My Big Promotion...

This post title may seem a bit odd to those of you that know I don't work outside of the home.  But I couldn't think of a better way to word having another child.  I actually told Daddy Dearest that I had gotten a promotion too after He told me that one of my Sisters-In-Law had gotten a big promotion (deservedly so, she is great at what she does and works hard at it for sure).  So...now that the title is explained I can introduce you to our sweet boy and tell you about his arrival that was 3 weeks early.   

When I began choosing pictures to put on this post I kept thinking that it felt like yesterday that we were getting ready for Santa to come on Christmas Eve.  We had spent the day at Grandy and Papa's house and came back to back cookies for Santa.  Bunny had such a great time decorating them.  She was great at it!  Here are a few pictures of Bunny, DD and I decorating the cookies.  Her favorite thing to do was pour the sprinkles on the cookies. 

The next morning we woke up to see that "Ha-Ho" (as Bunny called Him) had been to visit us.  He brought gifts for everyone and then took them to all the other families all over the world and came back to visit US on His way back to the North Pole.  Santa thought Bunny had been SUCH a good girl that He wanted to see her when she woke up Christmas morning.  So...He got her out of the bed Christmas morning for me.  Here they are snuggling before opening gifts.  Bunny LOVED the hair that was coming out of His beard.

Bunny was so good this year!  She was so good that Santa brought her toys, clothes and beautiful table to use for tea parties and coloring!  We had a great morning experiencing Bunny's second Christmas!  Although I do have to say that she wasn't too excited about some of the gifts.  She wanted to play with some of the plastic that the gifts were packaged in.  I really thought she would REALLY be into it.  Oh well, maybe next year!  We were all so lazy all day.  We didn't even get out of our pajamas all day!  Here we are playing that morning...

Bunny was so good this year she even got SNOW! Well, her and all the other people that got snow too!  It was the first time it had snowed on Christmas here in over 50 years.  FUN!  It was SO neat to have snow on Christmas day.  Although, I do have to say I would have loved enough to play in.  Here are a few pictures of the snow we received... 

Bunny's Grandy and Papa came to see what Bunny had gotten from Santa right before the snow began.  As it began snow Grandy started telling us that the snow coming down reminded her of the day she went into labor with Daddy Dearest.  I just smiled and listened and repeated my mantra of the day which was "I will not go into labor today".  And every time I said it I thought how silly I was being because I still had 3 weeks until my due date.  But it was about this time that I had a few contractions.  But I wasn't worried at all because this had happened several times.  The contractions always stopped after a little while.  In the mean time I was going to eat the amazing meal that Daddy Dearest made for Bunny and I.  Those pesky contractions didn't subside though.  In fact they increased in intensity.  I would take a couple of bites of my AMAZING steak and then stop for a contraction.  It was just so good I couldn't stop myself!  All the while I am watching the clock and timing each contraction.  I started getting a little concerned around 8 o'clock that night but decided if I would just relax then they would probably go away.  We sat down with Bunny that night and watched Home Alone, a Christmas classic.  I watched the whole movie all the while timing contractions and even dosing off between some of them.  I put Bunny to bed that night having to stop every couple of minutes because the contractions had become more intense by this time.  I started getting concerned by this time that I should probably call our doctor.  I knew doctor G was on call because he had told me earlier that week that he "did not" want to see me on Christmas day.  I called him at around 10 o'clock that night and he advised me to keep timing the contractions for another hour.  By this time and for the hour that followed my contractions were between 3 and 5 minutes apart.  At 11 that night we had decided to head to the hospital to see if I was in fact in labor.  You might be thinking to yourself right now "was there any doubt you were in labor" but the whole time I just knew that I really wasn't in labor and that I wasn't having our sweet boy that night.  At 11:30 our sweet doctor's wife (our OB is a family friend) came to our house to stay with Bunny while we went to the hospital to get checked out and sent back home.  Again...I just KNEW that was how it was going to happen that night.  That is one reason Mrs. G came to our house instead of calling DD's parents to drive to our house for a second time that day. 

Of course how I THOUGHT things were going to go is NOT how they went.  I WAS in fact in labor and was going to have our sweet boy that night.  I was admitted and hooked up before I knew it and started to wait.  So...here I am after we were admitted at 12 o'clock the day after Christmas.

Little did I know at that time that as I packed some last minute things (I had already packed a little bit) I had forgotten my toothbrush.  I'm sure I probably thought I wouldn't need it because I was expecting to be sent back home.  I have to admit that I thought to myself that I prefer the induction route of delivery day.  You have a chance to take a shower that morning, you do your hair and makeup, etc.  I had in fact taken a shower that day but had chosen NOT to do anything with my hair other than pull it into a pony tail.  It makes for lovely pictures. 

After we were admitted Grandy and Papa drove BACK to our house for the second time in 24 hours to stay with Bunny. 

After getting the epidural at 6 cm I began waiting.  I had to get 2 bags of antibiotic before they would break my water.  In the mean time I got to watch 2 hours of The Three Stooges muted because DD had the remote and had fallen asleep.  That was NOT fun!  I tried to sleep but was unable to because of the shakes that I got from the epidural.  They weren't quite as bad as they were when I had Bunny but I had them none the less.  Finally at 7:45 ish that morning (and 8 cm) they broke my water and there was no turning back.  At 8 o'clock I was at 10 cm and ready to push.  That is when our room began buzzing with more activity.  They began preparing for delivery.  At 8:21 that morning, after 5 or 6 pushes our sweet baby boy was born!  He weighed 6 pounds, 3 oz. and was 20 inches long.  He just looked at me for the longest time when they gave him to me.  It was a magical moment to say the least! 

