Well, as you can tell, it's been a while since I've updated my blog. A lot has happened since the last time I wrote, so I figured I'd take the time to fill everyone in while I have a second...and those are few and far between these days!
We'll start 9 weeks ago...I went to work on Thursday morning, and it was a relatively normal day, except I noticed that my feet were swelling more than normal. By lunch time my shoes were overflowing...not pretty or comfortable...when I got back from my lunch break I decided to take my shoes off to give my feet some room to breathe, and I left them off for the rest of the day. By 5 o'clock, I started to feel light headed and nauseous. When we finally got to leave at 5:45, my shoes would no longer fit. I had to walk to the car barefoot, and I had a difficult drive home. When I got home I called the doctor and waited on a call back...but that call never came. I went to bed that night and woke up the next day...still no call...so I got up and got ready for work, and on my way decided to call the doctor back. Needless to say, they were pretty angry that I hadn't received a call back, and I was assured someone would call me back within 20 minutes. A few minutes after arriving at work I received a phone call, and was ordered to immediately come in. When I got to the office, my blood pressure was elevated and my feet looked like they belonged to a 500 pound man. The doctor took a look at everything and informed me that I would not be returning to work...WOW...I didn't know what to think. My mind was racing. Part of me was glad because the stress was becoming overwhelming, but the other part of me was terrified over the logistics of the situation. Would we be able to afford it? How was Ray going to react? How was work going to react? All of these thoughts no doubt had the opposite effect of the intention of the doctors orders...I was now stressed beyond belief and my blood pressure was no doubt higher than before. The uncertainty of the situation was disconcerting, but in the back of my mind I knew God was in control...and boy was he. He has taken such great care of us. He has been our provider and our comforter, and kept both Spencer and I in good health through the end of the pregnancy. Ray handled it way better than I thought he would. He was super supportive and let me know that his only concern was my health and that of Spencer. He's amazing...I'm so blessed...
Six weeks later, we were at my due date...and no Spencer in sight. At this point, I'm willing to do ANYTHING to get him out of me! Once we hit the due date, we began daily walks and similar tactics to try and move things along...and nothing happened. Monday, 3 days after my due date, I had a doctors appointment. The doctor checked my cervix, and I wasn't dilated in the slightest...my cervix was doing NOTHING. I was bummed, but there was light at the end of the tunnel...they went ahead and scheduled my induction for Friday...so regardless, I'd have a baby by the weekend...YESSSS!!!!
On Tuesday, Ray and I went to my parents new house to help them paint. The day went by uneventfully, and Ray and I made plans to spend the next day together as or last day before the kiddo was to arrive...but we would never get the chance. We crawled in bed at around 11, and I noticed an unusual sensation in my lower abdomen...these unusual sensations were coming about every 10 minutes...not wanting to alarm anyone, I decided to just ignore it and try to sleep. I woke up at about 5 in the morning on Wednesday to some more intense sensations that I was now sure were labor contractions. At this point they were about 8 minutes apart, so I decided to let Ray in on the excitement. I woke him up and told him that Spencer wasn't going to wait until Friday...and he was ecstatic! We continued to time the contractions, but they never got closer together. Eventually we both fell asleep again, and woke up a few hours later to even more intense contractions, but they still weren't closer together. We continued to time them throughout the day, waiting on the coveted 5 minute lag, but it never came. We decided to go to my parents house and walk on the golf course in an attempt to move things along. After 4 hours of walking, the contractions were about 7 minutes apart, and I was in the worst pain of my life. But since they weren't 5 minutes apart yet, and not wanting to seem like a wimp, we didn't go to the hospital. We went home and continued to time and wait. Around midnight, I decided to call the doctor on call and get her opinion. She told me that since I was scheduled to be induced on Friday anyways, to come on in and they'd get me comfortable and go ahead with the induction in the morning (it would be Thursday morning). So we packed it up and headed to the hospital! We were so excited that we'd soon have a baby in our arms!
We got to the hospital and were admitted at 1 o'clock. They put the monitors on me and began to monitor my contractions and Spencer's heartbeat during the contractions...and that brought some alarming information...his heart rate was plummeting during contractions. They immediately put me on oxygen and moved me into a labor and delivery room and called in the doctor. She came in and saw the monitor readings and decided to check me, break my water, and attach a monitor to his head in order to more accurately see what was going on. That was the most painful thing I have ever gone through. WOW. I'll spare you the awful details, but all of that is done by hand...OUCH. Anyways, when she broke my water, they saw that there was meconium in the amniotic fluid...again, not good. She attached the monitor and said she'd give it five minutes, and if his condition didn't improve, we'd be looking at an emergency c-section. WHAT??? I couldn't believe those words just came out of her mouth...I was in shock. I told Ray to call our parents and let them know. About 3 minutes later she gave the word...we were going to have a c-section. His heartrate wasn't improving. I was scared, upset, devastated, and heartbroken. My parents weren't there, and I was told that we couldn't wait for them to get there...we had to go now. So I put on my strong face and smiled at Ray, and tried to concentrate on the fact that we'd have a baby in our arms sooner than we expected.
The rest of the morning seems like a blur. I was prepped for surgery, Ray came in, our son came out, he was BEAUTIFUL. They sewed me up and moved me to recovery. I remember seeing my parents there, and Ray came in and told me how perfect our son is, then they gave me a shot of morphine before moving me into my room, and I don't remember much after that, except holding my sweet boy for the first time...he really was perfect...so handsome...I was head over heels in love IMMEDIATELY.
As many of you know, as we were getting ready to leave on Sunday, some really scary things took place. Because I've already hogged the computer writing this much, and Ray is itching to check his Facebook, I'll have to tell that story later. Just know that now everything is fine and my little man is absolutely healed. God has been so good to us even through the trials that Satan has tried to throw at us. By trusting in Him, we've come out on the other side stronger than we ever knew we could be. To God be all the Glory...He is AWESOME!
More to come later...
