Oh Caleb....my 6 1/2 year old. Wow. Can't believe it's been that long since I became a mommy, yet I can still remember the details of his birth like it just happened!
When I was 32 wks 4 days pregnant, I went into the doc for a normal pre-natal visit. All the regular visit stuff had occured and the doc & I were sitting in the little room chatting when I see this piece of paper come sliding under the door. She looks at me & looks at the paper and says "that's never good". And she was right. There was protein in my urine. She had taken my BP earlier in the visit & it was a little high, so she wasn't surprised. She took my BP again, it was still high. Not high enough to be overly concerned at that point. I was sent home with a note for my employer that I was only allowed to work 4 hours a day until further notice. Wohoo!!!! 4 hours a day versus 8! Hey no problem! Especially if it was what was best for the baby! By day #2 though I was so sick of the couch and my bed!
The week before all this happened my best friend Erika moved to San Diego!!! (Yes, I later named my daughter after her!!!) I was missing her big time as I did nothing but watch TV & movies for three days! My hubby started a new job that week. It was a crazy time!
When I went back to the doc on Friday of that week, I was exactly 33wks pregnant! I was pretty swollen from retaining fluids, but felt good & thought everything would be the same or better then when I went in earlier that week. I was wrong. Completely wrong. My BP was WAY too high. David wasn't able to get time off that day to come with me, so I was a wreck. To make matters worse.....his cell phone wasn't working. It hadn't all week. So my Dr. called the hospital to let them know I'd be there in a couple hours and she wanted me to be there for the weekend pretty much for observation "just in case".
The only way for me to get ahold of David was to go home and get his works # off of our caller ID. Thank the Lord, David had called me from there earlier in the week or I would have really been a wreck. I convince my Dr. that I really will be okay to get home, call him & get to the hospital. So I do just that. Get home & call him. I think I had to tell him three times that he needed to come home because we had to go to the hospital. Once I heard his voice I lost it, I was sobbing & he couldn't understand me!!!! Then I wait. and wait. and wait. and wait. When you have time to wait like I did, you have time to either freak out more or calm down. I actually calmed down. Packed a couple things and relaxed till David got home.
David walks in the door in a complete panic. I offer to drive to the hospital since he's freaking out at this point. (I later learned....his truck wouldn't start no matter what he tried & he had to get a ride from a co-worker, which was why I waited so long for him. And remember.....no cell phone to call me & tell me what was happening!) He calms down & we leave. I remember on the way to the hospital saying "we really should come up with a boy name in case this baby is born this weekend & comes out a boy" When we had the u/s they could see the umbilical cord between the legs & said there was nothing else there, but since this was grand baby #7 on daddy's side and there were no girls yet....I was certain it wasn't a girl.
We get to the hospital at 4:30pm, get checked in and to our room. The doc comes in to check things out & says we are there for the weekend for sure and there is a good chance the baby will be born at some point during the weekend. WHAT!!!! I'm not ready for this, are you kidding me!?!?! Shift change. New doc comes in to check everything and says the baby will be born TONIGHT! Um for real. This is September, I'm not due till November. I'm not ready! Then the doc comes in with an u/s machine, does the u/s and says "ok we are headed to surgery. This baby needs to come out NOW" WHOA baby, for real???? Of course I knew at this point it was better for both of us to get baby out, but when you are going there "just for observation"....it's a little shocking!
Now remember we got there at 4:30......We were wheeled to the operating room, got the big huge needle in my back, went numb, & the baby was delivered at 6:18pm! Talk about fast!!!! Baby boy was 3lbs 8ozs. They showed him to me & then he was whisked off to the NICU. David went with him. Oh & in the rush of it all....we got no pictures of his delivery! David forgot the camera back in the room & there was NO time for him to go back or he would have missed it all.
Once I'm in recovery David comes back to tell me that Baby Boy is doing great! He's breathing perfectly on his own & at this point no oxygen is needed! PRAISE THE LORD! I was so greatful! One of the things I remember from that night: one of the nurses said "We just don't like to see BP at xxx/xxx (don't remember exactly what it was), that's when things can start to get out of control fast. Our eyes were big as saucers....my BP was VERY close to what she had said. The amazing thing was that once I calmed down waiting for David, I was so calm all evening it was unbelievable! I should have been freaking out, but I wasn't! (I wasn't freaked out about my health....just that we weren't ready for the baby yet!) David on the other hand was VERY nervous & scared about my health. He did very good at being calm around me though. We are so very thankful that our doc sent us to the hospital.....things could have turned out very differently that night if she hadn't!
I think after the recovery room they wheeled me in to the NICU to see Caleb, but I was so out of it and in pain. David was taking pictures & bringing the camera back to me all night. David got to hold him first, & thankfully remembered the camera!! We still didn't have a name. In fact on one of the papers the nurse wrote "Baby Boy Ruch" but apparently whoever did the wrist bands thought it said "Baby Roy Ruch"......I quickly had that corrected, it was kind of funny! Once he was a little over a day old we settled on Caleb Thomas. (had he been a girl he would have been named Lindsay)
I stayed in the hospital the full four days the insurance allows. I knew that we would be leaving the hospital without our baby & took full advantage of staying as long as we could! The hospital that we delivered at had just opened a brand spankin new NICU! Each baby was in their own room, with a pull out couch, sink & refrigerator! Doesn't get much nicer than that! (for a NICU, that is)
We are so thankful that Caleb was a healthy preemie! Once he learned to maintain his body temp, could eat on his own & didn't have any weird heart rate drops during his sleep he came home!!! (The heart rate dropping is pretty normal in preemies. It happened once when I was holding him & freaked the living daylights out of me! Thankfully our nurse was standing right there when it happened!)
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