A Whirlwind Week

I was supposed to go to the hospital on Thursday, February 11 and get the induction process started. That night a couple of hours before we were supposed to go in we got a phone call from the hospital telling us not to come in because the crazy record-breaking snowstorm was hitting Dallas and they were postponing me until Monday morning.

No luck going in to labor on my own over the weekend- so we came in Monday morning the 15th as scheduled. I was in labor by 8:30am and it was the slowest process in the world. They broke my water that day around 1pm. I was progressing but it was so slow. Soon enough we watched the clock strike midnight and it was the 16th. Mom and Dad have been in town and the were expecting us to call them to tell them to come to the hospital to meet their new grandbaby that night sometime- but no luck! They came in Tuesday morning and ended up staying at the hospital all day before they were finally able to meet him!

I was able to start pushing around 10 or 10:30am on the Tuesday morning and pushed for about 2 and a half hours. The baby wasn't facing the right direction which made everything very slow. The doc had the forceps out to help and everything - but the kid just wasn't going to make all the way out - sooo off we go to the O.R. for a c-section. By this time I was shaking - partly due to post-labor hormones and partly cause I was terrified. I really didn't think I'd end up needing a c-section - especially after 30 hours of labor!

So Justin arrived around 1:15 on Tuesday afternoon. He wasn't crying which was kind of scary - they had to tube him to get his breathing going and then they were able to take it out pretty quickly. But he still wasn't the lively baby that everyone was expecting because his numbers had been really good during the whole labor process. So we basically go to say hello to him and they took him away to the NICU.

I was in recovery until around 5pm and then they led us up to the NICU so I could say hello on the way to our room. I was able to hold him for a few minutes- and then Dave and I went to our room to get settled. I was pretty out of it - as you can imagine and Dave was exhausted after catching cat-naps in a chair the night before during all of this.

We thought Justin would be able to join us in our room by Wednesday afternoon, but his blood sugar levels have been down and they thought he might have an infection. I was finally able to go spend some time with him at 4:30am on Wednesday. Before that I couldn't really move! The very nice nurse on duty that night wheeled me down there and I just sat and held him for a few hours before I had to go back to my room.

Unfortunately Justin has still had issues keeping his sugar levels where they need to be- so he's still in the NICU. They decided today that they want to keep him until Tuesday so that he's had a full week of antibiotics before his release. His cultures have not come back positive for an infection but some he has some other symptoms that would indicate infection (which can happen when mama's water has been broken for that long before he finally arrives). His sugar levels are okay right now- but until he can maintain them on his own they are supplementing with an IV.

So - he's here and has made quite an entrance! He's doing well - probably the healthiest baby in the NICU - he just has to remain there until he's off his IV. It really has been a whirlwind of a week and we're looking forward to getting him home next week! We'll post some new pics soon!