It's a BOY!

Owen James Young arrived on his own terms, nine days before his due date and five days before our scheduled c-section. I was having such a hard time with the idea of picking his birthdate via the scheduled c-section, and this little guy ended up picking his own date after all! Beyond having the car seat installed (literally checked by the Highway Patrol hours before we went into labor), we were not prepared. Bags were not packed, work was not done, the last few items at home had not been taken care of because we still had five days, or so we thought! Here is the story of Owen's arrival.

Wednesday, August 21, at 2:30 am I got up to go to the bathroom and quickly discovered that I was leaking. That is the best way I can describe it. Every time I would try to walk back to bed more and more water would run down my leg. I thought, could my water be breaking? This went on for two hours. When I started feeling mild, but consistent contractions I decided to call the hospital and explain to them what I was experiencing. They told me to come in right away. I was stunned, could this be it? Could we be having this baby? I quickly started charging my camera not knowing if the battery was dead or not. I started packing a bag for the hospital, but my mind was totally blank. I almost didn't even throw in an outfit for the baby to go home in because I was so skeptical about this being the real deal. At 4:40 am I woke Luke up and told him what was going on. He said, do I have time to take a shower? When we were both dressed and ready to go, Luke said "Should we take two cars? No, we can take one car, I guess you will have to come back home anyway and get ready for work." My favorite line of the night.

It was the full moon on the 21st and my Aunt Peggy always says babies are born on full moons. How right she was! After getting checked in, the doctor quickly confirmed that my water did in fact break and we would be having this baby within 2-3 hours. Wow. So exciting and scary all at the same time. The ironic thing was we were scheduled to meet with the dr. performing our surgery, dr. Sullivan, that morning at 9am. The dr. on call the morning of the 21st who would be performing our very unscheduled c-section happened to be dr. Sullivan.


Luke is ready for the arrival of Baby Young

Final belly shot

Once they gave me my spinal and had me fully prepped for surgery, they allowed Luke to come into the room. He stayed right by my side and helped keep me calm. He was able to watch them pull Owen out and exclaimed "he has a doodle!"



It's a boy! And he has some pipes! 7 lbs 7 oz, 20 inches long

First time meeting my baby

They brought Owen over and he was crying. The nurse said, "talk to him, he will recognize your voice." He immediately stopped crying when I started talking to him. It was such a special moment.



Happy mama

Proud dad

First family photo

Loves to suck on his fingers

So in love

Owen and Mom

Owen and Dad

Meeting Auntie Lisa

 

Cousins meeting for the first time

Uncle Sam and Owen

 

Father and son

Gotta sleep when the baby sleeps

 

We stayed in the hospital for 3 1/2 days - all of which are a complete blur of visitors, nurses, lots of baby snuggles, and working through the pain from the c-section. The nursing staff was amazing. So supportive and helpful. They made our stay fly right by and took great care of us.

 

Ready to go home



First car ride - headed home



Welcome to your home Owen!

 

 



37 weeks

How far along: 37 weeks as of 8/9/13 - officially considered full term, meaning baby is safe to come at any time now.

Total weight gain: 24 pounds, hopefully not much more!

Best moment this week: Reaching 37 weeks feels like a huge milestone. Knowing all of the major organs are mature enough to function outside the womb is a great feeling. To make this day even better, we woke up to learn that my sister-in-law had a healthy baby boy this morning! She was three weeks ahead of us and it was so fun going through the pregnancy together. Now she had her baby which means we are next!

Looking forward to: Our 38 week appointment on Thursday to check position of baby and make a decision on delivery method.

Anything else: I have slowly come to terms with the fact that we will likely have a c-section in as soon as two weeks. I've been reading and learning as much as possible about breech births and cesareans both of which have been about all I can think about lately. I'm trying to wrap up lots of loose ends at work, but each day it gets more and more difficult to focus and be at work. I now understand why woman stop working a few weeks before their due date. There is just too much on your mind, little details to take care of at home before baby, not to mention the growing belly and increased discomfort and difficulty sleeping at night. I still have two to three weeks of work left, just taking it one day at a time!

I have a feeling these last two to three weeks are going to fly by and I'm trying to soak in every last minute of this pregnancy and each movement in my belly, as well as allow myself a few extra minutes of sleep while I still can.      

Baby Young is BREECH

We confirmed our suspicions that baby is still in the heads up position at our 36 week doctor appointment. Can't say I was surprised, but definitely a bit disappointed. After all the anticipation and reading about a natural delivery, hearing the doc utter the words "scheduled c-section" was a hard pill to swallow. And even more mind blowing was that if we do schedule a c-section, it will take place around 39 weeks. I told my doctor that wouldn't work for me since I am planning on working until I'm 40 weeks pregnant....not to mention 39 weeks is a mere three weeks away. I had fully convinced myself this baby was going to come first week in September which gave us about five more weeks to mentally and physically prepare. But three? Oh my goodness, that is so soon!

We have some options to try and get the baby to flip. There is a manual procedure called version where a doctor pushes on your abdomen and tries to manually flip the baby, but there are risks involved that could lead to an emergency c-section. After doing some research we have decided not to try this procedure.

Another option that is far less intrusive and encourages baby to flip in a much more natural way, is to practice a few yoga type poses we read about on the internet. Basically, we have two weeks. If baby is still in breech position at 38 weeks we will have no choice but to schedule a c-section for the last week in August. Until then, you will find me doing hand stands in a pool, crawling around on my hands and knees, or lying on an inverted ironing board with a bag of frozen vegetables on the top of my belly hoping for the best.

 

 

At the end of the day, all that matters is that we deliver a healthy baby. If it's a c-section, then so be it. I know that the moment we meet our baby, our lives will be forever changed and the manner in which he/she came into this world will suddenly seem so insignificant compared to the new little bundle we hold in our arms.