Robb's Arrival

October 14, 2008 will be a day that is permanently etched into my heart. This is the day I saw my son for the first time. This is how that day came about. My weekly appointment for week 37 wasn't until 11 o'clock. I got there early, anxious to see if all the erratic contractions that I had on Sunday had moved me up the dialation ladder. I also had a small worry: only a few fetal movements since I went to bed the night before. At breakfast, I downed a glass of grape juice, just to see if I could get him jumping. There were a couple of little movements then, but nothing to get excited about. The doc checked me...only a 3.5 and that was a maybe .5. We heard his little heart just thumping away so I knew all was well. However, the doc thought we should have a stress test done. So off to the hospital I go. There were a few phone calls made, but I was assured that all was well. I must admit, I was scared to death. They hooked me up to the monitors and we waited. Of course, what do children do, they make you big fat liars. Either he was excited because I was nervous or he knew something I did not. About 15 minutes into the monitoring, I had what they call a Titanic contraction. That is a contraction that lasted 5 minutes long. When this happened his heartrate when a little crazy and then there was no fluctuation in the rhythm. He was not flatlined, he just was really worn out from the massive contraction. I was assured by the nurse that all was well, even though the one warning sign, the inactive heartline, was there. She then left the room and came back with my doc only a few minutes later. He walked in and said "today is the day". With that I was on my way to having my boy. Meanwhile, Charlie is at home with the girls, and I have the car seats.....it was just a routine check! While I am waiting at the hospital, he is getting a shower, getting a sitter and calling in the troups. What a crazy hour. By noon, the doc came in and broke my water, started me on the pitocin and ordered my epidural. The rest was hurry up and wait. Charlie arrived at the hospital not long afterwards. They started my epidural and more hurry up and wait. At 4 o'clock, the doc came back in and checked me. He warned me not to push or sneeze, that the baby was right there. He said he needed to go put up his coat and he would be right back. An hour and a half later, we thought maybe he was pulling our chain. Finally he comes back. What a nightmare he had just had. An emergency C-section, an emergency delivery and another delivery. How did I go from 1st in line to 4th? Well, its called an epidural. If I had not had that, then I would have stayed first. Did I mention it was a full moon? And since I tested positive on my Group B strep test, there was a 5 hour window of time before I had to start another round of antibiotics. So, we cut it pretty close. Two pushes later and baby Robb was here. 7 lbs, 2.8 ozs, 20.5 inches long. 5:47 pm. There are definate advantages to having a baby in the daytime and to being induced. I think this was the easiest of the three! We spent the next 3 hours just looking at him, taking pictures and visiting with family. Hattie just wants to hold him. Riley thinks he is a toy doll or something. After everyone left, Charlie went with the nurse to give Robb his first bath. I took a cat nap and waited on word from the Pedi. He is an Aggie, so we talked more about A&M's changes than we did the baby. Strange. Robb was in great health even though he was early and had his umbilical cord around his neck.

The next day, we got to leave after our 24 hour mark. We all loaded up and were heading down the hall to leave when one of the nurses remembers that I am to have a shot of Rhogam. WOO HOO! So I got to bend over at the reception desk and take it in the hip. That was fun. Hattie really wanted to watch me get a shot, which is only fair since I have seen her get a million of them. But we opted for her to go on down the hall. Now all of my children's birthdays are on even numbers, ending in 4.