The Checkered Flag

As we got closer and closer to the arrival of Buckshot, the fact that we were I was using racing terminology to describe the pregnancy became more and more fitting. Follow along for the full recap:

Last post, I discussed how different Sarah's two pregnancies had been. That was only the beginning. (If you want to reread what happened with Mackenzie, click here.) After our dreams of a 2012 tax break disappeared, we focused on just having a baby whenever little Buckshot was ready to emerge. On Saturday evening, we went to Arvada for Sarah's aunt's 50th birthday party. Besides being completely uncomfortable, there was nothing out of the ordinary happening with Sarah. After we got home, Sarah and Mackenzie hit the hay while I wandered downstairs to get some work done. (After the holidays, I was starting to stress a little bit about all the work that I needed to get done before I took a few weeks off.) At about 11:30, I heard Mackenzie get out of bed. Sarah was in our bedroom with the dogs behind the baby gate. She did not enjoy either stepping over the gate or taking the gate down. I guess being that pregnant really inhibits movement or something? I rolled upstairs and put Mackenzie back in her bed. Since I was up there, I popped my head into our room. Sarah was laying on her side, looking at her phone. I asked how she was doing. It was pretty obvious that she was having a contraction. I stepped over the baby gate and laughed when I saw that she was using a contraction app on her phone. Who would have thought that there were apps for contractions? It is actually an amazing little app. When her contraction ended, she told me that this was the real deal and I should call her mom to come stay with Mackenzie so we could go to the hospital. GAME ON!!

As we waited for Linda, Sarah kept track of her contractions. From the first contraction of the night, they were spaced pretty evenly at five minutes apart, lasting about a minute. I put the last few things in the car and we were ready to go. Linda hadn't been in our house more than a minute before Sarah and I were in the car and on our way downtown. 

We got to the hospital and parked in the two-hour maternity parking lot. We left everything in the car except Sarah's purse. I figured we would get in a room and then I could come grab the remaining bags. We made it about 10 feet before Sarah had another contraction. I just stood in the parking lot with her purse. You know, what ballers do. When that bad boy finally stopped, we rang the bell and went into the hospital. It was about 1:15 AM. The nurses in the labor and delivery wing checked us in and took us to a triage room. Sarah informed them that she was at four plus centimeters and 70% effaced at her last appointment on Thursday (Sunday was 39 weeks and 2 days). We were both a bit confused as to why we were put in the triage area. This baby was coming. In the triage room, they did the usual activities of putting the heart rate monitor and contraction monitor and getting the registration information from us. The nurse FINALLY decided to see where Sarah was at. Of course, she was at six plus centimeters and we were moving to a delivery room. It was a little before 2:00 AM. 

When we got into the delivery room, things started getting a little crazy. The nurses tried to set the IV in every vein in Sarah's body. They finally got a working IV by the fourth try. They ordered the epidural for her right away, since she was already at six centimeters, but she needed to get a full bag of fluid into her system before they could do the epidural. Sticking her four times in order to set the IV did not hurry up this process. By about 2:10 or so, the nurse checked her again and she was at 9.5 centimeters. Little man was coming quickly. The nurse called for the aide to set up the delivery table and called for a doctor. At this point, the anesthesiologist had entered. He asked Sarah if he was going to be able to get the epidural in. No way. He took his cart and got the heck out of there. It was just Sarah, the nurse aide, and me. Sarah told the aide that he was coming. The aide told her, "Don't push. Blow out the candles. I don't want to be the only one in here when he comes!" Sarah said, "I'm not pushing, HE'S COMING!" The aide ran to the phone, urgently called for a doctor and the nurses, and ran back to her table. The nurses started rolling in and got Sarah on her back and her feet got into the stirrups. The resident ran into the room and straight into her surgical gown, which the aide was holding out before the door even started opening. Little man was crowning as the resident approached Sarah. This wasn't just NASCAR fast, this was restrictor-plate-racing-at-Talledega fast. At 2:18 AM, Buckshot was born at 8 lbs, 4 oz and 19.75".

For those of you keeping score at home:

11:30 PM - Contractions start

1:15 AM - Check in at hospital

1:55 AM - Move to delivery room

2:18 AM - Have a baby

Efficiency in action!

Unlike last time where Sarah lost all that blood and was fading in and out, there were not complications with Mama. No stitches, regular blood loss, coherent mom. She was quite ecstatic to remember everything that happened for the hours following the birth! Sarah did about an hour of skin-to-skin contact with the little guy. He was bruised everywhere because of the quick delivery. His face was purple, his head was purple, and there was a purple strip running all the way down his spinal cord. Thanks a lot for that, Mom! We still hadn't decided on a name, so we used this quiet time to talk about it and come up with the end result: Carson Michael. Mackenzie had been calling him this for months and Sarah had liked it for a while. I was the one that needed to be convinced and I finally caved. 

At no point during all of this did I have the opportunity to get back out to the car to grab the camera bag. Luckily for us, Sarah had a point-and-shoot hidden in one of her Mary Poppins pockets of her purse. We were able to snap a few pictures on the camera and on our phones of Carson on the warming bed and as he got his first bath. He latched like a pro and ate like a little boy. At around 4:30 AM, we were moved into the mommy/baby room. As we were walking in, the room location seemed familiar and Sarah noticed the door sign. It was the same room that we were in with Mackenzie - Room 223 with the Ram door sign! Our kids are destined for greatness. As Sarah and Carson rested, I was finally able to get the car moved from the short term parking and get our bags. I had not slept, just had a lightning fast delivery of my second child, and wandered around a maze of a hospital. I ended up on the north end of the hospital at the emergency entrance. The Xterra was on the south end. I figured I would walk around, but chose the side that was completely blocked due to the new hospital construction. Getting the car and the bags was the only slow thing in this whole process. 

The following day, Linda brought Mackenzie to the hospital and dropped her off. That allowed the four of us to hang out for the first time as a family. She was excited to see me when Linda pulled up at the front entrance to the hospital. She was even more excited to see Sarah when we got back to our room. When I showed her little Carson, she said exactly what we thought she might say, "He's so cute!" She held him with Sarah in the bed and when he started fussing, she sang him a lullaby (apparently Linda practiced this with her on the car ride to the hospital). It was awesome to see them interact.

Sunday was filled with guests coming to see the little guy. After she dropped of Mackenzie, Linda had run home to pick up Grandma and come back to the hospital. While they were visiting, Randy showed up. Linda and Grandma left and took Mackenzie to their house until we were ready to go home. Randy was still there when my parents came. Then we had a steady stream of guests the rest of the day: Sara and John, Natalie, Katie and Jorge, Augie and Noel, John and Vicki. On Sunday night, we were finally able to get some rest. 

Monday was a date of resting. Carson had his hearing test at 3:00 in the morning, which he referred (meaning did not pass). The nurses thought that his rapid delivery caused amniotic fluid to remain in his ears, which was causing the issue. Tests can only be run every 6 hours, so we had to wait until 9:00 for him to be tested again. He promptly referred that test as well.  Robert stopped by on his lunch break and brought us food. Carson finally passed his hearing test at 3:00 in the afternoon and we were heading home.

We got home around 4:30 on Monday. Linda brought dinner and Mackenzie down after she got off work. We had dinner with Linda and then she took off. 

And thus began our lives as a family of four.

Until the next post,

Mikey