Baby Krew

Okay, here is the story of Krew's birth. We have to rewind a few weeks for the whole thing, so here it goes. On March 10, I went to my 37 week appointment.(this is how big my belly was)

After listening to the heartbeat my midwife started feeling around for the baby. She told me she couldn't feel his head down and was going to grab another midwife for a second opinion. This was quite surprising to me as he had been head down up until this point, but I said okay and patiently waited for someone else to join the room. After a more experienced midwife came in and felt around, she too believed his head was no longer down. They said they wanted to be sure and had me head over to the ultrasound room for confirmation. Sure enough, little Krew's head was up and bum was down...he was breech. They assured me that since we caught it at week 37, I needed to go in for a 'Version' as soon as possible. They scheduled me to go back the next day for the manual attempt to turn the baby.

The procedure required me to be fasting 8 hours so we scheduled for Friday morning at 8:30 and were on our way. The next morning we returned and were hopeful. Why wouldn't we be since we were told there was an 80% chance that they could get the baby to turn? I was hooked up to a monitor for a 20 minute stress test to make sure the baby was okay, given a shot to relax my uterine muscles which helped for the turning process, and sent to another room for the attempt. After the doctor PAINFULLY pushed on my belly for what seemed like forever (Ben informed me it was only about 4 or 5 minutes), she stopped for a moment and asked me what she wanted me to do. I asked, "Well, what do you think?" and she responded with, "I don't think he's going to turn today." Really? In my head, I responded with, "Well then get away from me and stop hurting my belly!" but all that came out was, "Then let's not keep trying." Failure. 80% effective and we were in the unlucky 20% and by that point I felt like I was going to vomit. Great news.

So, we had to go back to the monitor for another stress test to make sure the baby was handling what just happened okay. After about 20 minutes, it wasn't looking good and the nurse informed us that they would probably be taking us down to labor and delivery since he was showing signs of stress. By the time the doctor made it in, about 3 minutes later, the baby's heartbeat was improving and they decided to watch me for another 5 minutes. His heartbeat showed drastic improvement so they realeased me. Now what? We were told that there was a slight chance that he would turn on his own, the but the percentage was getting less and less.

At my 38 week appointment, he was still breech so we scheduled a C-Section for Tuesday, March 22. We decided to try one more thing...a chiropractor. We had 2 appointments scheduled before the 22nd, but still no luck. At 39 weeks, we packed up and headed for the hospital. My C-Section was originally scheduled for 9:30am, but they were a little behind so it ended up being at 10:30am. We arrived at the hospital at 9:00am to get ready for the arrival of our baby!My parents and brother showed up before we went to the operating room and helped us get all suited up. Ben and I both walked down to the operating room at 10:30am. Ben stood by me and held my hand during the first part of the procedure. At 10:48am I heard a little grunt. Ben looked at me and said, "Did you hear that? I think that was him!" And immediately after, we heard a cry...nay, a scream. It was our little boy, and wow did he let us know he was out! He screamed through the whole cleaning off, measuring, weighing process! One of the nurses called out his weight of 7 lbs 11 oz and Ben looked at me with excited eyes. Ben loves slurpees, so I knew exactly what he was thinking. I was surprised that he weighed so much and was expecting a pretty fat baby...until we heard his length. "21 inches long" I heard from the corner of the room. What the? Was I really carrying such a large child in me? Anyway, after what seemed like forever they wrapped Krew up and handed him to Ben.

Ben then came over by my side with our son...still screaming! I started talking to Baby Krew and he immediately stopped crying and turned his head toward me...oh my heart just melted! He knew I was his Mommy and I loved it! I think I started crying a little. Then, Ben started talking to him and he found his voice as well. It was so cute! So, for the remainder of the stitching up process, Ben and I talked to, kissed, and loved our little boy. Our first family pictureAfter what seemed like forever, they were finished getting me closed up and back to our recovery room we went. They put Krew in my arms for the first time to wheel me back to the room and I was in Heaven holding our new little baby!It didn't take long before visitors showed up. Here are all of Krew's hospital visitors I couldn't fit one on the collage so here's Krew with GrandpaWe stayed in the hospital until Friday and then decided it was time to go home. Here's Dad and Krew getting ready to head out. And here is Krew in his car seat for the first time.We are so excited to have this little bundle of joy in our lives! He's such a sweet little boy and I can't wait to watch him grow, but I want him to stay this size forever! We've begun the biggest adventure of our lives and I can't help but think, "Are we ready for this?" Ready or not, here it comes!