Welcoming Samuel James....

This post is to merely capture the moment in time that our world changed forever. The day we welcomed our son, Samuel James into this world.

Thursday afternoon, I had a doctor's appointment. At my appointment on Tuesday, the doctor had mentioned that she might induce on Thursday night / Friday morning. I wasn't sure if we would go straight to the hospital after my appointment or not, so I was completely prepared - Andy came with me and I had our overnight bag all ready to go.

When we got to the appointment - found out that I still had made no progression (shocker!) - but the doctor was unable to induce until Saturday (I guess the hospital can decide how many inductions are scheduled on any given day).  So - she scheduled our induction for Saturday night. So...home we went.

I finished my work day and around 8:30, Andy and I went for a walk (about 30 minutes) - we didn't make it very far, as I was not extremely fast in the latter days of the pregnancy. When we got back, I went to the restroom and noticed I was bleeding, and I had done this on Tuesday due to being checked at the doctor, but this time, the color was different. So, just to be cautious, I called my doctor.  She confirmed that she thought it was from being checked earlier in the day, so she advised, if it gets worse to give her a call.  So, about our evening we went - I didn't feel great, with my stomach cramping every now and then (no, I didn't realize these were contractions).  We had already advised my parents (who were initially going to drive up Thursday afternoon / evening) - that I was going to be induced Saturday night instead. We had made plans to visit the Bixby corn festival, mass, and have a good dinner before heading to the hospital for the induction....but alas, how soon our world was going to change...

Around 12:30 a.m. I woke up to go to the bathroom (still wasn't feeling well) - and I had bled even more than before. So - I instantly woke up Andy and said "we need to go to the hospital".  Andy, thankfully jumped right up - got dressed and was ready to go. The only one that was super confused / not happy about the late night was Ollie - who was awaken from a deep slumber only to be put in his crate for the rest of the night.

When we arrived at the hospital (around 1:00 a.m.) - we headed straight up to the labor and delivery floor to check in.  It was nice that the hospital we were to deliver was pretty calm at this time of night.  Once we checked in - a nurse got us settled in the "let's see what is happening room" - the room in which they hook you up to monitors and check the baby's heart rate and your contractions to see how far along in labor you really are (this assists them in their "do we send them home or admit them right now" decision).

The nurse checked and...lo and behold.. I was in labor!  I had started dilating - so all that intermediate cramping was indeed contractions!  With my contractions really close together (despite not being very far along in the labor process), already being past my due date, and discussions with the doctor, they decided to go ahead and admit me. After calling my parents at 1:00 a.m. to tell them we were heading to the hospital, I called back 45 minutes later to say "we're in labor" and were being admitted.

So...there we were...in labor..in the hospital. The nurse indicated that the baby had an arrhythmia in his heartbeat that they were monitoring - but it could be something that would go away as soon as he was born.  Around 6:30, I texted my parents to get an idea of when they would be heading to Tulsa that day - and they had left the house around 3:30 that morning (apparently, my mom asked my dad "do you want to sleep more and then head up there or head up there now", my dad responded with "will you let me sleep more", and when my mom responded with "probably not" - they packed up and left - ha ha). They were able to swing by the house to feed Ollie breakfast and were at the hospital by 8:30 that morning.  Andy's parents arrived around 9:00 a.m.

Also around 6:30ish I started having intense pain in my back in addition to the cramping contractions - I wasn't sure if the baby was pushing on my back nerves or that is what back labor was like.  Either way - the nurse gave me the option for an epidural - when I asked if it would take away the back pain - she said probably.  Weighing that in with also the fact that I was likely to have a c-section anyways - I said - let's do it.  By 7:30 - I felt no pain.  However, due to the baby's heartrate, they wanted me to stay propped on my left side.  The nurse kept coming in to monitor the heartrate and was informing us that our chances for the c-section were increasing due to his heartrate.  By 10:00 - she came in and said - I am just going to get stuff set up for the c-section - as it is looking like an 80/20 chance right now, a few minutes later - the chances increased to 90/10, and by 10:15 or so (my timing might be off) - we were off to get a c-section.

They took me first for prep. My awesome doctor came back and prayed with me before surgery! Andy got his scrubs on and met me back in the OR for the procedure.  At 10:35 a.m. Samuel James entered this world.  I was scared at first, because I knew he had been born, but I couldn't hear any crying - but they said he had been taken into another room (later I found out it was to suction and intubate him to get the meconium he had swallowed out of his lungs). When I heard the distant screams and Andy confirmed - that was the sound of our baby crying (a sweet sound it was) - Andy then went to be with Sam and a few minutes later emerged with a baby wrapped up in a blanket to introduce me to our son and have our first family photo.  Andy left with Samuel to introduce him to the grandparents and give him his first bath (he actually got 2 because of all the meconium in his hair).

