I had been having lots of contractions for weeks, some nights, it kept me awake for a few hours. At my appointment on Friday, I was dilated to a 5, so we knew this baby was coming soon!
April 10 at around 1-1:30am, I woke up having some sharp contractions. After a couple, we decided we better go because they were getting pretty sharp. We left our house about 2:30am, called Malece on the way to come over and my doctor on the way to the hospital (although I was questioning in between contractions if I was really in labor). We made it in, checked in and I was pretty calm in between contractions, but I couldn't stand on my own during. I told the nurses that I needed to be checked right away, but I went into the room and changed and they hadn't sent anyone in. Jeff called and said we needed a nurse right away. She came in and checked me and I was dilated to an 8, right after I had a contraction and really felt the urge to push. Finally, they took us seriously, and a bunch of people came running into the room to get ready for the baby. I asked for an epidural but kind of knew it would be too late. I always wanted to try going natural, but never had the guts, so part of me excited to experience it! By the next contraction, I couldn't not push, they had me set up but no one was telling me anything, so I asked, "What do I do? Can I push??" Up to that point, everyone had been frantically setting stuff up, but then they starting talking to me. I pushed and baby came out so fast (so fast that his face got really bruised). They took care of the afterbirth, but I kept on bleeding and ended up hemorhaging. They gave me an epidural and took me into the operating room and did a D&C, then put a balloon in my uterus. They had also given me some medicine to stop the bleeding that made me shiver horribly, then they gave me some other medicine to stop the shivering, so by the time I was done, I was SO out of it. I couldn't talk, couldn't hardly open my eyes, it was crazy and took me a few hours until I felt normal. Jeff and I were so exhausted from it all, we couldn't hardly process that we had the baby (and that he was a boy!) Jeff got me settled, then went home to sleep for a few hours. I was on an IV for 24 hours until they could test my blood levels and decide if I would need a transfusion, which luckily I didn't. By that afternoon, I was finally awake enough to really bond with our new cute little guy. He didn't have a name yet, but was sure a sweet little muffin!
The pediatrician was concerned about his face bruising because that can cause high bilirubin and since Ty had major issues with that, he started testing baby's bilirubin early. It came down fast and what a relief! Baby's blood sugar was high though and we realized it was because he wasn't getting much milk from me. We gave him some bottles, then they introduced me to the supplemental nursing--putting a tube from a bottle on my nipple so the baby could still practice sucking, but could actually get milk. That saved us and is the only reason nursing ended up being successful!
Rough and abrupt journey for this little guy!
Finally feeling human again! (Probably all 3 of us)
First picture with our family of 7!!!
All the kids were DYING to hold this new baby!
Our 5 children!!! (Austin, Kate, baby, Scott, Ty)
Scott with his new baby brother
Ty was NOT interested
Austin with new baby
These three were excited for another one to join the party!
Whitney and Joe came and visited us at the hospital
And now, the saddest thing, makes me sick...we had a bunch of pictures on our camera, which were loaded onto the computer (and deleted once they were)...then the computer crashed and we can't recover pictures. So imagine Jeff holding our baby for the first time right after delivery (sniff), baby on the scale weighing 7 lbs 9 oz, me holding baby for the first time (sniff), Grandma and Grandpa Lewis holding baby at the hospital for the first time, Grandma Packer visiting holding baby for the first time, Grandma and Grandpa Durtschi holding baby for the first time. We are trying to recover them, but it isn't looking likely.
We sure love this little sweet baby. RIGHT before we left, he finally got his name...Logan Daniel Lewis. We are 75% certain this is his name (4 months out). We feel so lucky to have him safe and sound in our family.
