Brycen Is Here!

This is the story of the birth of our third son. His due date was June 19th, 2012 but we chose to have a repeat cesarian on June 12th, 2012.
After not being able to sleep all night because of random thoughts going through my head, Dennis and I got out of bed at about 5:30 Tuesday morning to finish preparing for the big day.


We got bags packed and the two boys ready to go to Grandma Kim's for the day. We dropped them off around 7:00 and hit the road to the hospital. We got stuck in traffic a little bit but made it to the hospital close to our check in time of 7:30am. After getting settled into our labor & delivery room, I got blood drawn and an IV hooked up - oh yeah, and those really sexy compression stockings too! I was hooked up to the fetal monitor for about 20 minutes to see how Brycen was doing in there and I actually had 4-5 contractions before surgery! Guess he wanted to come out not matter how it happened.

Dennis got his scrubs on and I got wheeled into surgery at 9:00am. After receiving the spinal block he tested for sensation and I could still feel my belly so he tilted the table toward my head to move the block up. It started to numb my belly but then my blood pressure tanked and I passed out for a brief moment. I came to when I got a shot of epi. They started the surgery after I was stable again and Brycen Keith was born at 9:33am. He starting crying before he was completely out of my belly so he ended up swallowing some amniotic fluid, but recovered quickly and was crying like a big boy. He weighed in at 7lbs 5oz and 20.25 inches long. He has reddish light brown hair and dark blue eyes. I am thinking his eyes will turn brown shortly.

After Brycen was out, my blood pressure was all over the place going extremely high back to really low. I kept feeling the sensation of my heart beating out of my chest alternating with being light headed and the inability to catch my breath. They finally had me stitched up and my blood pressures were stable and I was wheeled into the recovery unit to meet my new little boy!

I briefly met Brycen and kissed and hugged him and then allowed Dennis and Lona (who now joined us in the recovery unit) to hold Brycen because I was not feeling so great just yet. I was kept in the recovery unit for almost two hours before I was safe to go to my room. Once we got to the room I was able to hold Brycen more and enjoy some of the company that came to see the addition.Lots of people came to see Brycen the first day: Grandma Kim, Logan, Cole, Julissa, Lona, Papa Keith and Julie from his work, Grandma Dee and Papa John and Jessie from school.I was kind of in and out of it for most of the day. My pressures were back down in the 80s and I was feeling flushed, jittery and dizzy with the inability to focus on objects. My doctor and the anesthetist both came in to see what was going on and they couldn't figure it out. They chalked it up to being dehydrated before surgery because I hadn't had anything to eat or drink for about 8 hours. I was kept on full fluids for most of the day and hooked up to IV fluids. I lost a lot of blood during surgery because they had to cut through the placenta to get Brycen out which caused extra blood loss. My hemoglobin started around 11 that morning and after surgery it was a 9. They kept pumping me with fluids and drinking water.

After everyone left Dennis had to leave too to get the boys from Lona's house. I was left alone with Brycen to try and rest and get some sleep. Easier said than done! Brycen was a pretty good boy he ate good and slept off and on throughout the night. I had a harder time adjusting to the resting part. I couldn't fall asleep because I still felt hot and dizzy. All I could do was keep drinking water and hope that I would feel better in the morning like the doctor said.
I woke up feeling refreshed because I no longer felt light headed!!! Yay! I was feeling well enough to eat some breakfast and Brycen ate too. After breakfast Dennis joined me for the afternoon and we watched TV together and I took a nap after getting that darn catheter out! (YES!) After our nap Dennis had to leave again to go get the boys from daycare. I wish they could spend time at the hospital, but it's too much of a change for them and they would get crabby and antsy. Can't wait to get home to them!
After my nap I took a shower (heaven) and was detached from my IV bag. I still have to have IV access i case my blood work comes back bad in the morning. They are doing another blood draw to test my hemoglobin since it dropped again since after surgery. If it drops another point I may have to get a transfusion.
Brycen is resting comfortably in his beside crib and I am finishing this blog! Tomorrow is our celebration dinner/lunch. More pictures to come! Hopefully we will be going home tomorrow but if not tomorrow then Friday we will go home.
Thanks for reading Brycen's Birth story and stay tuned for more Boyd news!