The Crandall Family: May 2011

In between Ryan's graduation and the start of his bar prep there was a week break, so we decided to have a baby. It was actually really lucky that she came on Tuesday instead of the scheduled Thursday because it gave us those extra days to go home and get a little more settled.

It all started Monday morning when I woke up and she had dropped like 4 inches. I was waddling all over the place and I just kept thinking that there wasn't any way that I was going to make it clear to Thursday. That night, we had some friends over for dinner and then they watched our boys while Ryan and I went to a movie. This was perfect timing since it was going to be our last date for a while. Around 3 a.m. I started having contractions. Not super painful, but enough to keep me from sleeping. It was deja vu from when I was pregnant with Reese but I didn't want to wake up Ryan because I jumped the gun before with Reese and we ended up having to stay the whole day in the hospital. So I took a drink of water at 4 a.m. (I double checked the time since you can't have anything in your stomach when you go in for surgery) and just tried to keep myself distracted with facebook and blogs. Around 7 a.m. they were just getting too painful so I woke Ryan up and told him that we should probably find someone to watch the boys... Tyra to the rescue! She came over around 8 and then we made our way to the hospital.

They hooked me up to some monitors and started to take the regular tests. We found out that my membranes had ruptured some 30 hours earlier so we had to get the baby out that day since the risk of infection increases a lot after about 24 hours after the membranes rupture. Everything started going really fast and I started getting really nervous. This was my first time really experiencing contractions and the pain just compounded my anxiety. I wasn't really mentally prepared because I thought that I still had two days left. As they were taking some blood samples and hooking up my iv (which took 4 times! I have huge veins with see-through skin and this was the first time anyone has had a difficult time getting an iv in so that was another stressor) an alarm started going off. At first no one paid attention and then someone got on the intercom and frantically announced that it was a "code blue" and then everyone jumped up and started rushing around, running in and out of my room. Then I hear a guy running down the hall yelling "We got a seizer!" Apparently, there was another pregnant patient that was having a seizure and had to be rushed into an emergency c-section. She was in the recovery room with me and had to go to the ICU afterward. But that was the icing on the cake for me and I broke down! When the nurses came back, they were all concerned, wondering why I was crying. All I could say was that it was hormones! But I was so nervous!

It didn't take long before they were telling me that I was up next and Ryan was getting on his scrubs. They wheeled me back to the operating room and by then I was shaking so bad I could hardly walk. I was so glad that Ryan was there! They let him right in and he got to be there with me even while they were giving me the spinal. Even thinking about this experience makes me anxious. I don't know why I was so nervous, I don't remember getting so worked up with the other two. I just was so certain that something was going to go wrong and I didn't feel ready at all. I'm so glad that I was proven wrong! Gwen made it safe and sound and recovery has gone pretty smoothly. She's a pretty easy baby and sleeps and eats well. It's been really nice bottle feeding! It's taken a lot of the pressure off me and I feel like it was the right thing to do. Especially after seeing how much fun Carson has feeding her, it was definitely the right thing for our situation right now.

Speaking of Carson, he has had some great Carson Quotes lately since the little miss has been home. The hardest thing about having three kids so far is trying to keep the boys off Gwen! They just want to smoother her (literally) with love! Carson can't get enough of her! He's always asking where she is and if she's okay. Reese isn't quite as interested but he still is always asking to hold "him." He's a little confused because my sister in law had her baby boy a week before and named him Tyce so Reese thinks that Gwen is baby Tyce. Reese had a tough day or two at first and ended up having 7 accidents in one day. He's doing a lot better but I really felt bad for Ryan who had to clean up mess after mess. Carson is adjusting really well but he's a little weepy and a little unsure of things but both boys are coming around and doing great. Anyway, back to Carson Quotes:

Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for the sunshine.
Thank you for the Little Princess.
Grateful she came to our family.
Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

I love her. She's so cute. She loves me. I'm twiter-pated. (from the movie Bambi)

And remember this song? He's even changed the words, his idea, to go...
Gwen, I love you. Gwen, I do...

That boy smitten!

Well, kudos to anyone who's actually read this whole post! It turned out a lot longer than I planned so I'll just have to add the pictures in another post!