The "Full Story"

Truth be told, this post is probably more for me than for anyone else....but it doesn't matter too much, because in blogging it, I will be sure to have it in one location while it is still somewhat fresh in my mind.

At around 10:30pm on Monday, August 30th, Nate and I were getting ready for bed. Nate has been doing some eye drops that need to be kept in the fridge, so I had put those in his eyes and walked out to the kitchen to put them away. As I opened the fridge, I had the smallest cramp/pain and fluid gushed.......I yelped and said something along the lines of "that's not normal!" Thank goodness we had our bags packed. Nate began throwing a few things in the bag that were "last minute items" and I made two calls 1.) to the doctor on call and 2.) to our friends Brad and Krista who were going to be watching Hans. The doctor told us to come to the hospital and Nate and I made arrangements to take Hans to Brad and Krista's. Literally within 20 minutes I was in ACTIVE labor. By the time we were pulling out of the driveway I told Nate we did not have time to take Hans to Stilgers - I told Nate to take him to our lovely neighbors/church friends. We had made no arrangements for this, but sometimes in a pinch, you do what you need to.

We were at the hospital by 11:25. We did not call family due to the fact that it was late and there wasn't anything we thought they would do that night. We decided that we would be lucky to have baby Miles here by dinner time on Monday, so we thought we would call them at around 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning and if anyone wanted to come, they would probably be in time.

When we got to the hospital, I was dilated to a three and in a lot of pain. The contractions were not very long, but very intense and close together. They asked me if I wanted an epidural, and I said yes, they said it would likely be half an hour to an hour anyway. They continued the check-in process, and when the nurse came back in she said that the anesthesiologist had to go in for an emergency c-section - she gave me some nubain for the pain, and it certainly helped. Around 2:30am she came in and began the process for the epidural. It wasn't bad at all. Nate had to leave the room and was gone for a little bit. They rotated me back up on the bed and I began to feel some relief. About 2:45 the doctor came in to check my progress (please note, Nate was not back in the room yet) and when he checked, the look on his face was not good. He looked up at me and said "has anyone told you this baby was breech?!" As a matter of fact, three doctors had missed this fact in the last 4 weeks of my pregnancy! He did a quick ultrasound to confirm and yes, he was breech. They were prepping the OR, Nate was getting dressed in his scrubs - and I was in the OR by 3:27. Miles was born at 3:47am. The whole process was amazing and I remember looking and seeing his shock of black hair, the sound of his crazy crying, and then not too much. I asked Nate if he was healthy and he assured me he was. At this point I told the doctor I was going to puke, and then I did.....I suppose the meds made me feel very sick. When they got us back to our room I couldn't even hold Miles - I was just shaking too bad, but I knew he was ok and so was I. They took him to the nursery and I got taken down to recovery. By the time I got him back around 8:00 or 9:00am it was much better.

The road to get to him was a long one, but it was worth every minute.

Writing this blog post, we are nearly two weeks out from him birthday. 2 weeks ago today I was sitting in this chair, completely unaware of what the evening would bring. The first week was both the most awesome and most awful of my whole life. Meeting the little guy was amazing, loving him more than life itself, doubly amazing....recovering from major surgery, hormone levels all over the place, and sleep deprivation - not so awesome.

The second week has pretty much just been awesome. Wow, I love this little boy more than life itself. This is the most amazing thing I have ever experienced. Watching my husband hold, care for, and cuddle our son has been nothing short of miraculous.

This is why I am here on this earth......and it feels amazing. I am enjoying every minute, even the tears, the dirty diapers, and the yelling. Although those moments are not as sweet as some others, I know this whole process is going to go so fast, and I don't want to miss a moment.