It all started around 12:30am on Wednesday, February 16th. I was sleeping of course, when I woke up to what I hoped WAS NOT my water breaking. So, I got up to check everything out. My intuition knew that it was my water that broke and that I hadn't peed in my sleep. Even with this knowledge I climbed back into bed and started praying it WASN'T my water that broke. After about 5 minutes I decided to wake up Nate. (I was not having any contractions at this time either.) Of course Nate didn't believe me until I showed him the evidence. (I will leave the details out.)
* Side note: I am approx. 34 wks and 5 days. My hospital bag is not packed either.
I called the on-call doctor and started to pack for the hospital. While all this going on, Kaitlyn wakes up and comes into our bedroom. We tell her that Mommy and Daddy are going to work and we will be back later. (Another thing to note is that my mom had just arrived back that previous afternoon after a week long trip to Texas.)
* Conversation between Nana and Kaitlyn after we leave for the Hospital:
"Kaitlyn, let's go back to sleep now."
"Nana, that's silly... Why would we go back to bed after Mommy and Daddy left for work?"
Kaitlyn never went back to bed until she fell asleep after she came to the hospital to meet her little brother.
My contractions started about 1:30am on our way to the hospital. They were approx. 3 minutes apart and very bearable at this point. We arrived at the hospital and got ready for the delivery. They hooked me all up and started to explain how the delivery would go. Since I was only 34 weeks and considered pre-term I was to deliver in the operating room instead of a labor and delivery room. (Ridgeview has a NICU and a 24 hour Nurse Practitioner from Children's, so they wanted to be close to the special NICU room in case of an emergency.)
Nate's mom and sister Mandi arrived around 4am to witness our little one's arrival. By this time, my contractions were getting more intense. I asked for some pain meds to help ease the pain, but refused to ask for an epidural. (I delivered Kaitlyn without one, I could do it again.)
At this point I am now unaware of the time and ,y contractions are getting stronger and the pain meds are wearing off. The nurses decide to wheel me into the OR room to prepare for our little one's arrival. I won't go into details, but I was told by the nurses that I wasn't allowed to push until the Doctor came. For those who have gone through labor... this is nearly impossible to do when the baby is crowning and pretty much ready to enter the world. FINALLY! After what seemed like forever, (I was told after by the nurses, that they were about deliver the baby.) the on-call doctor arrived. I pushed through 3 contractions and our beautiful Son was born. (Yes, we waited to find out what we were having.)
Here we are in the OR room waiting for the Doctor. The nurse at this point is telling me not to push.
Gavin Patrick McNeilly was born at 5:05am. He weighted 6 lbs. 12 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long.
After Gavin was born they took him to a separate room to give him some oxygen. Nate was able to cut his umbilical and I was able to hold him for a few seconds before they took him away to get checked out. He just needed a little extra help because his lungs weren't fully developed.
Getting to hold my boy after getting cleaned up!
Since he was pre-mature they had to take him directly to the NICU. I did get to see him for a few minutes before they took him away. Daddy got to go with him, while I was wheeled back to a labor and delivery room.
A few hours later after another move to a post-partum room, I got to go and visit my little boy. He was hooked up to Oxygen (to help his lungs develop more), several monitors, and an IV. At first it was hard to see all the tubes and wires, but that effect wore off after a few days. Another thing to get used to is all the monitors and peeping and what it means.
My mom had not told Kaitlyn that she had a little brother. My mom wanted to have us tell her. So, my mom and Kaitlyn arrived at the hospital that morning and we told her she had a little brother. Her response was: "I wanted a sister!". Of course once we took her to see Gavin, she forgot about wanting a sister and was happy with her brother.
Since Gavin had to go to the NICU we had to improvise with this picture.
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