A Christmas Surprise!

Well, things kind of got a little crazy for us during the holidays. We had a beautiful baby boy born on December 22, 2011 at 8:53am, seven weeks early.

Hunter Stephen John

4lbs 4oz, 17.5 inches long

So, on December 20th we started our treck to Utah. We left in the afternoon and drove to Pendleton, Oregon. I had been having some slight cramping and a back ache, which I attributed to the car ride and some dehydration. When we checked into our hotel, I just didn't feel quite right, so I called my hospital in Seattle and spoke to the nurse on call, just to ease my mind. I felt much better after talking with them and they told me that everything seemed normal and to just watch my Braxton Hicks contractions and if I had six or more in an hour, to call back. Well, even tho I didn't feel all that great, the most contractions I had were five in an hour, so I figured all was well. :) But that night I just couldn't sleep due to the pain and the horrible hotel room, so after about three hours of sleep, we were on the road again. Because I had more painful cramping and backache, I figured I still just didn't drink enough water, so I had Cody buy lots of water, and I would chug the bottle in hopes that the pain would get better. The whole drive was basically stopping to buy water and stopping to use the restroom, with one stop to eat some food. For the most part, I didn't complain, and Cody had no idea that I was in so much pain, until we were about an hour away from Logan, and I told him I just hurt. I was done with the car, and ready to be finished driving. I put the seat back, and just tried to handle the pain of which I still thought was due to dehydration and riding in the car, even as the pain was coming in waves. Silly me. Anyway, we pulled into Cody's parents house, said our hello's, brought our luggage in, and even ordered some chinese food. I was hoping that my pain would be getting better after being out of the car for awhile, but it just seemed to be getting worse, so my mother-in-law suggested timing the contractions, which I had an app for that. ;) When they were coming five minutes apart, we decided it might be a good idea to head to the hospital. We entered the labor and delivery at Logan Regional Hospital at around 8:30pm and I told them what was up, and they admitted me and hooked me up to monitors to follow my contractions and to keep an eye on the baby's heart rate. I was indeed having contractions, and they gave me a shot of terbutaline which relaxes the uterus and ran a Fetal Fibronectin test which basically tests for a certain protein and can usually tell if a person will deliver in the next two weeks. They say this test is 99% accurate. The shot did indeed stop the contractions, and the test came back negative, so it seemed we were in the clear for the next two weeks at least. They did say I was dilated to a one, but they weren't too worried and they gave me an Ambien and sent me home to try and relax. I fell right asleep, and after some crazy dreams and about 4 hours of sleep, I woke up in even worse pain. I tried taking a hot bath, then I tried using a heating pad on my back, and those didn't work, so I just sat in bed trying to just focus on anything but the waving pain when Cody suggested going back to hospital. At first I said no, thinking there wasn't much they could do other than keep giving me that shot, and all of a sudden, I just couldn't stand the pain any longer, so I agreed. So at 5:30am we went back to the hospital and I wasn't able to talk sensibly enough to explain that I had been in earlier, but they just let me through the doors and after walking through and having a very painful contraction, they rushed me to a room just as I threw up. They checked me again and I was dilated to a three and fully effaced. So they wheeled me to the delivery room and called the on call doctor. They gave me and IV and all sorts of other shots I don't even remember, and the doctor came in and they were going to do another test to see if my water had broken or not, and they went to do the test, the doctor said, "Umm...I see hair" meaning that my water had indeed broken and they said that I would be having a baby in the next 12 to 24 hours. I was in complete shock! I was only 33 weeks, our baby was not suppose to be here this early! Cody later told me that he was pretty calm until they said that, and he thought he was going to throw up. Instead he did a great job at trying to keep me calm. They ordered an ultrasound so they could see how big the baby was and decide if he would be able to stay at Logan Regional, or have to be transferred to Mckay-Dee in Ogden. They checked me again, and I was suddenly to a dilated to a seven and told me that I would be having this baby within 30 minutes. It was then that I decided I really, really, REALLY wanted my epidural. For the life of me, I have no idea why I didn't get one earlier, but I had finally had enough. By the time the dude got there to give me my epidural, I was already dilated to a nine, and the nurse kept telling me that I had already done the hard part, and it might not make much difference to get the epidural, but I was beyond any sort of logic, and I kept saying that I wanted the drugs. Thankfully, I didn't even feel the needle for the epidural, but I was very impatient for it to kick in, and as they were putting my legs in the stirrups, I kept telling them it still hurt. Finally, after two days of constant pain, I finally felt a small amount of relief. I could still feel the contractions, but I could also think logically. Unfortunately, the epidural didn't fully take affect fast enough to not feel the rest of the pain. Anyway, after three contractions and however many pushes (not that many) my baby was born at 8:53am, three and a half hours after getting to the hospital, and 14 hours after getting into Logan. I was still in complete shock! Unfortunately, they did give me the betamethasone shot to try and help with his lungs, but obviously didn't help because he decided to come too fast. He did have the cutest, tiniest little cry when he was born, but they did have to intubate him and gave him surfactant to help his lungs, and he was intubated until 7:00 that night. Thankfully, I was able to hold him that same day after they took his tube out.

I have many more things to write about, but it will have to wait for another post. I will try and keep things updated more frequently. For some more pictures right now, click here to read a different point of view from my sister-in-laws blog. :)