Today is Saturday, and we've had a very eventful couple of days!
Jordan Ryan Shoemaker was born on Friday, Sept. 22 at 9:41 AM and all are doing well... But I'm getting ahead of myself.
It all started very early Friday morning (2:30 AM to be exact) when Denise awoke thinking she was just having some gas pains. She quickly realized this was much more than that as the pains began happening at regular intervals. So we quickly drove to the hospital and by 3:30 we were being checked out (well actually Denise was, apparently they couldn't care less what was happening to me).
After an hour or so of monitoring the nurse agreed that Denise was in labor and so we were admitted, and Denise heard the most beautiful news of the day, the anesthesiologist was being contacted and they would get her epidural started. It truly is amazing how fast time goes by during a time like this. We couldn't believe that we had already been in the hospital for over two and a half hours. Something of the importance of this day began to sink in on us, and we understood that today was going to be our son's birthday!
What an exciting day. We had two nurses, a private room for Denise to labor in, and as you can see from the picture, a common goal.
In all actuality the day really became exciting for Denise after she got her epidural. I think she actually wanted to marry that doctor. I kept telling him that he had quite a job. His lot in life was to run around and just bring joy to thousands of women wherever he went. Of course, he told me, "it's just short lived."
So while we pressed on and Denise actually got to relax for the first time all night, the epidural didn't come without a price. Her contractions had slowed way down, and the doctor wanted to add Pitocin (sp?) to her IV to accelarate the birth.
No problems so far, but now we had a bit of scary news. While the Pitocin increased Denise's contractions, the fetal heart monitor showed that his hearbeat was slowing way down every time she had one. What a terrifying sight to watch the monitor as it dropped from 120 to 95 to 80 to 70 all the way down to 59 before climbing back up to 120 again once the contraction had passed. And of all the giveaways as to the seriousness of the situation was to watch our room of two nurses expand to five and then six of them. They were all very calm, but you could tell something was wrong by the speed with which they knew they were needed just by looking at the monitors at the central nursing station. After seeing this, I just cannot understand how people would still want to have at-home births. This horrible thing was happening right before our eyes and at least we knew that we had six specialists immediately in the room working to fix the problem.
Denise was quickly moved into several different positions in hopes that that could alleviate the problem (which we learned was most likely Jordan's umbilical cord being positioned in such a way that when a contraction happened it was squeezing the cord up against Jordan and thus having the blood flow diminish). Unfortunately none of this worked, and the doctor made the call that we should have an emergency C-section to avoid any further risks.
Denise was whisked away and I was left to wait outside the operating room as they prepped her. Eventually a nurse led me to the recovery room and had me put on paper scrubs, which I needed to wear before I would be allowed into the surgery. As I stood there waiting, I experienced what had to have been the longest 5 minutes of my life. It felt like I was waiting there for an hour. And when I was finally escorted by a nurse she told me that the doctors had already started the incision and Denise was "out." Apparently her epidural was wearing off and it was going to take too long for her to feel the effects of a second one, so while that was administered, they put her out with nitrous oxide so they could begin the operation.
Everything went great in surgery. The anesthesiologist calmly explained everything to me, the neonatologist introduced himself and explained to me that his primary functions were to make sure everything was fine with Jordan and to encourage us to raise him as a Cubs fan. It all went very well, but I just wish someone had told me how blue babies are when they come out. I had another bout of panic when I saw that! I even got to do the ceremonious cutting of the cord. That thing is quite squishy.
The little guy was born officially at 9:41 AM, weighed in at 7 lbs. 1 oz., and is 18 inches long. And above everything else, he has got a huge pair of lungs.
Denise did wake up while still being patched up, and she was able to see him while I held him. I was taken back to recovery with Jordan and Denise quickly joined us. She finally got to hold him while we rested for an hour.
Jordan and Denise are doing great. Our pediatrician told us he was perfect (my response was of course he is! Don't you know who his parents are?). But in all seriousness, that is incredible news to hear especially after the scare we had. Thanks all for your well wishes and words of encouragement. Here are some other pictures I've taken of our new addition. We can't wait to introduce him to the world, which we're being told should be on Monday when we get released.
