What a Journey - Part 1

Well, life is ever-changing and exciting to say the least!! Time to share a little bit of the adventures we've had over the last few weeks... Or in other words, tell you about the birth of our little Caleb.

On friday the 17th of August I went in to have a regular check-up at the OB. When the Dr saw how high my blood pressure was, she sent me up to the hospital to have some tests done and to be monitored for a while. Well that turned into being admitted and transferred to another hospital because it was possible that I would be delivering early (10 weeks early to be exact) and the hospital I was originally at wasn't equipped to handle such a tiny baby.

Then, thanks to medicine and great doctors, things started to stabilize and by sunday night it was starting to look like I'd be going home! So they were going to keep me for another 24 hours and then send me home on bed rest. But my body wouldn't have it. By 4 am monday morning I was preeclamptic and in serious pain. The baby (whom we still thought was going to be baby Ava) was breech and that's when they decided that emergency c-section was the only way to go.

My poor, sweet husband was informed that I had gotten sick again but they failed to mention that I was getting prepped for surgery!! So after a while, the OR nurse called him and told him of the real situation and he rushed down. Once he walked in the door they suited him up and wheeled us off to the OR.

At 9:02 we were surprised with a little boy at 2 lbs 10 oz. The first few days were a roller coaster ride as they diagnosed him with a number of little premie conditions including holes in his heart, and cysts in his brain. But he's a fighter. He now torments the nurses as he plays Houdini and slides out of his diapers, pulls the tubes out of his nose, and gets himself so tangled in his tubes and wires that we all wonder how he does it. He has also won the nurses with his sweet gaze and calm temperament. We even have some nurses stop in to visit him that aren't even taking care of him that day. He's quite the Romeo.

As of today he's up to 2 lbs 14 oz and growing. The prayers and thoughts of endless friends and loved ones have really pulled us through this experience and we are so grateful. We can't thank our Heavenly Father enough for sending us this blessing.

His first few hours.

 

Saying hi to mom for the first time, just out of the OR.

It almost looks like he's trying to roll over to me!

Can I help you?

After only a few days, off the C-pap machine and down to regular oxygen tubes! Such a stud!

Rewind...

So I'm still trying to decide how far back I want to rewind. Jake had mentioned something about telling our story; you know, from the beginning. But I feel like that might be something that can be filled in with tidbits of other fun info as we go.

So, I'll start with a funny story from earlier this week.

We live in a small basement apartment that was built in the 1920's so let's just say that the insulation and 'soundproofing' is less-than effective. We hear everything from the upstairs neighbors' weekly fights, to the sound of the claws on their two boston terriers scratching across the floor. It's not bad actually until it hits about 2:30 am and that's when mamma bear comes out of her cave. I already have a hard time sleeping with my belly getting bigger, the baby moving more, going to the bathroom constantly, etc.; so to add to that is extremely unwise. You get the point. ;)

So I awoke the other night to the sound of a rustling sort of crunchy noise that was coming from the closet. I laid there to see if I was dreaming or if it was coming from upstairs and it was too close for either. So I woke up the poor husband and made him go see what it was.

Well, it wasn't in the closet. It was in the windowsill near the closet door. It was a tiny little door mouse that had fallen in and was jumping with all it's little might to get back out, crunching the leaves on his way back down. Now, normally I'm creeped out by that sort of thing but when I saw his round little head, his round little body and his round little ears poking up I kinda gushed for a second!! He was maybe 2 inches big and he was trying so hard to jump out and could only get about 3/4 of the way up. It was so cute in the most creepy way!!!

So my brave husband went out and put some long sticks for him to climb up to get out. By this point I was already losing consciousness again and was back in bed and by the time Jake got back to the window inside the house, the little guy was gone. Smart little thing! Hopefully he ran far away from the house. Otherwise we'll be dealing with a not-so-cute problem.

True Story!!