Our Son - His Story

On November 19th I called Mitchell and informed him that I was on the way to the hospital due to really hard contractions that were not stopping. When I went into Labor and Delivery sure enough I was contracting every 3 minutes. The Doctor that was on call decided to transfer me to a room where I stayed for the night to be monitored. Of course I was in labor, but was not dilating or effacing so they ended up sending me home on bed rest until I was to deliver.
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If you have not been on bed rest before it is not all that fun especially during the month of December. There was so much that I wanted to do but I could not, like Christmas shopping. I decided it was important for me to stay down so I did a lot of my shopping online. I had wonderful women in the ward bring me frozen dinners and shop for me. These women were a wonderful blessing for my family. One of the hardest things for me was not being able to to go church during those weeks. I have always been one to go to church even if I do not feel the best because that is where I am to be on Sundays. I missed it and I missed my family during those three hours on Sunday.
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On December 14th I again thought that I was in labor and rushed to the hospital. After being hooked up to the monitors for an hour or so the doctor gave me some meds and sent me on my way. The next morning I had my weekly appointment with Doctor Bair and he informed me that I was 60% effaced and he thought I would deliver within two weeks. Mitchell immediately called his parents to inform them of this and they got into their RV and came right away to be with the girls just in case we had to go to the hospital, which was a huge blessing.
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After going to the hospital so many times (I think we went to Labor and Delivery 4 times) I decided to pray and tell Heavenly Father that the next time that I go to the hospital it will be due to the fact that my water broke or that I was crawling on the floor in so much pain due to contracting. I was determined that this was going to happen so I just left it in Heavenly Father's plans and felt really good about it.

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On December 21st I was so uncomfortable so I decided to sleep on the couch. At about 6:45 am my water broke. That night the girls spent the night in Grandma and Grandpas RV so all we had to do was get ourselves ready and rush to the hospital. Mitchell decided to shower which really frustrated me, but I was glad that he did since it was going to be a long day for the both of us. I was also scared due to the fact that our son would be 5 weeks early and I was so scared of the unknown. I prayed and prayed that our baby would be okay.
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Upon getting to the hospital at 7:30 am they hooked me up to the monitors and I was not contracting, which was so good since I did not want to feel that kind of pain. I was so stressed and scared. I was so scared to have the spinal because I remember it hurting a lot when I had Hailey. After doing tests and finding that my water did sure enough break they decided to call my Doctor and let him know that we would be having our baby. Since we were waiting for the surgery room there was some time that Mitchell and I were alone in the triage and we were just able to talk. I asked him for a blessing and I was so glad that he was able to give me one. It really helped me to relax and know that things would be okay. At 10:30 they prepped me and wheeled me into the surgery room. They had Mitchell sit in the hallway which terrified me because I needed him there to hold my hand when I had my spinal. Upon wheeling me down the hall I looked out some doors and noticed my father in law in the hallway. They brought the girls to the hospital once they knew that our baby would soon be here. I was about to ask if I could see my girls, but I was glad that I didn't because I was too emotional.
(I do not remember taking this picture but I am so thankful for it. What an amazing day!)

The spinal went amazingly well and did not hurt at all. I was so glad that the worst part was over. Right after they brought in Mitchell and my Doctor came into the room. Within 15 minutes they held up our son and I was able to see him and hear his cry. Our son was born at 11:08 AM weighing 5 lbs 8 oz and he was 17 3/4 inches long. Seeing him was the last thing that I remember in the surgery room. The meds that they put me on somehow made me forget about 45 minutes worth of them stitching me back up and tying my tubes. In the recovery room I realized that my nose itched a lot and I asked my nurse why and she said it had to do with my oxygen that I was on. I did not even know I was on oxygen. I hope that I did not say anything stupid to my doctor during that time. :) I bet he is used to it though. (My amazing Dr. Bair! I am so thankful for him. He is a Stake President in the Cedar Hills Stake and so I always felt at ease when I went into my appointments. I was so thankful that he was the one that delivered our baby.)

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After being in the recovery room for a little while Mitchell came in and told me that Calvin was in the NICU because he was having trouble breathing. We knew that there was a possibility of this since he was so early. They were going to wheel me into the NICU to see him once I got out of recovery.

(Jan and Hershel able to see their grandson for the first time in the NICU.)

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It was amazing to see my little boy, but so sad to see him all wrapped up and with a lot of monitors on him. It was hard for me to see what he actually looked like so the Doctor decided to take off the breathing machine and let me hold him without everything on. Upon doing so they realized that he was breathing better without the machine then with it on. This ended up being a blessing since they said that he would be in the hospital for 1-2 weeks and with him breathing on his own he may be in only a couple of days after I went home. (All I could do was hold his little finger the first time I went in to see him.)

(The first time I was able to hold our son!)

My girls came to see me in my hospital room and they were sad that they could not see their brother, but they understood why. Heather took some pictures of Calvin for the girls to see and they loved that.

The next day they moved Calvin into another area of the NICU where he had his own room. This meant that he was getting better, so it was good news to hear. Every three hours Mitchell wheeled me down to the NICU so I could feed Calvin. He had an amazing Nurse named Jim. He was so caring with Calvin and so nice to let us ask any questions that we wanted. During the night I was able to sleep and they fed Calvin from a bottle, but I was excited to see him when I woke up in the morning.
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On the third day in the hospital Jim, the NICU nurse, told us that Calvin was doing so well that if his glucose level had dropped again he may be able to come up to my room with me. This meant he would be able to go home with us and our girls would be able to see him. We were hopeful but did not really think it would happen.
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A Chaplin came into our room and told us that some High Priests were in the hospital making visits to the LDS patients and she wanted to know if we wanted them to come and visit with us and give our baby a blessing. We were excited to have them there and said yes. They followed us to the NICU where they spoke with us for a little while then helped Mitchell give our son his first blessing. I do not remember what was said but the feeling in the room was one of peace and I knew that everything would be okay. Shortly after the High Priests left the room the Doctor came in to inform us that he would be able to leave NICU and go into my room. I know that a lot of small miracles happened for him to get out of the NICU in just three short days, but we were so glad to have him for ourselves.
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Our girls were at Heather's house and she was bringing them to the hospital to see me. It was exciting because they did not know that they could see Calvin when they walked into the room and there he was. The girls immediately wanted to hold him and give him kisses. Lindsay was able to hold him first and she loved that. (Hailey holding her baby brother for the first time.)

We received a couple of visitors while in the hospital. Jan and Hershel came along with our girls, Heather and kids, Jared and family, Tina Lyon and Jan Jordan. It was so fun to visit and let everyone hold our sweet boy.

My favorite part of the whole hospital stay was the yummy food. It was amazing and I was sad when I had to come home and cook for myself again.

(Relieved Mommy in my hospital room.)
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The next two days went really fast and then it was almost time to go home. I needed to have my staples removed first and that was NOT fun at all. It was actually the worst pain I have been in during this whole pregnancy. The nurse was very caring and tried to wait when I asked her to let me breathe, but there were 25 staples so she had a lot to do. I was so excited when it was over and we were going home! He is such a sweet little boy and is such a blessing to our family. The first night he was home I held him in my bed and just bawled while singing, "I am a Child of God" to him. It was so neat to think that just months before he was in Heavenly Fathers arms and here he was in mine. It was also very emotional to finally have a boy in our home. Our family is complete!!!