Baby Story

I feel very blessed and lucky to have my sweet little boy. I don't want to forget how lucky we were, so here is the story of why he came earlier than we expected. Heck, I wasn't even due with him until this Saturday, June 6th, yet he will be 2 1/2 weeks old on that date.

I have had problems over the past couple weeks of my pregnancy with low amniotic fluid. And if I understand it correctly, the low amniotic fluid itself is not a problem, but it can cause the baby to become so squished that if he were to roll onto his umbilical cord all or most of the nutrients would be cut off causing brain damage or even death pretty quickly.

I knew for a while that I had some extra tests scheduled for Wednesday, May 20th (an NST, ultrasound, and then seeing the doc). Sean was going to watch the girls while I went, but then as the day approached both Sean and I felt that it was important for him to be there. He is great about asking the extra questions, where I tend to become completely brain-dead (I just call it prego-brain) and just go with whatever the doctors and nurses say. Luckily, I have the sweetest sisters and mother who were willing to jump in and help watch Taylee and Bryns so that Sean could go to the tests with me.

The NST went great. Paxton was moving, his heartrate was all over the chart (which is what the doctors wanted), and my contractions were tiny. Feeling pretty good about things, we then headed to the ultrasound appointment. This is where I started to get worried. The tech checked everything and when I asked her how the fluid was she simply answered, "Its low," and asked when I saw my doctor next. Since my appointment with my doctor was right next door and in about five minutes, she left immediately to take the results to him. With a red flag going off in my head, Sean and I headed to the doctor's office where we were told that my fluid had dropped even more and that we needed to move the c-section up. We were given the choice between that afternoon (luckily I had not eaten anything since 7am since you have to fast for 8 hours before a c-section) or after the weekend. The problem that we faced if we chose that afternoon was a 37-weeker who could have eating problems. The problem that we faced if we were to wait for a 38-weeker was having a stillbirth...um, yeah, can you guess what we picked? The one that any sane parent would pick, right?

With that choice made, we hopped back into our car to head back to Idaho Falls so I could pack some things for the hospital stay. We picked up the girls in Blackfoot so we could spend some time preparing them for the change in plans, and give my mom and sisters a break :-)

Paxton was born at 5:36pm after a horrible c-section in which I was sick the whole time:-). The nurses debated about putting him into NICU because he had such a raspy cry, but he pulled out of it and was able to stay in the normal nursery.

While I was in recovery, my doctor stopped in the nursery to check on Paxton and told Sean that we had made the right choice by doing the c-section sooner than later. Apparently there had been much less fluid than even the ultrasound had picked up. He compared it to a can of coke, where a normal pregnancy will have a 2-liter.

I am very grateful that we have been watched over, that everything worked out the way it needed to in order for us to get our son here healthy. Thanks again to my mom and sisters who dropped their own plans to help us out. You were the guardian angels that we needed so that we could make the right decision. You are all amazing examples to me and I hope that I can repay the favor someday!

Paxton hanging out on my bed at the hospital. I let the nursery take him for most of the first night since I couldn't stand up yet, but that 2nd night he was able to stay with me:-) He is such a sweet baby!

Taylee and Brynlee opening their presents from Paxton at the hospital.

Brynlee holding her baby brother

Taylee giving Paxton a kiss