The Baby story

We got to the Hospital (U of U) at 7am on Friday, December 26^th. We were scheduled for an induction due to the mystery pain I'd been having. I still wasn't dilated at all, so they gave me a cervix ripening pill and said they'd check on me in 4 hours. About 30 minutes later I started noticeably contracting on my own, which was rather unexpected, and by the time they checked on me I had dilated to 4 cm and was 80% effaced. This was, again, more than anyone had expected, so we decided to hold off on the inducement medicine and see what I could do on my own. The contractions continued with increasing intensity and sometime in the afternoon they broke my water. After about 12 hours of labor I was still only dilated 4 cm. By this time the contractions were pretty intense and I was getting tired, so I asked for my first shot of pain medication, which they gave through my IV. This took the edge off and I was able to go another couple of hours, during which they started the inducement medicine. That intensified the contractions even more and at around hour 14-ish I got an epidural. Blessed epidural! It allowed me to relax enough for the contractions to do something, and I dilated from 4 to 9 cm in about two hours. At this point, however, the baby was beginning to show a lot of distress. His heart rate wasn't reacting properly to the contractions and the doctors were pretty worried. They decided on an emergency c-section and once the decision was made he was out in about 30 minutes. Turns out my placenta had torn at some point and he wasn't getting the oxygen and nutrients he needed to endure the labor. His heart regulated once he was born though, and on that front he is just fine. His blood sugar was really low however, so they had to give him a bottle right away and start him on an IV. Matthew was able to briefly show me our son on their way to the nursery, but it wasn't until three hours later that I was able to hold and really look at my boy. What an amazing experience!

Because I had a c-section, we had to stay in the hospital at least 72 hours. We ended up in a double room, but had it all to ourselves. That meant Matthew was able to sleep on a real bed rather than a fold out cot and we had plenty of room to accommodate family and other visitors. I had lots of help learning how to nurse and some time to rest and recover before having to do the whole parent thing alone. Hyrum's blood sugar stayed up after the first day and that hasn't been a problem since, but then he was jaundice and had to spend a day under the lights. He was not a fan of that, but it too cleared up and we've had no other problems since. They discharged us on Wednesday around noon and now we are home and doing well.

I'm working on getting a slide show put together with more pictures, but here's a couple as a little preview. Thanks so much for the support and love you all have shown our little family. The Lord has blessed us tremendously and I am truly grateful.