After waiting and waiting on this sweet boy to arrive on his own, at 5 days past his due date we decided to go ahead and be induced Friday morning. We arrived at 5:30am excited and eager to meet our little man. Doesn't Dave look eager?
After getting checked in the nurse quickly realized that I was already what she called in "latent labor." I had been having pretty constant, intense contractions for the past few days and was already 3-4 cm dilated. So we declined the pitocin and just waited for my doctor to come break my water to help speed things up. The nurse tried 4 times before she finally got my IV in which should have been my first clue that it was not going to be a textbook day. That was confirmed when it took my doctor 3 separate tries over the course of an hour to break my water (without an epidural). Ya, ouch. Labor was pretty normal from about 9:30-noon. Dave was an AH-MAZ-ING labor coach. He was singing, telling jokes, and just generally adorable. I think our nurse was quite taken with him. But when noon rolled around and I was barely 5cm we decided it was time for the pitocin and an epidural. Of course I bawled like a baby while getting the epidural. I guess I thought I failed somehow and just couldn't understand why I couldn't do what so many women can, just have a baby all on their own. I'm not sure why it was so important to me to have this baby naturally, but that's too much for this post. Maybe another time. But anyway, we all figured after the epidural I could rest, progress quickly, then have a baby. Well, not exactly. From noon to 3pm I only progressed from 5cm to 6cm and every contraction baby boy's heart rate would drop. Scare #1 of the day, the potential of an emergency C-section. More tears. My nurse was great though and after turning me this way and that like a ball-park frank on a grill, we found a position that baby boy liked. Somehow from 3pm - 4pm I went from 6cm to fully dilated! Yikes! I knew I had an epidural but somehow in a matter of minutes I went from feeling nearly nothing to OMG, I've got to push! My nurse checked and yelled, hold on honey. Don't push. Just breath. Ironically enough, Dave had just gone to the bathroom. The nurse was banging on the door, "Daddy, hurry up, we're about to have a baby." Hilarious! My doctor literally came running down the hall and in 2 contractions, 4 pushes total, out he came. Perfect and pink and LONG! The doctor actually said as she was delivering him, "He keeps coming. There's more!" And then, just like a boy, he pooped ALL over the doctor. :) That a boy!
After nursing like a champ and some hugs and kisses from mommy and daddy, we let Emily come in and meet her baby brother and then introduce him to the rest of our family. Baby boy had just made his first round through all the arms here to hold him when I gave everyone quite a scare. After delivery I had lost a lot of blood, and I mean A LOT. I thought it seemed like a lot, but what do I know? And I was so distracted by my baby and the joy and all my family that I didn't give it much thought. That is until I passed out. In front of my whole family, with Emily sitting next to me on the bed, I felt dizzy, nauseous, then my eyes rolled back in my head and down I went. Immediately there were a bunch of nurses in my room ushering everyone out and putting an oxygen mask on me. I barely remember anything except that that was the most scared I'd ever been in my whole life. I couldn't breath. I could sort of see Dave holding Daniel in a chair in the corner of the room as Emily scampered out with my mom. I don't know that I'll ever forget that feeling. The nurses were able to get me stabilized pretty quickly with the oxygen and a bunch of medicines. But I was so weak and out of it that I didn't put up much of a fight when they asked to take Daniel to the nursery for his bath. For the next 2 hours I rested and Daniel was under the watchful eye of the nurses.
We truly believe that everything happens for a reason and God's hand was over us. Who ever would have thought that me hemorrhaging would have been a good thing. But it was God's plan for him to be in the nursery. I don't think we ever could have imagined the night was going to get worse, but somehow, it did. The nurse brought Daniel back about 9pm to try and feed again. He wouldn't latch on and was really tired and lethargic, a far cry from the super alert, bright eyed boy he was just a few hours before. The nurse was great and reassured us that sometimes after all the excitement of being born and then a good bath sometimes babies are just tired, so she would bring him back in an hour to try again.
Dave was adamant that we send him to the nursery and let them keep an eye on him. Again, too tired to put up much of an argument, I agreed and rested some more. But when they didn't bring him in at 10 to feed Dave went looking for him in the nursery, only to find he wasn't in the nursery. He had been moved to the NICU. Apparently his temperature dropped, then his blood sugar dropped and his heart rate dropped. All signs of a possible infection. And all signs we might have missed had he been asleep in our room. It's amazing how the little decisions mean everything. So they moved him to the NICU and started him on antibiotics and an IV. They drew blood and sent it off to do some cultures. Dave and I prayed, and cried, and prayed some more. For a few hours we couldn't see him. This had now trumped my hemorrhaging, and was now the scariest moment of my life. Sometime after 1am Dave went to meet with the NICU doctor (at this point I still hadn't been out of bed yet and couldn't go with him). Dave came bursting back in the room crying and hugging me saying, "He's fine. He's fine." Praise God for answered prayers! The doctor said that he thinks that Daniel has Polycythemia, an abnormally high concentration of red blood cells, which could have resulted from post-maturity. But the great news is that this self-corrects and his blood will level itself out on it's own, but just to be safe they have to keep him in the NICU and on the antibiotics until the blood cultures come back Monday.
Whew!
So, after all that we are looking at coming home all together on Monday. At least, that is what our prayer is now. Because of my hemorrhage, my doctor says she is going to make sure I get to stay thru Sunday night so they don't have to discharge me before Daniel. And assuming his blood cultures come back normal, Daniel will be able to room in with us tomorrow night, then come home Monday. PRAISE GOD!!!!
And now, for the part everybody is really waiting for, pictures of my sweet baby boy! I promise, more to come, but these were all we managed to get over the past 2 days given the craziness of it all. Enjoy!
Isn't this the cutest little milk mustache you've ever seen?
Grandma Dee loving on her first Grandson!
Pop, and his namesake, little Daniel
Aunt Leigh Leigh
Bless his heart!
