Thursday, August 13, 2009

He's here......

Austin Michael was born on Tuesday, August 11, 2009 at 12:09pm. He weighed 8 pounds 3 ounces and was 20.5 inches long!!!!! We are so very glad that he is finally here!!! Joe and I went into the hospital Tuesday morning at 9:30am. I was hooked up to the monitor so they could check his heart rate and my contractions. I got an IV started in my arm so they could hydrate me and then use it for all my medications. They took some blood and got me all ready to go. My parents came to the hospital about 10:30am and we just sat until they were ready to go. Then Joe and I headed to the OR with the anesthesiologist and the nurse. Joe had to wait until they gave me my spinal block before he came in. So I got my spinal and they laid me down and got me all ready to go. Then Joe came in and was able to sit next to me and hold my hand. The surgery went well but took a little longer to do this time. They had to get through my scar tissue from last time and that just takes longer to do. The nurse asked Joe if he wanted to film Austin while he came out and Joe said no way!!!!!! So the nurse took over and we actually have his birth on video. Joe has yet to see it!!!!!! Austin came out butt first and had a little squeaky cry!!!! Drs from the NICU took him into an adjoining room to get him stable and make sure everything was okay. Joe went with him and I could see Austin through the window in the door. Once they got him stable they brought him into me and I got to see him, talk to him, and give him a bunch of kisses!!!!! Then he went with Joe to the NICU. I spent about 1-2 hours in recovery and then they wheeled me in my bed down to the NICU so I could see him.
Since then Austin has been doing really well. He needed a little help with his breathing so he was on oxygen for a little bit. He had some IV's in so they could give him some medicine. He was able to come off of all of that by Friday/Saturday. We kept hearing different answers from different Drs/nurses about when he could come home. I was discharged on Saturday and thought that he would be too. When we got there Sat morning to feed him they said he would need to stay another night because of his bilirubin (he is jaundiced and his bilirubin when up instead of down). So they told me I could stay in one of the sleeper rooms they have for parents Saturday night so I could feed him every 3 hours. After I was discharged we went to the NICU and the Dr that had been working with him during the week saw us and asked what we were still doing there? I said we were wondering the same thing. Then when we got in there his nurse asked us the same question. The nurse and the Dr worked it out so we could finally bring him home on Saturday. By the time everything was said and done we finally pulled into the garage at 10pm Saturday night. It was a very long day!!!!! But totally worth it!!!!!
So now we are home and things are going pretty well for now. Kaelyn was so cute with him on Sunday morning. Joe and and I brought him down stairs where Kaelyn was playing with Grandmama and Grandpa. As soon as she saw she got sooooo excited and squealed. She sat on Joe's lap and checked out her new brother. She gave him lots of kisses and rubbed his head very gently. She seems to really like him and always checks on him when he cries. She is also a good helper with changing him and burping him. Hopefully things will continue to go well.
So now we will try and figure out a new routine and how it's going to work with having two kids. We are excited and nervous but looking forward to all that is ahead of us. We know we will be busy but hope to be able to enjoy all that is to come!