A break from catching up: I had a baby! :)

Introducing:

Piece Even (pronounced Evan. It's a long story.) Ludwig

January 15, 2013

7:54 am

8 lbs. 13.4 oz. 

20 1/2 in

Four weeks ago today our little man, Pierce, was born.  I don't think I want to write down every last detail for the blogging world to read, but I will write the gist of Pierce's rocky entrance into this world.

While I was blogging about Sister Time in SLC, I was actually in labor.  I had had many false starts with this little guy, so when I felt the contractions start at 5 pm, I just slowed down so I could really concentrate on them and if they were continuing.
By 8pm I was blogging and still having steady contractions.  By 9pm Kenny called his parents to come stay with the kids and we were off to the hospital.
At my last doctor's appointment I was already at a 5 and effaced to 90%, so I was assuming this would go quickly.  I was wrong.
When they checked me in I was at a 7.  I got my epidural around midnight and then tried to sleep.  Pierce's little feet were sticking up into my ribs (just like Myles' did), so that made it hard to breathe and sleep.  
I am grateful for epidurals, but unfortunately this one slowed my labor way down.  However, I also feel that if the nurses would've just broken my water things would've progressed faster.
For some reason though they didn't break my water till around 7:30 am.  And wouldn't ya know he was born at 7:54 am. :)  It was awesome that he literally took like 5 minutes to push out.
I got to touch his arm right after he came out then they whisked him off to get cleaned up.
They noticed right away that he wasn't breathing at his best, but they let me nurse him and hold him for maybe half an hour or so before they came back to check on him.
They took him away and shortly after came to tell us that he was on oxygen and that he had some fluid in his lungs.  They said he was just having a hard time transitioning, which is pretty common.
So I took a nap.
I don't remember how long I slept, but I felt super guilty waking up and realizing that I still wasn't holding my baby.  I went down to the nursery to hold him and feed him, but he wasn't allowed to go back to my room yet.
By that night he was still on oxygen.  I fell asleep at 9pm and at 11pm Kenny woke me up with the news that the doctor felt Pierce needed to be life-flighted to the University of Utah hospital for better care, because he still wasn't breathing well and they were worried he may have an infection in his lungs.  We live in a teensie town that is four hours away from any major city.  After praying and talking Kenny and I decided we would go ahead and life-flight him as long as one of us could go with him.  Thankfully, I was very blessed that my doctor discharged me so I could go with Pierce.
The life-flight team was awesome and so nice.
Then we got to the U of U hospital and they were even nicer.  Pierce was admitted to the NICU where I couldn't hold or touch him.  Not fun.
Kenny got there the following day and to make a long story short, we spent he rest of the week in the hospital with him.  Pierce got better and better every day though and soon all of his wires and IV's were taken off of him and we got to take him home with us.

He was treated for Jaundice.  

The only cute thing about it was that he looked like

he was in a tanning bed. 

 Sorry, this is kind of a horrible picture because he has an IV in his head, 

but we thought it was cute because he was holding his bink in his mouth.

He was treated for a few different things while we were there, but overcame them all.  YAY!  That week was very much like living in a nightmare, because every time I woke up we were still living in this crazy, scary situation.  We had never left Myles and Wyn before either and I think that was one of the hardest things for us.  Even though we knew they were being taken care of, we were still aching for them.
Myles warmed up to Pierce right away.  Wyn took a little longer, but now likes him and is learning to share. :)
We know that so many people were praying for us and our little Pierce during this whole ordeal and we can't thank you enough. We are so grateful for prayer, and blessings, and the power of the Priesthood.

Just an update on Pierce.  He is doing great! He is a good, calm baby for the most part.  He's pretty gassy though and likes to grunt about it every morning at 3am. :)  He is sweet though.  I've really enjoyed the newborn stage with him.  I have with all our kids, but with him I am really trying to go slow and take things one at a time.
It's such a blessing to have such a sweet little spirit in our home.  We are so grateful for our little Pierce!