This Is A Long One, Folks...

I know, I know...you're all waiting with baited breath to find out where the heck we've been and what we've been up to lately.


Three words.



Owen Andrew David
8lbs 1oz
20.5 cm
dark borwn hair and big dark green eyes (that are dark blue right now...we'll see how they turn out at the end of the week!)


That's right! Our little boy made his arrival on June 16th at 6:52pm. Here's how it happened...


At around 5:45am, I felt a gush. I mean the gush. I waited for a moment, not rally believing that it had happened, and then the contractions started coming fast and furious at 5...3...1 minute intervals.


Okay C, time to get out of bed!!! C grabbed a very quick shower, I got dressed and we said goodbye to the furbabies and hopped in the car. By the time we got there, it was about 6:30, and I was in a fair amount of pain. Knowing that I was already 4cm dilated...there was no way I was leaving that hospital without a baby.


The lovely night nurses got me into triage immediately, and quickly found that things were progressing very quickly. Time to call the doctor and get things sorted out for the day.


Unfortunately, there weren't any of birthing suites available when we got there, so we spent our day in a labour room, which suited our purposes fine in my opinion.


By about 8am, I was begging for an epidural. Please dear God, someone make this pain go away!! They ordered the epi, and by 10am I was able to get some rest. Our dr. checked on us frequently, C watched almost the entire season 3 of LOST and I slept alot, which in hindsight was the best idea I had all day (next to getting the epi in the first place!).


Dilation seemed to slow and at noon, I had halted at 5-6cm. The nurses were considering my options...push oxytocin? Let things happen as they should? Call the doctor for alternatives? What would mommy like to do? Sleep...please let me sleep!


They did, and when our doctor came in to check on me at around 2pm, I was 9cm! HOLY CROW! He said that he would be back at around 3:30pm and would check to see if there was further progress. Well....10cm is as much progress as you can get! He had to go back to the office to see some patients, but left instructions to have me start pushing at around 4pm. Well...4pm came and the nurses thought that I could use more sleep and since I was already fully dilated, what would another hour and a half of sleep matter? I LOVED my nurses!


5:30pm came, and they had me try a couple of practice pushes. They wanted to coach me through it since...well....I was totally numb from the epi and couldn't feel a darn thing! They wanted me to feel the pressure, so they turned the epi down (NO!!!!) and had me do a few pushes. Well...Owen started to crown almost immediately and I heard Nurse Cathy say "how much notice does the doctor need??" in the hallway. "Oh, can you call him please?" Apparently, 6pm signaled go time!


By 6:20, our doctor had arrived at the hospital and I had pushed so much that there really wasn't a whole lot left to do. About 5 or 6 good pushes and Owen was here!


Now comes the scary part...


Originally, I asked for him to be placed on me and dried off on my tummy so I could say hello. I was a little confused when they whisked him out of the room, but with everything going on I didn't really ask what was up. I still had to be stitched and whatnot, so I figured that they were doing their 15-point baby inspection in another room


Am I ever glad that C went with the nurses right away. Apparently, poor little Owen was having trouble breathing and his heart rate dropped to the low 60's. He had to be resuscitated and stimulated...and after 3-5 very very long scary minutes, he let out a great big cry. The Peid's team was called, and they inspected his every inch, then brought him to see me.


This was our first meeting...






So tired, and so happy!


I think C fell in love pretty much immediately as well!





After he was born, he had to be checked before every feeding for his glucose levels. Because of all of the stress that he was under, he scored pretty low on the Agspar scale, so the Peid's team was keeping a very close eye on him. We needed 3 checks over 3 all in a row, and by the wee hours on Friday morning we had our third check over 3...it was a 4.7! Way to go, Owen!


We came home on Friday at around 1:30pm after his hearing had been checked, and had a really up and down first night at home. Breastfeeding was not going well, the nurses were concerned when we left that I wasn't producing enough (he latches hard and wants to feed for a very long time...and I can't do it. It's painful, and is a topic for a whole other post!) so we were supplementing with formula, but he wouldn't sleep the first night! Little bits here and there, and eventually, he slept in bed on me and I was able to get a little bit of rest here and there.


Last night was an amazing night. He wasn't liking the bassinet, AT ALL, so we figured that we'd try a swaddling blanket (which is too big right now), rocking, sitting, standing...anything to get a few hours of sleep. However...I remembered a tip from my cousin S...the car seat.


HE LOVES IT! He loves being in it and tightly confined. He loves being able to kick his little feet out a whole bunch. He loves being rocked in it when he's a tad bit fussy. C brought him to bed at about 12:30 after a mini-feed, which I finished at 1am...and Owen slept until 4! Not just Owen, but C and I slept too!! He fed again for 10-15 minutes at 4am, then slept straight through to 7:20! Again...C and I slept, though I brought Owen into bed for a little Father's Day morning snuggle. We all slept until about 9:30 this morning!


We're getting the hang of it, and definitely celebrating those little successes that happen throughout the day. C is an amazing Daddy, and it fills me with so much love and pride to see him with Owen.


Though I probably won't blog as often, I will still blog and let you know what we're up to, what challenges we face and how our lives are going. I feel like they've only now begun, and I get to see them through the most beautiful eyes I've ever know.


The eyes of a mom.