Rewind

Warning this will be a long read & TMI for some, proceed with warning(trying to get the details for posterity) OK-let's go back to April 15th (Tuesday)

4/15/08 (Tuesday)
3am
Tony & I had movers scheduled for 7am the next day. We were still trying to pack so we stayed up until 3am. As soon as I layed down the baby started moving like crazy. Now this was unusual because he had been running out of room & been a little quieter the past 2 weeks. I also was having very mild cramping. I said to Tony, I'm going to get up. He said "If it doesn't go away in 30 minutes wake me up"-thanks for the support. So it settled down & I went to bed about 3:30am.

7am
Got up & the movers started loading the truck. I went to McDonald's & got Egg Mcmuffins & hash browns came back & we ate.

9:15am
Standing in the kitchen, I felt a warm drip, went to the bathroom thinking-no can't be. Few minutes later, standing in the kitchen, another warm wet drip. Went back to bathroom & saw pink. This is a typical Chan situation. Now keep in mind Tony's car was in the shop-so we only had 1 car. I ran to my neighbor Kathy's & she ran me to the doctor to check to see if it was amniotic fluid. Wendy Whitcomb was in the office so she tested the fluid & the paper turned blue, she could also see the leak when I coughed. She told us I had an hour or so go home get my bags & head to the hospital-I was in labor. Tony came to pick me up at the doctor on the way to Zephyrhills (he had given the garage door opener to the movers & I called my mother off of the golf course to meet the movers) Sadly, we had to take the dogs back to the old house & leave them because they would have the doggie door & fenced yard. We got the furniture unloaded, showered, grabbed our bags
& headed to the hospital.

2pm
Arrived at the hospital. Things get a little hazy. I know that that I was dilated 1 cm at the doctors office. I was not having many strong contractions at the hospital & was not any more dilated so, the doctor started Pitocin to increase the contractions.

4pm
The contractions got pretty strong & I called for an epidural. Everything was good until I started to get bad back labor in the evening. To quote myself "It's not right, this is torture, I want a cesarean" flew from my mouth-amazingly (Tony said) no 4 letter words. I was also suffering from the horrible heartburn I had during pregnancy so Doc let me take Tums-yummm like candy.

Midnight
Unfortunately at midnight I was still 1cm dilated & the baby was not descending. I suffered back labor all through the night & they had to give me 5 bolus'. I actually went through 3 shifts of nurses before I delivered. The second nurse had to call in the tough nurse to get me back under control (actually it was the Bolus-drugs in the epidural that did it)To make this night more interesting, I was throwing up- funny side story-because the bolus numbs you from the waist down, when I needed to sit up to throw up Tony lifted me & went to reach for the barf bag. When he let go I fell back onto the bed because I had no control of my muscles. The only thing I saw was panic on his face as he reached for me barf bag in hand. He had to quickly sit me back up I give me the bag.

7am
My delivery nurse Dee came on staff & was really great, she was experienced & knew what to do since the baby was still not coming down. She put me on my right side to labor & told Tony what to do to comfort me. We tried some pushing to see how I would do.

9am
I was really ticked at about 7:30 in the morning because the anesthesiologist went into a c-section & couldn't come give me drugs for 1 1/2 hours. I was in agony. I knew I would not be able to push in so much pain so once I got the drugs I told Tony he is coming out now before this wears off in 2 hours!

10am
I was finally dilated 10cm & able to push. I couldn't feel the contractions very well because for the drugs, but I said to hell with this I will figure out what they feel like & learn to push with the limited feeling-he's is getting out before the drugs wear off. Tony was so excited yelling I can see his head, he's almost here, one more push. I said "When she calls for the doctor we are close." My mother was running to the hallway to give my dad updates. Finally I heard Dee say, can we have Dr. Whitcomb now. Finally

11:41am
Andy finally made his arrival at 11:41 am. Tony cried (don't tell him I said that) when he came out. He was still holding my leg, I told him to go see the baby. Here he is meeting Andy for the first time



Here is the first family photo-I look a little beat up after 26 hours of labor



2pm
We were moved up to the Mother/Baby room where we stayed for 2 1/2 days. not to bore with details, Andy & I were poked & prodded 24 hours a day. Our biggest problem was that Andy would not sleep at all. He would doze in our arms, but if we tried to put him down he would scream. So after very little sleep Monday night & being in labor Tuesday night it was very rough not sleeping Wednesday or Thursday night either.

4/17/08 (Thursday)
We had lots of nice visitors who came to meet Andy. Thanks for visiting Cheryl, Denise, Sandy, Christine, Kathy, Sean, Roxanne, Vitaly



4/18/08 (Friday)
We were discharged Friday about noon & were on our own