My pregnancy was trucking along quite well, and my school was in the thick of the spring. I was happier each day that went by an no complications occurred, though I began to understand why some people complained in the last trimester. I really found myself hanging out with nothing to do around 4 AM each day - there are some odd movies on cable at this time, let me tell you! Now, I find myself thinking of these quiet times with great envy as I am really sleep-deprived! April came in with a bang - my sister decided to give us a scare and be forced to have her little boy induced into the world in Minneapolis on April 6th due to a Pre-eclampsia scare. Dylan Paul arrived at 1:07 PM, 5 lbs. 2 oz. and 19 inches long. I started feeling a little edgy that day, as my body decided to have some pretty impressive contractions. I wasn't quite ready to go, though, and my medical folks decided that I should cut back on my work as I saw fit. We were heading into MCA testing season, though, so it was a tough time for me to be gone all that much.
I made it though the Math week with a few breaks, and began to feel a little better with rest. I decided to pack the hospital bags and keep my toes polished and legs shaven as much as possible, as I was nearing term.
Tuesday, the 20th of April...
MCA Reading test day 1 - a big day in my world, and I woke up with the most outrageous heartburn and stomach pain ever!! I called the doctor as I was concerned, but I got a groggy man at the end of his call shift of 24 hours who said not to worry. I didn't have much of an appetite that day, and tried to keep as quiet as possible at work. That afternoon, around 2 PM, I felt a little suspicious. Contractions again?? My coworkers became my guardians, and the counting and marking of contractions on a Post-It note began. I was pretty sceptical about this being "the time" for the baby to come, but I put all the stops in place, except for the fact that our hospital bags were in our bedroom at home. We counted, called the doctor, and it was decided at 4 PM that I should make the trek down to United for monitoring. Russ and I took care of Grayson, and fought the traffic to the hospital - I even managed to drive myself from Hugo to Life Time to ensure us driving in only one car! My contractions were growing in intensity, and we were curious to know what was coming for us.
While in the hospital, we chilled out in our room and watched the news, Wheel of Fortune, and American Idol in peace while watching the contractions as they continued pretty regularly, wondering if we were going to have a baby that evening. We called most of the fam, but held off on calling Bob and Joyce as they were at their first Twins game at Target Field. The nurses gave me a lovely dose of my favorite drug, Terbutaline, to see if my contractions would stop, but finally, around 9 PM (just as the last pitch of the Twins game was being thrown), it was decided that we were going to become parents again! We called Bob and Joyce, settled things for Grayson, and prepared for our kiddo's arrival in a pretty relaxed fashion. The atmosphere was almost party-like as we met our C-Section team, and Russ and I were pretty relaxed overall.
I really wished he could have held off till I was 37 weeks, so that we wouldn't ever hear the word "preemie", but our child didn't really want to listen to his mommy, even this early in the game. Nolan Robert Schmidt arrived at 10:31 PM - 5 lbs. 4 oz, and 19 inches long. It was an interesting delivery for me, as the anesthesia leaked into my chest muscles a bit and made me feel a bit uncomfortable, but my surgery team made it better. I was overwhelmed with emotion when he arrived, and a little worried at how quiet he seemed to be in his first few minutes of life (Russ watched the team bag him and help him start breathing normally), but Nolan perked up just as he should right afterward. He was beautiful! I didn't get to see him for long, and ended up spending all too much time in recovery, with a pretty decent bout of hemmorhaging that required some loopy drugs and surgery in the middle of the night. Russ wore a path between the nursery and my various recovery rooms, keeping updated on both of our conditions. I had to lie still for 4 hours, and couldn't hold Nolan till 8 AM the next day, but it worked.
I struggled at times for the next few days in the hospital, worried about bleeding and feeling rough with anemia and my c-section issues, but Nolan was doing well, we were excited that he'd finally arrived, and we had a great number of visitors! Russ worked hard that week to be with Nolan and me, at work, and with Grayson in the evening - he was an absolute trooper! Grayson was apprehensive of all of my tubes and meds when he first visited, and it was hard to keep him contained while he was in my room, but he was excited to be a big brother!
More later...
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