He's all better...

I feel bad I haven't taken many pictures, but I have a feeling I'll be making up for that soon. The whole two days I spent at the hospital Taylor had the stomach flu at home + since Easton never left the ICU + Brody couldn't go in anyways because of age restrictions (3 year olds definitely do NOT belong in the ICU!) so therefore no cute hospital pictures with his new siblings for this little guy! I'm sure those 3 were okay with that since grandma was busy showering them with toys, candy, shopping, games, playing + more playing.

To back up a bit I went in on Tuesday morning to be induced. Everything was going well. Bryan began "tweeting" the play by play of updates for the I think 9 people who were following, that was fun, getting all those messages back from family during the whole thing. As soon as I had my very first semi anything contraction the anesthesia team was in letting me know they were available and since you never know when they could be pulled away to do a c-section I could miss my opportunity to get one so of course I took it just in case. It was a tough epidural for me. As soon as they got even a drop of the medicine through the tube I immediately started to feel nauseous + dizzy + my blood pressure dropped quickly. I was dehydrated so they pumped a couple bags of fluid in me and everything was fine except I was pretty wiped out after that + could berly lift my head, I just tried to sleep as much as I could. Epidurals are great, aren't they? (After it started working like it was supposed to anyways)

At 2:55 I had to interrupt my OB and hubby who were busy chatting away swapping med school stories to let them know that I needed to start pushing. I always joke with Bryan that his iphone has now grown into his skin + is attached to his body, ha ha it's funny, but I about died when I looked over between pushes and noticed that he had my leg in one hand with his full attention on that "thing" in the other texting away the details. Three pushes and 15 minutes later he was here! They let me hold him immediately and no one seemed too concerned about his breathing, but I knew something was not quite right. It just didn't fit my usual strong-lunged screamer babies I was used to. His chest would cave in with every breath and sounds that I'm sure only a ninety year old chain smoker would know were the only thing I was noticing. Shortly after a team of PA's and nurses rushed in and they decided he needed to be taken to the ICU for further tests. The tears flowed as I watched my little baby being taken down where the "sick babies" go. The kids + my mom walked in just as they were wheeling him down so they got to sneak a super quick peek.

Bryan + I got to go see him a few hours later after all the scans + tests were complete. He was by far the biggest baby in that NICU! It was scary for us to see his tiny lungs under his skin trying to open, every breath was labored + scary. From then on Bryan + I spent our time by his side waiting to finally get to hold him again. At 6:20 we got the go ahead. The nurse looked at me and said 'well visiting hours are over at 6:45 while we change shifts so you'd only have about 20 minutes to hold him'. All I said was 'I'll take it!' We came back after the shift change and held him until we couldn't keep our eyes open any longer. We left that evening less nervous and just so happy everything was going to be fine, all he needed was a little bit of time to clear his lungs.

The next night he could finally breastfeed and so I spent the entire night getting called every 2-3 hours from my bed. I would run down to the NICU, check in, wash my hands and nurse. Put him back with all his wires + tubes on his bed and head back to my room to sleep until the next call. Every time I went back in the night it seemed like he sounded a million times better, he nursed perfectly, more wires came off and just continued to improve. By morning I felt like he seemed much more like a normal perfect newborn and I was so happy! He had his last dose of antibiotics at 4 p.m., the IV came out and at 4:01 we were on our way home...

He's doing great now. Those little scratches and bruises on is head and those black eyes are looking better. His swollen little face has gone down quite a bit. I see all three of our kids in him, I'll have to put newborn pics of all four some time when things slow down. For now we're holding + loving this little guy every minute.