A Baby Story

(Sorry for the late post - this is my 17th attempt (wait...now it's my 18th) at finishing this entry - I need to keep them short from now on - but wanted to tell the whole story:

Wow! Words cannot express how overjoyed I feel. Keaton is pure delicious. Eric and I just can't get enough of him. Although, I will be grateful for the day that he sleeps through the night, or at least longer than 2 hours at a time. I don't want to sound ungrateful because he is the best thing that's ever happened to us.

Here is how Baby Keaton made his arrival:

On Tuesday, June 30th, Eric and I went into the Dr.'s for our weekly appointment. I was almost 39 weeks pregnant. The Dr. informed us that I had preeclampsia...a condition in which your blood pressure rapidly rises (to dangerous levels), you have protein in your urine, swell up like a balloon, have headaches and other such things. The only real cure is to deliver the baby. So the Dr. told us at our appointment that he had scheduled our induction for that same night. Eric and I were shocked, excited, scared and nervous. We went home to pack some things, and then waited for 10:00pm to come. We had our last meal just the two of us at PF Changs...it was good.

Once we arrived at the hospital, we shared our "birth plan" with the nurse. We now laugh because none of OUR plans worked out - only the exact opposite. We picture the nurses at the nurses station just laughing their heads off while putting a big red X through our birth plan. We learned that the end result is the same and also that God laughs when we make plans.

The nurses and our Dr. were wonderful (an answer to prayer), and we put our trust in them and our faith in God. So, with that, I was hooked up to machines at all limbs. I was put on oxygen and a drug called magnesium, an anti-seizure medication - and as a friend puts it - "hell on earth." She was right. I felt like a human volcano and had all sorts of fun hallucinations. They started the induction at 2:00am and after pushing for 38 minutes by 4:05 pm on Wednesday, July 1st, Keaton made his great entrance into this world. His cord was wrapped tightly around his neck, so they did have to give him a bit of oxygen, but other than that was perfectly healthy.

I had to stay on magnesium for 24 hours after his birth. I couldn't get out of bed, as I was still hooked up, catheter and all. Keaton was brought to me for feedings and thankfully did very well. After 24 hours they moved me from "ICU" to the post-partum wing. Each day got a little better. Unfortunately the swelling got worse before it got better, but the good news with gaining tons of water weight quickly is that you loose tons of water weight quickly - 30 pounds in a week, quickly.

My blood pressure remained quite high, but we were finally released from the hospital on Saturday evening. That was a very long night. I have to thank my good friend, Brook Guikema, a labor and delivery nurse for those of you who don't know her, for coming to our rescue that night. She came over at about 12:00am and stayed to help me through a feeding and many questions. She was our angel.

Keaton is doing awesome - he is a very good eater. I just love every minute with him. We want to thank you all for your love, support and prayers. Thank you for your gifts, calls, emails, food, visits, etc. I apologize if there are people we haven't personally thanked or gotten in touch with. It has been a bit of a crazy ride. We are working on a routine, but each day gets much easier. We want you to know that we thank you very much.

I will continue to update this blog as I get a chance! Congrats to those new mama's (Kristi Knipp, Kelly Newton, and Tiff (soon to be a mama).

We love and thank you all very much.

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