Friday, November 12, 2010

A Baby Story

The past 2 weeks have been very different from any other time in my life. Having a baby really does change your world. 2 weeks ago I was sitting in a L&D room waiting for Luke to come. Here is our baby story....
On Thursday the 28th Andrew and I went to my doctor because we were past our due date and Luke was making no attempt to show up. We really wanted to wait and let my body go in to labor, but after sonogram my doctor encouraged us to be induced on Friday morning at 5 am. Andrew and I were a little uneasy about this because I had wanted to do everything natural, but the doctor said that this would be in the best interest of the baby because I was loosing fluid. So Friday morning at 5 am and Andrew and I arrive at the hospital in hope of having a normal induction and labor process, boy were we wrong. When we got there the nurse got me checked in and took my vitals. My blood pressure was really high, so she said I needed to calm down and she would check it in a few. Well when she checked it again it was even higher (at one point during the day it was 168/116), which apparently is really bad, so she called my doctor. My doctor came up to the hospital and said that I would have to be on an IV drip of Magnesium Sulfate for my BP, but the bad part is that the mag. made me really sick with flu like symptoms. And the even worse part was that I had to be on it for 24 hours after I had Luke. So the entire time that I was attempting to have a baby and while I was trying to enjoy my new baby I had the chills, a headache, body aches, etc. lets just say it was AWFUL. Andrew was great about it all. I had him turn down the room temp to 60 degrees because I was burning up, and Andrew and all the nurses were freezing, but they never even told me!
Now back to labor, so here I am being induced which means pitocin is making me have contractions, and I am on mag. which is relaxes muscles so that I don't have a seizure because of high blood pressure. I came into the hospital wanting to do a natural labor (no pain meds.) but because of my BP issues they wouldn't even let me sit up in bed, go to the bathroom(which using a bed pan is an awful, but hilarious situation), or walk around, making it impossible to bear the pain of a contraction when you can't even move, so hesitantly I decided to get an epidural. My doctor also was encouraging an epidural because every time I had a contraction my BP would rise. Anyways the epidural saved me. I could finally sleep, and I didn't have to worry about going to the restroom. So I am thinking I am home free all I have to do is wait to push. Nope. All of a sudden Luke's heart rate starts dropping after every contraction I have, which concerns the nurses, and they were telling me if that didn't stop that they would be doing an emergency c-section. Well after moving my body, putting me on oxygen and a few prayers, Luke's heart rate got better, so we could continue to wait. Finally it was time to 'push' which lasted about an hour and Luke was born with the cord around his neck (the reason his heart rate was dropping). He was a little purple, but he turned red quickly. After a 14 hour crazy labor a beautiful baby was born and I love him more and more each day.

I now have this face to look at every day!

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Luke Walling Harmon

Luke Walling Harmon finally arrived on Oct. 29th at 8:47 pm. He was 7 lbs. 3 oz. and 20 1/2 inches long. I know everyone really says their baby is the cutest in the world, but we really think ours is the cutest baby in the world!

Welcome to the world Luke Walling Harmon: