The Story

Okay, this might be a little long, but people have been asking. Here is the story of last week, when Elijah decided to enter this world . . .
Monday Morning
2:30 am : I woke up with awful back pain. Remembered that with the twins, all I had was back labor. Wondered if this could be it. So, I got up and started timing the pain when it would intensify.
3:30 am : Woke Nathan up to tell him the pain was coming every 3-5 minutes. Tried taking a bath to see if that would stop the pain. It didn't.
4:30 am : I called my parents, it was time to go to the hospital.
5:45 am : Checked into the hospital. I was only dilated to barely a 1 at that time. So they decided to monitor me and the babe.
7:00 am : The hospital called the doctor. (I was still a 1 at this point, but the contractions were still coming) My doctor, of course was on vacation, so it was the on call doctor, Dr. Bitner, that was in charge. (Turns out I know Dr. Bitner, he use to live in my stake growing up. So, I trusted his judgement.) He wanted to try a shot to relax my contractions. It worked for a 1/2 hour, and then they started again.
8:00 am : Dr. Bitner shows up. Talks about our options. He doesn't want me to labor much longer, and since my contractions wouldn't stop, we all decided the best thing to do was to have the baby.
9:30 am : Prep for my surgery starts, and Nathan changes into scrubs.
10:00 am : I'm wheeled into surgery to have my C-Section. Everything went really smooth. The doctors were very chatty. We talked about Kathrin Higel (spelling?), the actress, the games Guitar Hero, and Rock band, and about flying in Helicopters. Oh, and of course golf.
10:37 am : Elijah was born (of course at this time, he didn't have a name)
11:05 am : I was wheeled back into my recovery room, the C- Section went great. The doctor was amazed at how thin my uterus was. Said it could have been a real scary problem. So, it was very lucky that Elijah decided to come 3 weeks early.

Elijah took his first few breaths really well, and then decided to turn purple. They put him on oxygen, and everyone thought he would be breathing on his own in a hour or so. He of course was stubborn (wonder where he gets that from?!) and wanted help breathing so, after 3 hours in the nursery on oxygen, they decided to put him in the NICU so he could have all the attention that he wanted/needed. After some tests, the NICU discovered that he was missing a protien in his body that opens up the air sacs in his lungs, allowing him to breathe properly. His body was missing it, because he was born early. The body starts producing this protien at 38 weeks. So, they gave him what he needed, and said it would take a day or two for it to open the air sacs. He also was given an antibiotic to keep certian lung infections away. The antibiotic was what kept him in the NICU so long. His IV fell out of his hand on the 3rd day, so they had to put it in his head. It was sad to look at, but it didn't fall out again. On Wednesday morning, I went in to feed him. When the nurse handed him to me, his nasal canal (tube) fell out of his nose. She said, "Hey, lets keep it out and see how he does". He did great, and was done with his oxygen treatment just like that. Cold turkey. They loved him in the NICU. He had 2 great nurses out of the 8 there, and I think those 2 made a huge differece in his recovery. I am very greatful for them.