The Day Colby Was Born

Our little boy, Colby James Brooks has arrived.  Let me break down the whole process from start to finish.  It happened so fast, I still can't believe he is here.  Bill and I are so happy.

Thursday (December 29, 2011)

• Induction scheduled begining at 7:30 am
• Mid-wife Belinda inserts Cervidil into my Cervix at 8:00 am -- I feel the worse pain in my life when this happens.  My cervix is posterior and the baby's head is resting right on it making it extremely difficult to insert the Cervidil.
• At 8:10 am Cervidil is inserted and my contractions are monitored for the next 2 hrs.  I feel little contractions but nothing major.
• At 10:30 am doctor's notice baby is not responding well to my small contractions.  His heart rate is very flat and not fluctuating like they want.  It is at the low end of the gray section on the monitor.  I get worried but they say we will keep watching it to see if he responds better.  He doesn't over the next hour or so.
• At 11:30, Doctor O'Brien comes in and tells me because the baby is not responding to well.  Therefore, vaginal labor will be to hard on him and the best option is a C-section.  I am scared, but realize it is necessary.. He tells us that another baby has the same problem and they are gonna be first.
• Dr, O'Brien tries to remove the cervidil from my cervix and fails.  I again experience so much pain from this procedure.  Mid-wife Belinda comes in with her magic hands and gets it out.  I begin to shake and this does not stop until Colby is born.
• At 12:20 pm I am prepped to go to the surgery room and Bill is given scrubs to wear.  I am wheeled off to get my epidural.  I am still shaking from the shock and can't control my muscles.  I am super scared.
• The Anesthesiologist shoots the needle in my back and within 2 minutes I can't feel my lower body.  It just feels very heavy.
• At 12:45 pm, a giant blue sheet is draped across my body and I can't see anything in front of me.  Bill doesn't look to see what is going on, but just sits next to me and holds my hand.
• At 1:00 pm, Dr. O'Brien tells me what is going to happen and lets me know I will feel some pressure and then he will be out.  I just wait for Colby to arrive.
• At 1:11 pm, I feel a slight tug and all this weight is lifted off my stomach.  Hallelujah.   I hear Colby cry and know he is out safe.  Colby gets brought to me for two seconds and I start to cry.  Then Colby gets whisked away.  I don't see him for 2 hours.
• Bill goes with the baby to get some pictures and check on his status.  He got the Apgar test and scored a 9 out of 10.  He lost one point because his fingernails were a little purple..
• Next Colby got his vitals taken.  He weighes 8lbs 9ounces and measures 20.5 inches.   BIG BABY!!!
• Jen the nurse asked Bill if they did a blood sample on the little guy.  None of the nurses realized he came from a diabetic mother and took his blood sample right after.  His blood sugar was around 20 and immediately thinks started to get scary.  Colby was put on an ivy and monitored for two hours.  His blood sugar started to slowly go up.  I still was not able to see him at this time.  Bill spent time with Colby in the nursery.  For the next two days, Colby has the ivy attached to him.
• At 4:00 pm, he was finally brought into my room and I was able to touch the little guy.  I wanted to start breastfeeding right away but it didn't go so smoothly.  He was pumped with so many fluids.
• I remained numb from my waist down until about 6:30 pm, but it slowly started to wear away.  Thankfully, I got some well needed pain medication.
• At 7:00 pm, I regained feeling in my feet and legs, but they were still swollen.  My legs remained swollen the entire time in the hospital.

The rest of the week remained a blur. Colby also had jaundice for the remainder of his hospital stay.  His bilirubin levels were too high at one point so he had to stay under lights until they went down.  We had many visitors, Great Grandma Rhoda, Grandma Marsha, Aunt Phyllis, Aunt Deborah, Uncle Jeffery and two of my co-workers Sue Thomas and Jessica Anders came to see the little guy.  Bill became very good at diaper changing and I struggled with feeding him.  Thankfully the nurses encouraged me to keep going with it.  On Monday, we were allowed to go home as a happy family of three.