Meagan's Visiting!

Eric's sister Meagan, arrived in Iowa on Thursday night. She moved out to Portland in August of 2003. So it had almost been 2 years since we have seen her. We are very happy to have her here. Chase was just a little over 1 when she left, but we have her picture in his room, and he talks to her on the phone a lot. So he was very excited to see her, and have someone to play with him. We are going to go and check out Union Park today. They are suppose to have a really huge rocket slide and a working carousel. It will be a nice little outing.

Anthony slept from 11pm until 5am today. It felt so good to get 6 hours of sleep!!! I was hoping he would sleep that long, since he was up from 4:30pm until 11pm last night. The boy didn't go to sleep once and wanted to keep eating! No wonder I was so exhausted.

Eric had his overnight stay at the sleep clinic last night. The technician said they received good readings from all the wires they had hooked up to him all night. The doctor will evaluate the tests, and then we will find out what can be done for his snoring and sleep apnea. I will be so happy when this gets corrected. I read an article that said, the spouse of a person with sleep apnea, loses an average of an hour a sleep a night. I would definitely agree with that. Then put being pregnant on top of that, no wonder I was falling asleep at work! Well, I hear Tony boy crying. He must want some more eats.

Brothers

Anthony 2 weeks

Anthony's Birth

We arrived at Iowa Methodist at 7:30am on Thursday, July 7th. The nurses immediately took us to our room and started the prep work. The baby's heartbeat was monitored, and I got my IV. It turns out I was having contractions, but I didn't even feel them! However, since I was a week over already, and the doctor thought the baby might be bigger, we proceeded with the c-section.

We went into surgery at 9:15am. Eric had to wait outside until I had the spinal block and was laying down and the doctor was ready to operate. I thought we were starting and Eric wasn't in the room yet. So I said, "Can my husband come in now?" It turns out they weren't quite ready yet, and they hadn't forgotten. I was told that Dr. Osborn is very quick and normally gets done in 20 minutes. Well, I threw a wrench into that. I had a lot of scar tissue from my last c-section. I guess I did too much, too early last time. So it took him longer to cut through the 7 layers. Then it turns out, which I didn't know until later, I lost 4 pints of blood. It was all over the floor. Eric happened to looked down and they were throwing towels everywhere. The staff did a good job of not freaking out, since I had no idea. I was told I was bleeding and would need an additonal medicine to help stop the bleeding. Once the doctor was ready to get the baby out, he did confirm it was indeed a large baby and it was going to take some effort to get it out. They had to push down and tug and pull. The doctor then announced it was a boy. I was really excited.

However, I did not hear Anthony crying yet. That is when I heard the doctor say there was merconium on him and in my amniotic fluid. He had a bowel movement prior to being born. The nurses said he had fluid in his lungs and they were working on him. Finally, after what seemed like forever, a very raspy noise came out of Anthony. At that point they called the NICU, and asked for a doctor to come down and they put Anthony on oxygen. Eric kept going back and forth between me and the baby.

By the time the NICU doctor arrived Anthony was crying full boar. I was still getting sewed up, and had not seen him yet. They said they wanted to monitor him, but Eric would stay with him. Right when I was getting wheeled out of surgery the nurse lifted him up so I could at least see him for the first time. He was wailing, which was the best sound I could have asked for at that point. My first thought was, he looks just like Chase did when he was born.

I was taken back to my room and post-op procedures were done. I was feeling so out of it. The medicine they gave me to stop the bleeding really did a number on me. I remember talking to people, yet it all seems foggy. The worst part was not knowing what was happening with Anthony. Finally at 11:15, and hour and a half later they wheeled him in. The doctor came in and said, that his lungs were clear, he had 100% oxygen in his blood and all was well. The good news was answer to prayer! I finally got to meet "watermelon." We had called the baby that for several months, thanks to Chase, and it was weird to put a name and face on him.

Once Chase found out he had a brother, he asked if we could name him Emily. For the next three days Chase would say, "I love her." I guess he rally wanted a sister!

Tomorrow Turned Into 2 Weeks!

I'm sorry I have not posted since we have been home. I had forgotten how much time nursing a newborn takes! I feel like I am glued in my chair! Sleep has been hit and miss and along with recovering, I just haven't felt like getting on the computer. However, today I have a bit more energy. Anthony has been sleeping 3 to 4 hours on average during the night. I get up to nurse him and then we both end up falling asleep in the chair. I miss my bed! I will back track and write about the birth of Anthony.

We Are Home

We arrived home from the hospital today around 1:30pm. It feels good to be home. I will write more tomorrow, I just wanted to let everyone know that Anthony's picture is on the website. www.ihsdesmoines.org and then click on web nursery up at the top right hand. He was born at Iowa Methodist on July 7th. I will post more pictures tomorrow as well.

The Time Has Come

I haven't had any labor pains and the baby has not dropped. It looks like we will be have a c-section tomorrow. We received the call from Methodist Medical Center. I am scheduled for surgery at 9:30am tomorrow morning, July 7th. We have to be there at 7:30am to start the prep work. I have to say, I feel a lot better going in this time around. At least I know what to expect. My mom should be arriving around 11pm tonight. She will stay with Chase and they will come over later in the morning. We've sat Chase down and told him I will be in the hospital for the next couple of days. We told him he gets to meet his new brother or sister tomorrow. He is very excited about that. He really wants to hold and rock the baby. He is also happy that his Nana will be here too. It is hard to believe that the time has finally come, and tomorrow morning we will have a new baby! I will post pictures when I get home.

Quiet Weekend

We decided to lay low this weekend. On Saturday, Chase and I went over to the beach at Gray's Lake. We had fun swimming and playing in the water. Then we came home and took a 2 hour nap. It felt so good. We rented Coach Carter, which was a really good movie. Sunday we went to church and then Chase and I played outside on his pirate ship. We decided to head over to Newton and go to the Drive-In. "War of the Worlds" was showing. Eric really enjoyed it, I didn't like it as much. Chase had fun playing in the back of the truck. He had his sleeping bag and pillow and munched on popcorn. He had his first experience of peeing outside, and he did really well. I didn't want to take him into the port-o-john, since it is so gross and he isn't tall enough to stand and pee without a stool. So I had him stand next to it. We were next to a corn field and it was dark, so I didn't see the harm. I made sure no one was looking. He really got a kick out of it. Five minutes later he was asking to go again!

I did some domestic things as well. I got the cleaning and laundry done. I made chocolate chip cookies and banana bread. I also cooked all weekend, which is odd, because normally we eat out. We had a quiet 4th of July. Chase and I did some finger painting and read books. We went to see fireworks Friday night, since we didn't want to be out until 11pm last night. Eric gets up at 4am, and needs his rest. We watched, "The Aviator" yesterday afternoon. I had no idea what an eccentric Howard Hughes was. I am glad we waited until it came out on DVD, it was 2 1/2 hours. I am going to the bathroom just about every hour these days. I will be glad when I can hold it longer than 3 hours again! I hope everyone had a safe and fun 4th. I will blog one more time tomorrow before we head to the hospital Thursday.

Due Date

Well, I was hoping something might happen today. It would have been neat to actually go on my due date. However, only 20% or less of women ever have their baby on their due date. I was excited because I had some false labor on Thursday night and this afternoon I had a dull back ache come on. All my co-workers were getting excited telling me this could be it. Well, I left work went home and the pain stopped. I guess I will do some more walking!