"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!" Psalm 127:3-5a

Monday 17 February 2014

Finally Meeting LilBit and Bringing Him Home (Long Overdue Post: Part 1)

The last time I posted was FOUR WEEKS before our LilBit was born! Now he is 15 weeks old. This is nuts. I've been meaning to post every month since his birth but as it is with having a baby-- things tend to get in the way and I either forget or push it off. So instead of doing four separate posts this will just be a long overview of how our lives have changed. Hopefully I will be able to do at least a post per month from here on out.

Meeting our Son
 

These pictures were right before we left to go to the hospital to have our baby boy on Tuesday, November 5th. We had already spent the weekend before (the last weekend in October) in the hospital. We had an ultrasound and appointment on Friday, October 25th and my blood pressure was slightly high. My fluids had been low for two weeks and the doctors kept telling us that we should be prepared to have him at any time. So when they sent us over to the hospital that Friday we thought that was it. Both of our families came into town to spend the weekend with us. The doctors had me hooked up to monitors and they were checking my blood sugar and pressure every few hours. They said they were basically looking for a reason to go ahead and induce me. However, Sunday came along and LilBit was passing all the tests with flying colors which we were happy he was healthy and safe but disappointed that we weren't going to meet him yet. I had another appointment and ultrasound that following Friday, November 1st and he was still looking to be okay so they went ahead and scheduled for me to be induced Tuesday, November 5th and 7pm (well that's when we needed to get to the hospital anyways). I was being induced at 39 weeks because of my gestational diabetes. So Tuesday came and our parents made plans to be there with us. David's parents got there right before we went to to hospital and met as at Chick-fil-a where we had our final meal before going to the hospital. That was my final meal until LilBit was born! (Fun fact: Chick-fil-a was also our first meal as a married couple!) The manager at the CFA found out that we were headed to the hospital to have the baby right after we ate and decided to give all our meals to us for free as well as a little CFA cow! Such a blessing! We were quite grateful.
So after eating we went to the hospital! Once I was checked in and everything and got settled in to my room, they gave me a pill which started the inducing process. They kept me hooked up to a monitor to keep an eye on LilBit's heartbeat and my contractions and then I was also hooked up to a sugar water IV to control my blood sugar levels since I couldn't eat. We knew it would probably be the next day before LilBit came so we tried to just get as much sleep as we could. The hours passed on Wednesday and we were surprised (or at least I was surprised-- David knew) with lots of visitors to keep us company as we waited to meet our little man. Taylor Rhodes, Lisa Jones, Elise Harbin, Neely Nelson, Elizabeth DeVault and David Cook were all there as well as David's parents and my parents and brother Bryson. I was starting to feel contractions more regularly but they were not too painful yet. Around 4pm my contractions were finally getting past a level 4 or 5 on the pain scale and they wanted to break my water so they advised I get my epidural before that because it could cause things to escalate quickly. So I got my epidural and felt wonderful-- it's a miracle drug haha. After that, we just had to wait! They checked me a few hours later to see how I was dilating and there had been a little progress but not much. So they gave me something to help move things along. Next time they checked (around  I had made progress but still had a little ways to go. Somewhere right after 9pm they gave me this huge peanut thing to put between my knees that would help the progress along. About 45 minutes later I was fully dilated, he was down far enough, and we were ready to go! That peanut really did it's job! So a little after 10pm I was all ready to start pushing! After only about 15 minutes and 3 sets of pushes our little one entered the world at 10:31pm!

WELCOME TO THE WORLD LITTLE ONE!
 

As soon as I saw him, I said, "He's so little!" The nurses didn't really agree with me but I was just expecting him to be so much bigger and chubbier. David just couldn't believe he was finally a Daddy. After we just reveled in the awe of this new precious little life we decided to pick a name. We had narrowed it down to really two names and we decided he looked like a David Michael Jr. This name had only been added to our list a week before he was born so we were glad we waited to name him! Our friends had a bet going (they didn't even know any of our names) and the majority voted that he would be a Jr. Crazy! (We didn't find this out until after haha). We decided that we would call him David Michael. He was perfect. Our families and friends were waiting outside the door and got to hear his first cry. David's dad even got a recording of it! So amazing! After we named him and he was cleaned up a little, we called in our families to meet him and learn what we would call our LilBit. There were smiles and tears and cheers. Then we let our friends in to meet him too. After that, we had David and I had some alone time with our little boy. Next we moved to another room and he was weighed and David got to change his first diaper. He weighed 8 lbs 9 oz and was 20.75 in long. Our nurse ended up being someone we knew through a mutual friend! How cool is that?

THE NICU
 

  

Somewhere between 3 and 4 am the nurse came in to check his blood sugar (my gestational diabetes can effect that). It ended up being really low and so they had to take him from our room. The nurse came back about 30 mins later and told us they had to take him to get it regulated. We ended up falling back asleep from exhaustion and when we were awoken by a nurse in the morning we were told David Michael was taken to the NICU and put on an IV with sugar water. They had to prick his little heel every few hours to take blood to check his blood sugar. He was being fed formula and breast milk (whatever I could get out by pumping). He was eating really well but it took awhile for his blood sugars to regulate. By Friday, November 8th, I was released from the hospital but David Michael wasn't able to come home with us. It was so hard to leave him but we knew God would protect him and we were comforted by the fact that it wasn't a life threatening situation. We took the opportunity to get sleep while we could. By the next day he was off the IV when David went to visit him that morning before work. (Side note: David was able to take a whole week of paid vacation from work to stay home with us but worked Saturday because we knew he wouldn't be able to come home yet). We would have been able to take him home late Saturday or early Sunday because his blood sugars were regulated but he ended up having to be tested for bacteria that they found on his body to make sure it wasn't in his blood stream. Because of that, we had to wait until Monday to take him home. However, Sunday night DM was moved to the NICU 2 where we got to spend the night with him in a private room and basically take care of him ourselves with a nurse on standby if we needed her. I'm so thankful for that night, it was the perfect transition.

Coming Home and the First Week


 Monday night after dinner we finally got to dress up our little boy in his "handsome like Daddy" outfit and bring him home. We were overjoyed. And by that time my milk had fully come in so I was able to breastfeed him-- no more formula! and thankfully he adjusted very well. That first week was definitely the hardest. Even with David home from work those first few days I felt like I never slept. He was always hungry and I was worried he wasn't getting enough but by his one week check-up his weight was fine so we were thankful. People warned me that I had never been so tired in my life but they didn't know my sleep schedule in college. Haha. The only difference was in college most of the time I didn't sleep it was my choice whereas this time I had to. That's what made it harder. But every time I got frustrated when he cried or mad that I wasn't able to sleep I would look down at that crying baby and all I could think about was how cute he was and how I couldn't believe he was mine. Though I have to admit, I did have a breakdown once where I just sobbed while trying to rock him and David woke up and took him from me so I could calm down and try to get a little sleep. But despite the tears and exhaustion, I was overflowing with love for my sweet David Michael-- and for his Daddy, my partner and helper in parenthood.