Joseph Ellis Hawk - 7/20/2014 - 6 lbs. 15 oz. - 20 inches long
I cried putting RF to bed last Saturday night (a blubbering, ugly cry)…I wonder if I instinctively knew that that would be the last time I would put my little guy to bed before his little brother arrived?
Earlier Saturday I had begun to feel some cramping that slowly morphed into more contraction-like pain. I called the on-call doctor about 8:00pm and after describing my symptoms was encouraged to take a warm bath, lay down and see if things pass. If not, come on in to the hospital to be checked out. The warm bath helped a bit, but by midnight things were getting much more intense. I didn't really get any sleep from that point forward. By 4:00am it was obvious that I was in severe pain. RA and I decided to head on to the hospital and left the house about 30 minutes later. Luckily, Mrs. Margie and Mr. Joe are in town and were able to keep RF for us. The car ride to the hospital was quite painful. I really thought I was going to loose it as we crossed over the railroad tracks on Dauphin Street - O.U.C.H. At this point the contractions were coming every 3-5 minutes, but were staying pretty stable in terms of intensity - intense. Arriving at the hospital we were the only folks in the ER area so we were able to get upstairs to L/D really quickly.
I got all hooked up and a nurse checked me out about 5:45am and told me that was not in labor - no dilation and no effacement, but that I was having very real contractions. A few tests led to finding out that an had a urinary tract infection, which more than likely caused the contractions to begin and was dehydrated, which made the contractions a bit worse. They wanted to monitor me for a bit and let the on-call OBGYN from my practice check me out when he made rounds later in the morning. Things were getting more intense (painful...very, very painful) so my nurse encouraged me to drink a ton of water. But the extra hydration wasn't helping with the pain...at all. Each contraction made me want to scream at the top of my lungs and say very bad words (but I managed to keep it PG). I was really beginning to think that there was no way that I could manage much longer. I wanted them to make it stop...now. My nurse checked me again about 9:00 and I was still not dilated at all. When the dr. from my practice made his rounds he wanted to check me again since things were still crazy painful (seriously...there are no words to describe it). He checked me at 11am and shocked us all when he said that I was 7cm! SEVEN centimeters...from nothing to seven centimeters in less than two hours with no pain medicine. OUCH. Big, big OUCH. The dr. told us that we were having a baby…today. Unbelievable, truly - unbelievable. I just remember that I kept saying, "What is happening?" "How did this happen so fast?" RA started notifying everyone that things were happening…quickly.
The first thing on the priority list - epidural...now...please, please, please. I was terrified that I would miss the window for getting the epidural, but luckily the anesthesiologist on call was super quick and was able to get to me within 15 minutes.
Thank goodness because now I was freaking out - this baby was going to be a month early…a premature baby.
Would he be healthy? Would he be able to come home from the hospital with us?
So many questions swirling around in my head that I was still having trouble believing that I was in full labor at 35 weeks and 6 days.
The anesthesiologist was able to get the epidural in and I began to feel much better (i.e. he made the pain go away).
Getting ready to have a baby and looking a little rough…it had been a long morning.
By this point it was about noon. The on-call dr. paged my dr. and she was sweet enough to come in and deliver our little one. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our OBGYN. Once my dr. arrived and checked me it was about an hour or so before we were ready to start pushing. Seriously, everything was happening at lightening speed. I started pushing at 12:50 and at 1:05pm we set our eyes upon our new little one and heard his first cries. They immediately put him on my chest and I looked into his eyes knowing that he was here safely. He was whisked away to be checked out, but we were told his APGAR scores were 9 and 10, even at a month early. We are so thankful that he is healthy.
Here he is!
First photo of our family of four…
Monday morning JE was checked out by our pediatrician who made it clear that he hasn't seen a healthier month-early baby in a while. Have I mentioned how thankful we are that he was healthy? We spent the day Monday bonding and resting.
Sweet boy...
Both nights in the hospital were pretty uneventful. RF came back Monday night with Mr. Joe and Mrs. Margie and did really well with Ellis. He would say, "Hi, Baby Ellis" and even gave him a few kisses.
Brothers.
Tuesday morning we were given another clean bill of health for both JE and myself. We were discharged just before noon and strapped our new addition into the car to head home.
A daddy and his son...
Papa Tad saved the day and was able to get us a coming home outfit for JEH...
Take me home, mama and daddy.
RF was waiting for us when we got home and was excited to see his brother. He knelt down next to JE's carrier and said, "Hi, Baby Ellis." I am so thankful that RF is taking to JE well - let's hope it continues.
Settled in at home...
It was close to RF's nap time when we got home on Tuesday and after saying our hellos I took RF upstairs to put him down for his nap. Two days of mommy not being at home with him had me ready to spend some 1 on 1 time with my first-born. He was just perfect - we talked for a few minutes and then he drifted off to sleep - happy as can be. RA and I napped with JE while RF napped and then we spent the afternoon getting a few things done around the house since we were a bit unprepared for JE's early arrival - mainly setting up JE's sleeping arrangement in our bedroom and the pack and play/diaper station downstairs.
RF opening his "I'm a Big Brother" present from JE - a new puzzle.
While we were completely surprised byJE's early arrival, we are settling into our new normal as a family of four quite well. Our days and nights consist of an endless cycle of feeding, changing and sneaking in a few minutes of sleep in between chasing around RF - lots of fun happening in the Hawk house right now! :-)
