I need to get better at this

Well once again, I waited way too long in between blog posts.  I am really going to attempt to be better to keep our wonderful relatives and friends updated on what's going on.  I will try to quickly sum up what has been going on, hopefully you have either talked to me or read my facebook updates but if not here you go!

My last update was week 33 of pregnancy, and the rest of my pregnancy went pretty well.  All of my ultrasounds and non stress tests were normal...until week 38 (May 13th).  I got off my night shift at work and went into my weekly OB appointment.  I went into the non stress test first, and we had one of our fastest times! I had the hang of it by that point and knew that I had to chug ice water to keep baby moving.  After that we went to the ultrasound.  Usually we breeze through it, but this time was a little different.  It was one of our "measuring weeks" where we got to see approximately how much he weighed.  The tech kept retaking the measurements over and over again to try to get a bigger weight, he was only measuring 6 lbs at the most. And most of his measurements were below that.  I knew he would be a small baby,  but that is pretty small for a 38 week baby.  The tech just said it was because he was too far down in my pelvis and she couldn't get a good measurement on his head.  I was a little relieved, I thought he must have dropped and he would be coming any day now!  Well I was partially correct.  When the OB came into check my cervix, I was still at 1 cm and he was not dropped down in my pelvis at all.  So the measurements were correct.  Dr Hedrick also said that she didn't like some of his placental measurements, and she was suspicious that his placenta was not functioning properly. Ok this was definitely panic time for me, but she said he is obviously doing ok since he passed his non stress test and the other parts of the ultrasound.  However, she also said that she didn't want to wait until May 20th which was our original induction date, she wanted to induce that day.  it was 1245 pm and she said, "Can you get to Bergan by 200 pm?"  Um yeah I guess!  Needless to say I was freaking out a little.  I thought I had another week to get ready!  We had a whole entire list of stuff we wanted to do before baby came, but oh well.  It was time!

I called Tim frantically and told him he needed to get home right away so we could go to the hospital.  We quickly threw what we thought we needed in bags and headed to Bergan.  I made it there exactly at 2!  They started the pitocin and I was nervous about starting labor  but excited to meet my baby boy finally.  Well after 7 hours of pitocin, I still hadn't started labor.  My cervix didn't dilate, and I only had one real contraction, the rest were braxton-hicks.  I was at the max amount of pitocin and the baby was doing ok, but his heart rate was starting to lose variability, which is one of the early signs that things just "aren't right".  Luckily I have a great doctor and it was her weekend on call (yay!) so she was there at the hospital with me.  She decided it would be best to do a c-section and get the baby out before we started having problems.  Again I was a little freaked out and I didn't really want a c-section, but I would also do anything for my baby so I said, "let's go!"

The proud parents right before surgery

Since I never went into labor I didn't have an epidural, so I got a spinal block.  It didn't work all the way, I could still feel around my belly button.  I didn't think that was a big deal until they started doing the delivery, it felt like someone grabbed my skin by my belly button with a hook and was pulling it across the room as hard as they could.  Ouch!  They ended up having to give me some fentanyl through my IV but it still hurt like nothing I've ever felt before.  I guess that was my trade off for not having contractions!  Anyway, Alex was born and he was a perfect baby.  He started crying right away which was music to our ears.  We both started crying hysterically we were so happy.  (Well I was already crying from pain but I was glad to turn it into a happy cry!) It was the happiest moment of my life!

Alexander Steven, 5 lbs 13 oz, 19.5 inches

Well after a quick clean up and a kiss from mom and dad, Alex was whisked away to the nursery to finish his exams and get a bath.  Tim followed Alex to the nursery while I hung out and the doctors sewed me up.  After I recovered I was taken up to our post-partum room.  On our way I got to stop by the nursery and see Alex.  Oh how I wanted to hold him!  But I had to wait another excruciating 2 hours because his blood sugar was low and it needed to be above a certain level before he could be released from the nursery.  Finally at 1:30 am I got to hold my baby!

Gimme!

The Webb family together at last!

Of course we thought he was perfect.  Things didn't go how we thought they would, but we ended up with a perfect, healthy baby which was all we could ask for.