Where to begin...?

I have a lot to add, and I probably won't remember it all. It may take a few posts for me to get it all down...or at least as much as I can remember.

I'll start this post with how he arrived on Friday, May 6th instead of the following week when we originally thought.

My wife was doing fetal "kick" counts to check his movements day-to-day, she was to do them after every meal for 1/2 an hour. After she ate lunch she was doing her count and he only moved 5 times, that was lower than the normal 10 or 11. So, she called her doctor's office and they said to wait another hour and see how many more times he moved. She waited the hour and only felt 3 more movements. So, she called the doctor's office back and they said to get to the hospital and see the neonatel specialist that we had been seeing for about 5 or 6 weeks and he would do a biophysical profile.

Before I left work to meet her and her mother at the hospital, my lead said to make sure that I check in all of my work before I leave in case I wasn't coming back. My thoughts were, "She freaked out once or twice before, so I'll be back on Monday and go on leave either Tuesday or Wednesday." Boy was I wrong. (Thanks for the jinx Chad.)

They didn't get a very good strip when they did the fetal monitor, so they called her doctor and before we knew it she was in a room. One of the nurses had mentioned when we went to the waiting room that we may be having the baby on that day, but we were like, "Nah!" But, we were still a little concerned.

When she was in her room the nurse that was asking the usual hospital admittance questions was like, "It looks like Dr. Jones is out in the hall." Our mouths about dropped. We really didn't think until that point that he would be here on that day.

Dr. Jones had came in the room and asked how everybody was, then she looked to the nurse and said that she "...would like to do this at 5:30." I looked at the clock, it was 4:45! I was freaked out at this point, but I knew that my wife needed all the support that I could give her. So, I stayed as calm as I could and helped her get dressed before I had to put my own scrubs on. When they were asking Holly who was going to be in the room with her, she of course said me. But, she asked if her mother could tag along, and the nurse said that they would make an exception and allow her.

As the doctor had said, we were in the OR (Operating Room) at 5:30. They had to prep her, and get all of their equipment ready. Then, it was a waiting game for the anesthesioligist. We had to wait an extra 15 or so minutes for him in the OR. When he got in there he tried about 30-40 minutes to get a spinal in, but to no avail. He said that he could not find the spot to put it in. So, here is my wife, who has a very low pain tolerance, doing awesome while this guy is poking her lower back, and hitting her bone occasionally. I am very proud of how she was able to handle it. They had to give her a general anesthetic and put her out.

Her doctor wanted to avoid this because it can affect the babies, but there was no other choice. So, they had us step out of the room for about 15 minutes while they put her out and put a respirator in her. When she was out were allowed to step back in.

The procedure seemed to take moments. I saw when they pulled him out, he was covered in white. They suctioned some right away because he wasn't crying. He still didn't cry, so they rushed him over to a secondary bed where they cleaned up the babies. They did some more suctioning and rubbed his back to help get the fluid out, and I heard the most beautiful sound. My beautiful baby boy crying.

Both Debbie (Holly's mom) and myself started to cry.

(TO BE CONTINUED...)