Friday, January 13th, at 10:02 pm Baby Alex joined our family! 

This was a great answer to prayer! After thinking more about the situation I described on Thursday, I was nervous about doing an Amniocentesis.  The hospital never called on Thursday to schedule it for Friday, and I was starting to think how nice it would be if the baby came that weekend, and we wouldn’t have to do the procedure (let alone induce).  Since I’d been having contractions on and off more regularly since Wednesday night, I didn’t think that was too crazy of a thought. I asked several people to start praying for that—and did their prayers ever work!

Thursday night I was up for a few hours with contractions strong enough keep me awake (but not strong enough to keep me from reading).  Friday morning, Will and I went for a walk in the rain (it was still in the 50s). That, vacuuming the house, and various other cleaning tasks helped move the contractions to a point at 10:00, where I realized I probably should start timing them. Then the Doctor’s office called to set up the appointment for the Amnio.  I feel sorry for the poor receptionist, who probably didn’t really want me to start explaining why I didn’t want to do it.  She said she’d have the Doctor call me back (he was on-call at the hospital). He called me back in a few minutes, and we talked. When I mentioned I thought the contractions had been coming about 10 minutes apart, pretty regularly, he said I could come in and he’d check me. So I told him I’d be in at lunch time (I had emailed James earlier and told him to come home for lunch and not plan on going back in!).  I went in, was checked, and the Doctor told me I could go home, take care of any loose ends we had, and head over to the hospital. I asked him how far along I was, and he said 5 cm.
I went home, and we called Grandma to ask her to come down and get Will. We told her we’d meet them at the hospital. It still took over an hour to get stuff together and get over there.  As we walked down the hallway towards our Labor & Delivery Room, Will kept calling “Baby Alex!  Baby Alex!” I got the impression he thought we were there to pick him up, like we get things at the store! (Don’t I wish!)  We got settled quickly, and while James and Will took a walk, I was checked and still at 5 cm. They were going to break my water, but discovered the Staph B test I had the week before was positive. (This means I had a bacteria that is common in most people & harmless to adults, but can be bad for the baby. So they had to give me a dose of antibiotics to make sure I didn’t pass it on during the birth. They needed 2 hours for the antibiotics to get into my system, so they had to wait to break my water for two more hours.)  Will did well watching some cartoons on PBS, as well as getting to have a cookie in the waiting room. Then Grandpa and Grandma came, and after we talked awhile, they decided to take him back up to their house (instead of waiting at our house for the baby to be born, visiting, and then going up, since it looked like it was going to take awhile).  Will was very excited to ride in the van with them, and had no problems leaving.

Once the medicine had been in my system, they broke my water. There it was discovered there was meconium in the water.  This (combined with Alex’s early delivery—remember he was due Jan. 31st) made some interesting complications in his delivery. The Dr. told us after I pushed his head out, they’d ask me to stop, so they could suction out his mouth and nose. They would not stimulate him, so he wouldn’t cry (they didn’t want him swallowing the fluid). Then they’d have him go to the infant area where there would be “lots of people” to check on him. I appreciated being warned!  At that point, I was at 5-6 cm, and rather disappointed at how much I’d slowed down.  We went ahead and got the epidural.  After that, James and I watched the news, talked a bit, and then he decided to call family members and update them, while I took a nap (this is around 8).  I dozed, and woke up just before he came back, at 8:30. The epidural had been set to “lessen up” at about 8, so I could monitor contractions better, and the Doctor said they could adjust the medicine to meet my needs. When I woke up, I was feeling the contractions again, and my back was hurting.  When James came in, I asked him if he could have a nurse come in. When she came in, I thought to mention, “Oh, yea, I was actually feeling like I needed to go to the bathroom, or push or something.” (Remember, I just woke up, and hadn’t had much sleep the night before!)  She did a check, and told me I was at 9 cm. I woke up and said “YES!” Then I turned to James and said, “We just told everyone I was at 6!”  At that point, the activity picked up a great deal. The Doctor was called (who needed to change and seemed to take forever), and they started setting up for the baby to come. Around 9 I got to start pushing.  Baby’s head appeared at around 10, and he got suctioned out, just as warned. Then, the rest of him came at 10:02, and he was whisked away to be cleaned and checked. That part seemed to take forever!  The nurse kept commenting on his big cheeks, and the rolls of fat on his arms, and his long fingers.  I was getting annoyed that I couldn’t see him—but was hearing that his lungs were fine, he was letting out some nice, loud cries.  It was announced that he was 8 lbs, 11 oz and everyone was amazed that Alex was that big, so early. He also was 21 ¾ inches long.  Finally they were done with him, and I got to hold him. My first thought was how different he looked then Will (which I expected).  The longer he’s around though, the more he looks like his older brother! 

Because of his size, they tested Alex’s blood sugar throughout the next day, and everything looks good.  The Pediatrician who saw him on Monday felt he looked fine, like a full term baby—no one is quite sure how we ended up with such a difference between due date & size.  Right now he sleeps a great deal, and is eating well.  He does enjoy to cluster eat at night right now, and prefers to sleep being held, instead of the bassinet (but that is pretty normal for a newborn, isn’t it?).  Everything is going well for me as well. Liver levels were half of what they were when I went in by Sunday, and Monday they were even lower.  My skin still itches a bit, but it is going down. Aside from being tired and sore, I am feeling very good.  

Thank you all for your prayers! Will seems to be adjusting well to Baby Alex.  If you go to the Gallery (newly added by the proud Dad), you can see pictures my dad took from their visit with Will on Saturday, and then when they brought Will home on Monday.  The hospital provides a “Birthday Cake” to celebrate the birth of your baby with friends and family.  We spent time in the family lounge celebrating that. Will seemed to enjoy meeting Alex, and even offered to share Rusty (his FAVORITE dog) with him—but he quickly took Rusty back.  There are also pictures of us at home, with Will holding Alex.  We have never seen the look on his face that we saw then! And yet, it’s the look you tend to see on all “big kids holding the new baby”.  (We found that funny.) 

Thank you again for your prayers!  Keep them up as we adjust in the next few weeks!