During the "close up" procedure - we learned that Samuel had an extremely long umbilical cord (so much so - that it had been wrapped twice around his neck) and I have a heart shaped uterus (which explains why my stomach was so lopsided during the latter part of the pregnancy).

I was wheeled back to the room for some quality time with the baby and Andy - while the grandparents waited in the waiting room. I was able to have some skin-to-skin time and breastfeed him.  However, when the nurse came in - she thought his blood sugar levels were too low, so she wanted to see if they would come up with a bottle (which Andy fed him). As they did not, they whisked him away to the NICU for further evaluation.

During our wait that afternoon (I was not allowed to get out of bed due to the epidural for 12 hours!), we learned that his blood sugar levels were rising - but they wanted to keep him overnight just to make sure everything was o.k.  The NICU at the delivery hospital was more nursery like - in which there were multiple babies and not a lot of room for visitors.  The grandparents eventually went home around 8:00 or so that night to get some rest.  When Andy went to give the nurse some colostrom on a Q-tip as we had been doing all afternoon - he was met by a nurse at the door with a view of multiple nurses hovering around Sam.  Essentially, the only information he could get out of the nurse was that the doctor would be over to speak to us shortly.  When the doctor came by - she let us know that Sam had a respiratory incident while in the NICU and they were running some more tests to figure out what was going on (the ultimate cause could be he was still trying to get meconium out of his lungs - but they wanted to run the extra tests to be sure).  She said she would return to our room in about 40 minutes.  The longest 40 minutes of our lives...which turned into an hour and a half (as the doctor had gotten pulled into another c-section during this time).  I honestly don't remember what the results of the tests were - but they ended up ordering a brain scan (to see if there was any fluids or swelling in his brain) and a echo cardiogram (to see more about the murmur / arrhythmia in his heart) to rule those out as possible causes to his episodes.

Thus began the longest night of Andy and I's life. We switched off being in the NICU and sleeping the whole night - as we really did not want to leave Samuel alone.  He had a few more minor episodes during the night (episodes that entailed him crying with only half of his body, in which he would also stop breathing and turn purple).  After the brain ultrasound was run (the heart test took longer to have completed), the doctor went ahead and made the decision it was best for Sam to go to the main St. Francis campus in which they had a higher level NICU (level 3 compared to level 2), as with the problems with his breathing - she felt it would be best.  At this point - they had also put him on a CPAP to help his breathing.  I had not held my baby in more than 24 hours at this point.  There were so many tears and prayers offered up during the night / morning.

I had the option of being transferred to the main hospital as a patient, staying at the south campus as a patient, or being discharged completely to be a visitor at the main campus. We chose the transfer - as I had just had major surgery and still needed time to recover. Thankfully - everything worked out in that sense - and I was transferred just an hour or two after Sam made his trek across town (Andy had left to follow the transport team and to be with Sam the whole time) - while my parents stayed with me, and transported me to the main campus to my room. (Thank God for awesome parents!).

Once we got to the main campus - we were so lucky and blessed with awesome nurses / doctors and Sam even got his own room (which allowed up to at least 4 people to visit and a couch for Andy to sleep on at night).  We were also blessed with constant improvement in Sam's health - it seemed to improve almost as quickly as it had deteriorated, with each update on his bill of health - it seemed to just be good news. He was off the CPAP by Saturday night, and then his oxygen assistance was lowered a little each day and by Monday (I think) he was off the oxygen assistance entirely!

It was awesome to know that the nurses in the area I was in (I actually was in the over-flow "anti-partum" area) were so flexible and understanding with adjusting to my needs and schedule (as I was constantly making the trek across the hospital to the Children's NICU to be with Sam).

By Tuesday (which was going to be my last day in the hospital for sure) - we were told that Sam was going to come home too (wahoo!).

We were both finally discharged around 5:00 that evening and made it home about 5:45 for Sam's first time home.

Our friends, Meghan and Erik graciously brought us dinner that night so we wouldn't have to worry about what we were going to do for supper.

We again, cannot thank everyone enough for the support and prayers offered up during the pregnancy, labor/delivery, and stay in the hospital post-partum.