As you can see from the picture, he was born Friday, December 17 at 11:28 am. He weighed in at 6lb 13 oz, and was 20 in long. We could not be more in love with this baby!! :)
I woke up Thursday, December 16 geared up for a day FULL of cleaning and preparation (see previous post). Shortly after posting, I went upstairs to strip down our bed to wash all bedding and curtains to rid the room of any dog hair or allergens JUST in case Chandler decided to make his appearance. He will be staying in our room until I go back to work so I wanted it to be very clean. I started to head down the stairs with the quilt under one arm and the sheets under the other .... I got nearly to the bottom and my foot got caught on the bottom of the quilt ... I fell down the stairs. I panicked. I called Stephen hysterical. All I could do was worry about Chandler. I was quite certain I may have broken my right arm but all I could think about was him. I called my OB's office and they ordered me to go to L&D immediately for monitoring. Stephen left work and from what he told me ... he went 95 mph all the way home. We arrived at the hospital almost 30 minutes after it happened and on went the monitors. I was told I needed to stay at least 4 hours for monitoring to make sure Chandler was okay. I had lab draws to make sure there wasn't internal bleeding and to make sure I was okay. 4 hours passed, no changes as far as labor progression and Chandler was just fine. I was discharged with strict instructions to stay off of my feet and to not worry about all of the cleaning. I was also told not to carry anything up and down the stairs. We went about our day and had dinner at my parent's house with my Grandma and Grandpa Johnston (dad's parents). We came home after dinner and made it an early night. I was surprised that we went to bed so early but Stephen had a pretty worrisome day and had to work the next. His plan was to wake up extra early to tackle the mess that awaited him at work. Little did we know, Chandler had plans of his own.
((((THE NEXT PART OF THE POST MIGHT BE A LITTLE MUCH FOR SOME PEOPLE ... I'M GOING TO TALK ABOUT CHANDLER'S BIRTH STORY - THOSE WITH WEAK STOMACHS OR NOT WANTING TO HEAR ABOUT BIRTH .... LOOK FOR PICS LATER! :) ))))
9:45 pm: I was asleep, a good restful sleep. I woke up feeling like I needed to go to the bathroom ... 'oh no, I feel like I wet my pants!!!' I jumped up, walked to the bathroom ... I got to the end of the bed ... 'Oh my gosh, am I really peeing my pants?!?!' .... I rush to the bathroom ... 'Oh my gosh, STEPHEN!!!!!! My water broke!!!!!!!' I was immediately hit with millions of emotions .... I was scared, shaking, excited, panicked, worried, happy.... seriously every emotion AT ONCE!! I rushed around looking for my phone ... called my mom 'Mom, we're going to the hospital...' She said 'yep!' It's like she knew. I didn't even have to say what for... 'We're having a baby!!'
We rushed around gathering the last minute items that didn't get pre-packed. We gathered up the dogs and put them in their beds. I sent out texts and we hit the road. We arrived at the hospital, checked in and I was taken back to my room. The room I would spend the next 17 hours in, the room I would meet my son for the first time in .... 2137.
I was told that although my water broke, I hadn't progressed any... I was given IV fluids and told to just wait it out. At that point, I wasn't having contractions ... or so I thought. My mom and dad came to sit with us for a few hours ... my mom stayed until probably 9ish the next morning and then went home to nap.
Friday December 17th
6:45 am: I got my epidural - AMAZING!!! :)
8:30 am: Started the pitocin. I wasn't feeling much of anything.
10 am: I was dilated to about a 4/5 and Chandler had definitely dropped quite a bit!
10:52 am: I called my mom and told them to get the hospital. I was dilated to a 9 1/2 and was 100% effaced. She could feel his head!! :)
11:10 am: I was complete (10 cm) and the dr was paged. I was told to push with my first contraction ... so I did. And wow, the next 5 minutes drug on and on and on. I had to wait for Dr Micus to come in to push any more. TORTURE!!
11:15 am: Dr Micus walks in and gets suited up. She talks to me and tells me the game plan .... and so I push with each contraction. The next 13 minutes flew by .... I don't remember much .. just lots of breathing and pushing .. haha.
11:28 am: Chandler was born ... he had a nuchal cord (umbilical cord around his neck) x3 ... yes, it was wrapped 3 times. The dr noted that it was an insanely LONG umbilical cord .... and that had it been any shorter, there would have been complications. BUT there weren't any and he was absolutely perfect. I didn't get to hold him for a while, mainly because of the repairs ... and can I just say 'OUCH!' ?! haha.
I spent the next few hours just chilling out in my room and soaking in the reality that we just had a baby. I couldn't wrap my mind around the little human in my arms was actually the same baby that I was worried about just a day before. I have never ever in my life experienced love at first sight until then .... he was perfect ... and all mine. :) I got moved to a room on the postpartum unit and was finally able to eat. It was the best meal I've ever had. ;) Stephen and I spent the next few hours together with Chandler. It was an amazing experience. :)
We got discharged on Sunday morning. Chandler had some temperature issues so we had to stay overnight again on Saturday for monitoring. He's fine now, but it was extremely frustrating at the time.
I'm sure I left out quite a bit, but the important thing is that he's here and a complete angel! :) Thanks for all of the thoughts and prayers over the past 9 months. We really appreciate it. I can't wait to share all of our new experiences and all of the super adorable things that Chandler does. Pics to come later!! :)
Love,
Brittany, Stephen, and Chandler!
