Drew's birth

Drew's birth was an experience all it's own.

I was 37 weeks and had had preterm labor, which wasn't really doing anything. I told Eric he wasn't allowed to go on vacation because I was going to be having Drew but he said that I'd be just fine and he'd be back in three days. HA

I started contracting and it was actually doing something so John and I went to the hospital. While there Drew's heart rate was all over the place and I had three nurses running in to break my water attach the heart monitor to his head and roll me every which way. They also threatened to c-section him out without Eric if things didn't improve. They then called Eric to tell him we were in fact having a baby. We caught him just in time. He was at WalMart, in their motor home, getting stuff for the camping trip. Yes, he was trying to leave but I was having none of that. When Eric got there I was at a four and he didn't get what the nurses were all up in arms about with the heart rate. He looked at the heart rate recording and when they left he said that it wasn't nearly as bad as they were saying. Since I still had a little while left, he went to help Dr. Frandsen c-section twins. I knew that going from 5 to complete would go super quick but I didn't think that going from 4 to 5 would be quick. Shortly after he left they told me I was a five and I told them that it would be super quick after that. Half an hour later they checked me again and I was complete and ready to go. We decided that since Eric was busy we would wait to push until he came back, which was fine with me, I had an epidural and I didn't feel a thing. When Eric came back about half an hour later, we got ready to push and Drew's head was already crowning and it only took one push to get him out.

The nurse handed him to me and while I was holding him I could tell something wasn't right. I kept trying to give him back to the nurse and she kept telling me that he was fine. She finally took him and agreed to take him to the nursery to clean him up. She thought that I just wasn't bonding with my baby and that with some time I would and then things would be fine. John went with Drew and about an hour later he came back and told me that Drew was in the NICU because of breathing problems. 

He was hooked up to the CPAP machine when I was finally able to go and see him and they had put surfactant into his lungs to help him. They kept telling me that because he was full term he would be fine and it would only be a couple days. SIX days later we were able to take him home, with oxygen and a heart monitor. When we left they told me that he'd only need the oxygen for a few days, MAYBE a week and then he'd be fine. THREE months later they came and picked up his oxygen container!

Needless to say, Drew's birth and subsequent aftermath was much harder to deal with than Alexis'. He was a great sleeper, but he was also sick for most of the first two and a half / three years of his life.