Ayden is born

This time around was not exactly what I expected when I planned the birth. :-p I should have listened to the little voice in my head when I actually took the step of writing out a birth plan and giving it to my OB. The little voice was telling me that if I wrote anything down that I would jinx myself. . . . .

He was born both quickly and slowly. He dithered about deciding to be born and had to be coaxed into birth with three days of light labor, but, when he finally decided, he came all at once. This was my first time with a water birth and would do it again. TJ was great and thought it was really neat. However, he drew the line at getting in the water with me. I can’t imagine why not!?!

He had some trouble breathing on his own when he was born, so only held him for a minute before the Dr. was working with him to get him to breath well.
They decided to put him on a CPap machine, which is similar to ones used on adults for sleep apnea. It is a little more serious with babies because they don’t have breathing down yet, so if they forget, then they might not remember at all again. (part of the reason for SIDS)

We couldn’t hold him while he was on the Cpap machine, so that was kind of hard for both of us. I think it bothered TJ more than me. I just had confidence that he would be okay.

Part of that was because I have confidence in the priesthood. I had contacted some priesthood in my ward and also called my Dad to see if they could come and give Ayden a blessing. Grandpa came with Mom and he was able to give Ayden a blessing. Then, the elders from the ward came and gave me a blessing as well with Dad. I knew they would be there soon and I also knew Ayden would be fine once he got the blessing. Dad gave Ayden the blessing as soon as they got to the hospital, then they came in to visit with me for a while and wait for the elders from church. About an hour passed in conversation and right after everyone left, the nurse came in to let me know that right after Ayden got his blessing his O2 stats had come back up and were staying up on their own. She didn’t mention the blessing part, just how long he had been doing well, so I knew the timing. So, that was the first time I had been able to hold him, right after a priesthood blessing.

Then, right after that, they got the results back from his blood tests and discovered his elevated Hematocrit levels. It is like blood doping in athletes and can cause a stroke if it is too high. Apparently it was dangerously high because they put him on an IV right away.

Now, he is fine and you would never know he had some difficulty getting here. If you count the preterm labor, one would think we didn’t know what we were doing. . . .i guess more practice is needed.