Calvin at the Hospital

I have seen Mommy have babies at home, but have never been able to attend a hospital birth, so I was very excited to be able to attend Calvin's birth because this time we had a hospital plan as well as a home plan since Mommy had the complications during her pregnancy. It turned out we needed the hospital plan. Mommy has been having a special test called a biophysical profile done every week since 34 weeks. Her score has always been 10/10 until Monday when the score was 4/10. At that time Daddy, Mommy, and Dr. Ross decided it was time for Calvin to join us. Aunt Sheli came to stay with the rest of the children while Daddy, Mommy, Mrs. Coffee (Mommy's midwife), and I headed to the hospital to induce. Mommy asked if they could only start low doses of pitocin to see if it would start her labor up slowly without breaking water or bringing anything on too fast because she really wanted to have Calvin with as little intervention as possible. They started pitocin at about 4pm. Everything was moving along and by about 1:30am we were thinking that it might be time to have a baby, when we realized that Calvin's hand was on top of his head. This made Mommy panic and her labor stopped altogether! After some moving around and an ultrasound and some reassurance by Dr. Ross that everything was fine, things still did not start back up. Daddy and Mommy decided to not return to the pitocin, but take a break, get some rest, and start back up the next morning. We all slept in strange positions for about 3 hours, then Mommy was a little antsy and she and I started walking the halls. The nurse came in about 8:30am and started the pitocin up again, slowly. Mommy had typed up some Scripture verses and prayers and I read them aloud to her as she labored. So I sat, read, and prayed that all would go well. It was kind of funny to watch because at about 10:20am the nurse came in and asked if she should call Dr. Ross. Mommy wasn't sure, but finally said no, she wasn't ready yet. Then at 10:30am, Mommy suddenly said she was feeling "pushy," so the nurse called Dr. Ross in. Calvin came at 10:45am. Mommy asked me if it looked hard, but I told her, "Oh, not really, but you know you, nothing hurts you and you make everything look easy." She said labor is not bad, just work.

We all guessed Calvin's weight before they weighed him. Mrs. Coffee was the winner - she guessed 8.13. I guessed 8.2, Daddy guessed 7.13, Mommy guessed 8.5.

Then things made a turn for the worse. Calvin's blood sugar started to drop drastically. It needed to be above 40. It started out at 36, dropped to 28, then 24, and by 2pm his blood sugar was 14 and he was being moved to the NICU for IV glucose. We were hopeful that it would only be about 6 hours, but around 7pm he started dropping again. Daddy and I headed home to stay with the other children and get some rest and Calvin and Mommy ended up with a long night in the NICU until he finally started doing better and was released back to Mommy's room at about 7am.

Later that morning Daddy, Abby, and I got everyone ready to go up to the hospital to visit Calvin! It was so exciting to go visit him and everybody got to hold him.

William loves Calvin and wants to hold him all the time. Wallace on the other hand didn't know what to think of it all at first, but now he has really warmed up to him and wants to sit beside him as much as possible.

Calvin had his first visitors at the hospital, too. I didn't get a picture of Aunt Sheli because I was at home with Daddy when she visited Mommy while Calvin was in the NICU. The "L" family also visited, but Mommy was back with Calvin in the NICU and did not get to visit them. When we were visiting Calvin, Grandpa Allen and Mrs. Snow came up to visit as well. We had a nice visit with them.


Then we had a great time just hanging out with Calvin until he and Mommy were released to go home.

Everyone keeps asking who he looks like. Hmm, he looks like Selah. No, Wallace. Oh, maybe Sydnee. Maybe Elly or Abby. Daddy says he looks like Calvin. I'll make another post later with all of our baby pictures and let you decide.

Going home! Yeah!

We are enjoying the little guy so much! He is almost always being held. We are all enjoying having a baby around the house again. He is so adorable! Thank you, LORD!

posted by the blessed sister of 10 and aunt to 2 "Sarah"