SURPRISE!! SAM'S HERE!!

SO I was at work on Tuesday. Around 3 o'clock, while dealing with a particularly grumpy old man patient of mine, I suddenly got this curious feeling...of my water breaking! I called the OB and they wanted me to leave work and rest for a few hours and call back. I still had a slow water leak around 6 and they sent us on to the hospital.

We went to 'OB Assessment' in the hospital and they confirmed my water had broke, and that I was one centimeter dilated. I had no pain or contractions until that point. They decided to admit us and go ahead and start a Pitocin drip to speed up the process, since it is important to deliver ASAP after your water breaks. That Pitocin sucks. I didn't make it too long before I needed the epidural. And thank GOD for epidurals. Pitocin started at 10 pm, epidural started around 2am, and by 8am we were fully dilated. I pushed for 25 minutes and he was here! Once again, thank GOD for epidurals. Of course, my epidural ran out of juice literally minutes before we started pushing but there was enough good stuff left to get me through it all.

Chris was a trooper...didn't pass out or throw up or anything! He got some great photos in the room. Sam weighs 7lbs, 2oz and is 21 inches long. They took him almost immediately to the NICU so the doctors could assess his heart. It took most of the day, but the outcome of this initial assessment is nothing but good news.

As of right now, Sam is doing much better than expected. His vital signs are normal and he is keeping a great O2 saturation (which is really the most important vital sign in his case). His first Echocardiogram showed that his condition is actually not quite as bad as expected...they called it a 'stable defect.' After consulting with the doctors in Atlanta, it was decided that Sam would not need to be rushed to Atlanta after all!

Even better than that, they think his defect is stable enough to warrant us being able to skip the first of the three surgeries!! They are going to keep him here for observation for about a week, and then we can take him home! We will monitor him from there, and he will go in for his first surgery (which is technically the second in the original series of three) sometime between 3 and 6 months. We are playing a wait and see game, but so far so good.

We had him baptized today in the NICU since his future is still bound to be bumpy. The pastor from our church came to the hospital, and they allowed me, Chris, the pastor, my mom and dad, and Chris's mom all in the NICU at once (they only usually allow two at a time). We did the baptism with all the nurses standing behind us watching and smiling. I feel bad that his baptism wardrobe consisted of a hospital grade knit cap, a diaper, and an assortment of tubes and wires, but it was actually very touching and reassuring to have the baptism out of the way.

Chris hasn't gotten to hold Sam yet, and I only got to hold him for a few brief seconds before they rushed him to the NICU. We are on our way to tell him goodnight in the NICU right now, and hopefully they will let us hold him a bit tonight. Keep your fingers crossed! I will update as I can!

~Kathy