After the nurses checked our sweet boy out they said he was "breathing fast" but was great!  After wrapping him up and placing him in my arms she told us to call her IF HE STARTED CHANGING COLOR.  Yep...that is what she said.  That scared me to death.  The following few pictures were taken in the 3 minutes she was gone and DD and I watched him like a hawk wondering if he was "changing color" i.e. turning blue from lack of oxygen. 

The nurse walked back in after that 3 minutes were up and I asked her exactly what I was looking for in "color change".  She just took him and said she was going to take him to the nursery and check him out again and she would bring him to our room after I was moved.  Little did I know at this time it would be 3 days before we would hold him again. 

A couple of hours after being moved to my room the nurse came in (without our boy) and told us that He needed to stay in the "nursery" (found out later it was the NICU that He was in) because He needed oxygen.  She told us that we could come back there as soon as I was able to walk again.  She also said not to freak out when I saw him because he was under an Oxyhood.  Nothing could prepare me for what I saw and felt when we did finally get to see him. 

Here was our tiny sweet boy with tubes coming out/off of him from multiple places and this "astraunat helmet" over his head because he wasn't getting enough oxygen on his own.  The next few days a couple of different diagnosis were given.  But thankfully our persistant (not to mention AMAZING) Pediatrician, Dr. Y told us the next day that it was pneumonia.  I will never forget how it looked to see our sweet baby working so hard to breath. 

Our little boy didn't respond well to the oxyhood.  He should no improvement for the first couple of days.  Finally, after a few different pediatricians kept telling us that he would eventually begin responding to it OUR pediatrician decided to change him over to a nasal canula (sp?).  After being on this canula for 24 hours He began to SLOWLY respond to it.  They began trying to wean him off the 100 % oxygen that he was on.  It took a few days before they were able to completely remove this but as I wrote in the journal I keep for him, "it was one step closer to coming home".  Here he is after being on the nasal canula over night...

I had been sent home the night before (in tears as one could imagine) without our sweet boy.  That was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do.  My heart broke.  Our boy's SWEET Dr. Y took some pictures the next morning of Him (one of which is the picture above).  He seemed to be getting stronger.  It was music to our ears!  He had also gptten a tiny bit of milk that morning.  Dr. Y told us that we would get to hold our sweet boy again that day!  It had been three days since we had held him which may not sound like much but it is eternity when someone is telling you that you CAN'T.

Here we are holding him (and feeding him) after a long wait...

We couldn't get enough of this little guy!  We held him for as long as they would let us.  I was able to change his diaper and was EXTATIC about it!  I thanked God over and over for the wonderful nurses that we had!  They let us stay as long as we wanted and come and go as we needed.  I was so very thankful!  After a few more days tubes began to come off/out of him one by one.  With each one that they removed it got us again..."one step closer to going home".  Before we knew it He wasn't connected to the monitor that we kept such a CLOSE eye on.  I was certainly relieved but it scared me just the same.  For a week we had been able to KNOW what his heart rate/respitory rate/oxygen level was but now we didn't have a number to look at.  To me it was just one more way that God was telling us to have  faith in HIM and not on those machines.  We kept saying that this little guy was our "Little Engine That Could". 

We were told that HE would get a room and WE could "room in" with HIM the next day.  We were SO excited!  AND then I came down with a stomach virus over night.  I mean when it rains, it pours!  I had been so excited because we were going to spend New Years Eve with our sweet boy but I couldn't go see Him that day at all.  It turned out to be a good thing though.  He got to "tan" a bit to help fight off a bit of Jaundice.  I was well enough the following day to go back to the hospital and stay with our boy on New Year's Day. 

He received his last dose of antibiotic at 1 a.m. the next morning and was able to come home.  We couldn't WAIT to FINALLY get him home and introduce him to his big sister!!!!! 

Bunny had been staying with my sweet in-laws for the week.  Thank God above for their willingness to keep her!  We didn't have to worry at all about her.  Such peace of mind was priceless to us!  When Grandy and Papa brought Bunny home and she saw her brother she was so excited!  He was laying in his cradle.  She pulled the side of it down and just gasped in excitment and looked around at everyone.  It was such a precious moment.  One I will never forget.  For the rest of the night she would just go over and look at him.  This is one picture I got of her just "checking" on him...

We were so excited to see Bunny!  I couln't get enough of her!  I had missed her SOO much!  It looked like she had grown 6 inches in the five days we hadn't seen her. 

It took me a few days of having our little man home to relax a bit.  He settled right in and has been a great addition to our family!  We couldn't be more excited to introduce our sweet little man to all of you!  Here are just a few pictures of him here AT HOME!

So there you have it...the LONG (sorry about that) story of my big promotion.  He is keeping me busy but I couldn't be happier about it!  The only lasting affect that being sick and staying in the hospital has caused has been his preference for being held.  The boy LOVES to be held.  But if that is the only lasting affect then I will take it!!!  The only thing now is to decide on a blog name for this little guy.  I am open to suggesstions!