Jordan Ryan Shoemaker was born on Friday, Sept. 22 at 9:41 AM and all are doing well... But I'm getting ahead of myself.
It all started very early Friday morning (2:30 AM to be exact) when Denise awoke thinking she was just having some gas pains. She quickly realized this was much more than that as the pains began happening at regular intervals. So we quickly drove to the hospital and by 3:30 we were being checked out (well actually Denise was, apparently they couldn't care less what was happening to me).
After an hour or so of monitoring the nurse agreed that Denise was in labor and so we were admitted, and Denise heard the most beautiful news of the day, the anesthesiologist was being contacted and they would get her epidural started. It truly is amazing how fast time goes by during a time like this. We couldn't believe that we had already been in the hospital for over two and a half hours. Something of the importance of this day began to sink in on us, and we understood that today was going to be our son's birthday!
What an exciting day. We had two nurses, a private room for Denise to labor in, and as you can see from the picture, a common goal.
In all actuality the day really became exciting for Denise after she got her epidural. I think she actually wanted to marry that doctor. I kept telling him that he had quite a job. His lot in life was to run around and just bring joy to thousands of women wherever he went. Of course, he told me, "it's just short lived."
So while we pressed on and Denise actually got to relax for the first time all night, the epidural didn't come without a price. Her contractions had slowed way down, and the doctor wanted to add Pitocin (sp?) to her IV to accelarate the birth.
No problems so far, but now we had a bit of scary news. While the Pitocin increased Denise's contractions, the fetal heart monitor showed that his hearbeat was slowing way down every time she had one. What a terrifying sight to watch the monitor as it dropped from 120 to 95 to 80 to 70 all the way down to 59 before climbing back up to 120 again once the contraction had passed. And of all the giveaways as to the seriousness of the situation was to watch our room of two nurses expand to five and then six of them. They were all very calm, but you could tell something was wrong by the speed with which they knew they were needed just by looking at the monitors at the central nursing station. After seeing this, I just cannot understand how people would still want to have at-home births. This horrible thing was happening right before our eyes and at least we knew that we had six specialists immediately in the room working to fix the problem.
Denise was quickly moved into several different positions in hopes that that could alleviate the problem (which we learned was most likely Jordan's umbilical cord being positioned in such a way that when a contraction happened it was squeezing the cord up against Jordan and thus having the blood flow diminish). Unfortunately none of this worked, and the doctor made the call that we should have an emergency C-section to avoid any further risks.
Denise was whisked away and I was left to wait outside the operating room as they prepped her. Eventually a nurse led me to the recovery room and had me put on paper scrubs, which I needed to wear before I would be allowed into the surgery. As I stood there waiting, I experienced what had to have been the longest 5 minutes of my life. It felt like I was waiting there for an hour. And when I was finally escorted by a nurse she told me that the doctors had already started the incision and Denise was "out." Apparently her epidural was wearing off and it was going to take too long for her to feel the effects of a second one, so while that was administered, they put her out with nitrous oxide so they could begin the operation.
Everything went great in surgery. The anesthesiologist calmly explained everything to me, the neonatologist introduced himself and explained to me that his primary functions were to make sure everything was fine with Jordan and to encourage us to raise him as a Cubs fan. It all went very well, but I just wish someone had told me how blue babies are when they come out. I had another bout of panic when I saw that! I even got to do the ceremonious cutting of the cord. That thing is quite squishy.
The little guy was born officially at 9:41 AM, weighed in at 7 lbs. 1 oz., and is 18 inches long. And above everything else, he has got a huge pair of lungs.
Denise did wake up while still being patched up, and she was able to see him while I held him. I was taken back to recovery with Jordan and Denise quickly joined us. She finally got to hold him while we rested for an hour.
Jordan and Denise are doing great. Our pediatrician told us he was perfect (my response was of course he is! Don't you know who his parents are?). But in all seriousness, that is incredible news to hear especially after the scare we had. Thanks all for your well wishes and words of encouragement. Here are some other pictures I've taken of our new addition. We can't wait to introduce him to the world, which we're being told should be on Monday when we get released.
posted by Ryan and Denise Shoemaker | 2:06 PM
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