken forever as we've been anticipating his arrival. We tried just about everything to get this baby to come on his own. Every night after work we would walk 2+ miles hoping that it would put me into labor - Jon would make me speed walk, step up and down on the curbs and fed me spicy meals almost every night, but still nothing happened. As I’ve gone to my weekly appointments with my OBGYN he has told me that my body is continually progressing, but at a very slow rate. Last Tuesday when I went to my 39 week appointment, I was dilated to 4cm and I had protein in my urine, which can be an early sign of preeclampsia. The doctor recommended that I have my membranes stripped to expedite labor and if that didn’t work he wanted to induce me over the weekend, so we scheduled an appointment for early Sunday morning (4/15/12) . Getting my membranes stripped was not necessarily a pleasant experience, it was actually pretty horrible- everyone I know that has had this done has gone into labor within 48hrs, but of course, I did not.

Friday arrived so we went out for our usual date night. We chose to eat at at Brio, our favorite Italian restaurant, for our “last date” as a couple. Jon started to feel sick with a bad cold earlier that day and it got worse during dinner. He didn’t want to be sick in the hospital when the baby arrived so we cut the night short and put him to bed early. My family came down late that night to help finish up last minute things on Saturday and to be with us for the baby’s arrival. Saturday, Jon spent most the day in bed resting hoping his cold would go away while my sister, mom and I ran errands. That night the whole family went to dinner at Cafe Rio. When we got home, Jon, Rich and my dad gave me a very comforting blessing, which made me even more grateful to have these worthy men in my life.

Sunday morning, we woke up bright and early and extremely anxious. We called the hospital, per their request, to confirm everything was still on schedule for my induction at 7:30am - they confirmed that everything was good to go and that’s when I started feeling REALLY nervous! We arrived on time and checked-in only to have our hopes crushed when they told us that two women had shown up at 7am in labor and that they didn’t have a room for me. They told us to wait for a half hour in the waiting room to see if they could make room. Twenty minutes went by and a third woman rushed into the hospital in labor, we knew at that time I wouldn't be induced that morning...we were SO disappointed! The hospital sent us home and told us they would call us when they had the room/staffing available. We kept our phones by us all day long anxiously awaiting their call, but nothing. We called the hospital twice and both times we were rejected.

Anyone that knows me and Jon understands how impatient we are, so we decided to take matters into our own hands. We realized there would continually be more and more women going into labor all day long, which means they would never have space for me to come in and be induced. By 4pm that afternoon, we had had enough - we drove to the Labor and Delivery room and told them that my “water had broke”. Of course it really didn't break but we couldn't handle sitting at home thinking we should have already had our baby by now... I hoped that if we told them my "water broke" that they would have to admit me into the triage area and since I was already dilated to a 4 they would just admit me in to be induced. IT WORKED! They told me that my water had not broken (Oops! :)) but I was dilated to 4.5cm so they would admit me to my room. Later that night they told us we were lucky I was admitted because there were multiple people scheduled to be induced that weekend that probably wouldn’t be admitted for days. Sometimes it pays off to be extremely impatient... :)

By 6:15pm they had started my Pitocin drip and the process was underway. I really wanted to try and tough it out naturally and go as long as I could without an epidural. By 9pm my contractions were 2 minutes apart and I was in extreme pain. The nurse told me that I would probably only dilate a centimeter an hour, which means I would have to suffer for possibly 6 more hours...are you kidding me?! How do people do this naturally??? I then requested the epidural ASAP! The Anesthesiologist walked in and asked how bad I needed the epidural because he had a lady screaming down the hall. Being the kind person I am, I told him to go help the other lady....what was I thinking?! I’m pretty sure I’ve never wanted to take back my words so bad. Those were the longest 30 minutes of my life and the contractions hurt like heck! After the Anesthesiologist got back and after multiple attempts he finally got the epidural in correctly...this was also one of the most painful experiences of my life, or maybe I’m just a wimp.

For the next couple hours, Jon and I tried to get some rest, which didn’t last long. At about 1am I was dilated to an 8 and started vomiting repeatedly...lucky Jon was able to hold my puke pan. He was such a wonderful support while I puked and cried in pain, not to mention he was still feeling horrible from his cold. He even did my hair for me since I couldn’t reach with all the wires sticking out of my arm. At this point things started to get a little crazy. Each time I vomited, the baby’s heart rate would drop and the nurses had to keep rushing in because the monitors kept beeping. At one point things got scary when his heart rate had dropped for 9 minutes straight - the nurses rushed in and put oxygen on me and tried to attach something to the baby’s head for better monitoring, but it wouldn’t work. Jon and I kept looking at each other during this process hoping and praying everything would be ok with the baby.

At 4am, the nurse came in and said that I was fully dilated and it was time to start pushing. I was SO excited to finally hear those words. I had been pushing for 30 minutes and after each push I would have to take my oxygen mask off, throw up and start pushing again.. I was so exhausted! Eventually the nurses became concerned because each time I pushed my cervix would come down with the baby’s head. After multiple attempts, they decided to call the doctor in at 4:30am to see if he could fix the problem. When he arrived, he immediately noticed that the baby was face up, instead of face down as he should have been. He said that he was going to have to try to turn the baby over and vacuum him out. About 30 minutes after he started this process, we heard the baby’s cry, which we had been waiting so long to hear! He sounded like a little angel, It was like music to my ears. I couldn't believe he was finally here and I was NO LONGER PREGNANT! Hallelujah!! We love this little guy more than we could ever imagine!

I’m not sure if we were more excited or nervous when we first saw the baby. Because of the vacuum, he had an enormous conehead, with a softball sized lump at the top. The tears in the picture below are a reaction of both happiness to see my baby and fear that he had a huge tumor. The nurses quickly reassured me that it was just swelling from the vacuum and that it would eventually go down to normal. The nurse also told me afterwards how lucky I am to have such a skilled and knowledgeable doctor because most doctors are no longer trained how to use tools like the vacuum and if I had a newer doctor I most likely would have had an emergency C-section. This made me even more grateful for answered prayers when I switched OB doctors half way through my pregnancy.

Crew Daysen Call 6 lbs 6oz 20 inches born on 4/16/12 and our hospital room was number 0016, I have a feeling his lucky number is 6.

This was when the nurse was trying to calm me down and explained that the huge lump on his head was normal and would go away in a few hours... Thank goodness!

Proud DAD

First Family Photo

Proud Grandma's

Grandma and Grandpa Call

Finally meeting the cousins that have been waiting so long to meet him

Going Home!

We love you baby Crew!!

The Calls

June 29, 2012

New Blog

April 16, 2012

Crew Daysen Call

July 04, 2011

Baby You're a Firework...