Courtland Has Arrived!

Well, he’s here. Our sweet little Courtland is here. Last night around 11:30 I sent Michael the following e-mail: (he was on call on a 30-hour overnight surgery shift at the hospital).

Subject: Contractions
“So, 11:30, 11:39, 11:47, (a little one at 11:49), 11:54 . . .
I guess I'll go to bed. I suppose if I really were to go into labor I'd wake up, and if not I'll get some sleep. Love ya!”

Of course, Michael didn’t even have a chance to read that e-mail last night since he had to consult on 10 different patients and only got 2 hours of sleep. I stayed up late reading (I never can seem to make myself go to sleep early when Michael’s on call) and got to bed at 12:30. Then I woke up around 2:45 to some contractions that were obviously stronger than the ones I had had before I went to bed, since I couldn’t sleep through them any longer. At around 3:15 I called Michael. (Actually, first I paged him with the number 911911911 – that was our planned code for “I am in labor” ever since my first pregnancy, and he had always been with me when I went into labor all the other times, so I finally got to use it – but then I called him on his cell phone a minute later and told him I thought it was time). I gathered together all of the things on my little “take to the hospital” list, all the time writing down when each contraction started. They got to be about 3 minutes apart, and we were trying to follow the midwife’s advice to come in a little “early” this time, rather than laboring at home for a while before coming in, because I was group B strep positive. When you have that, they want to give the mom a dose of antibiotics when you first arrive at the hospital, and then wait 4 hours before giving you a second dose – I have had them attempt this on 2 or 3 of my previous pregnancies and have always had the baby come before I got the second dose (and none of my babies have ever gotten any infection from it or anything).

When we arrived at labor and delivery the receptionist at the front desk was having us sign a lot of paperwork and each time she handed me a paper she would say something like, “This one is for you to sign for . . . if you stay,” and “If we don’t send you home, this paper is for . . .” Needless to say I wasn’t especially fond of that receptionist, but I knew that I was in labor, so it didn’t really matter too much to me if she believed that I was or not. The nurse told me that when I walked in the doors one of the other nurses at the front desk said that I probably wouldn’t stay because I looked too happy, but then when she heard that it was my 5th baby, she took it back. I guess I probably just had a smile on my face because I knew he was coming today, and I’ve felt pretty ready for him to arrive, especially the last few days.

So, I was dilated to a 5 when we arrived at the hospital around 4:30am (I have been dilated to an 8 at my arrivals at the hospital with the last few pregnancies). They gave me the first dose of the antibiotics and then called the anesthesiologist in for my epidural, which I appreciated. The epidural did relieve my pain, but after a few more contractions I told them that it was still painful on my left side. (I’ve never had an epidural do that before). So the kind anesthesiologist came back and gave me another dose, and I appreciated that he didn’t make me feel bad and that he said he’d come back right away if I needed him again. That second dose didn’t do too much to relieve the pain on my left side when I had a contraction, so he adjusted the epidural and came back with a much stronger dose that he said should really make it so I didn’t feel any pain at all. He said that if that didn’t work he’d remove the epidural and put in a new one. I thought that it was starting to help a little, but when the anesthesiologist saw that I could still easily move my legs up and down with that stronger dose, he got ready to replace the epidural because he said I shouldn’t have been able to do that by then. He said that sometimes the epidural only gets one side of the nerve, or something, and replacing it should help. Then I had a really killer contraction that made me cry it was so bad, so he quickly put in a new epidural, and it worked immediately. I have always been able to move my legs during my labors, even with my epidurals, and have often surprised the nurses at my ability to get up and walk on my own right after having a baby. But once all those doses of the epidural kicked in, I was worthless – I couldn’t move my body at all, let alone feel my legs. From the stomach down I could feel nothing, but I surely wasn’t complaining, since I couldn’t feel the pain either. (I was so glad that this anesthesiologist seemed to care, and didn’t just tell me that “epidurals aren’t perfect” and walk away, like the resident did when my epidural wore off during Camden’s delivery).

Right after that my water broke around 7am (nope, didn’t get that second dose of antibiotics in again – they were trying to wait until 8:30 for the second dose, oh well). The midwife and nurses had a shift change at 7, and the new ones came in and started setting up the carts, then they lifted up my legs (since I still couldn’t move them at all), and I didn’t even push, the baby came right out (which is kind of good, since I don’t know if I could have done much pushing with how numb I was anyways).

I guess when the baby came out he had some of the sack on his face, and he was holding part of it in his hand. The midwife said that when a baby comes out with it on his face like that it is called “on the caul,” and that is a very rare thing to happen now because so many people get their water broken by the doctors instead of it breaking on their own nowadays. It was interesting because she said that there was a tradition that babies born “on the caul” were going to be very spiritual people. I guess that this midwife has traveled to other countries giving medical care, and she said that this is a tradition in many different cultures. I had never heard of that before, but it was kind of a nice idea. The really interesting thing about it, though, was that Michael and I both thought right away of when Stephanie Wiesenfarth, my old girl scout leader, had called out of the blue one day when I was visiting San Diego in the fall. Neither my mom or I had spoken to Stephanie in a few years, and she is not a member of our church (nor is she prone to having mystical experiences all the time either), but she called to tell us that she had two dreams that I needed to be careful during this pregnancy and that in her dream she was told that my baby would grow up to be an important figure in my church. So, just an interesting little thing that reminded us of that conversation.

Anyways, Courtland Matthew Aaron Bradshaw was born at 7:18 am on Thursday, 5 February 2009 in Murray, Utah. He was our smallest baby, weighing in at 8 pounds 6 ounces (just two ounces less than his brother, Eli, who was our smallest up until now). He is a tall little boy: 22 inches long (almost as long as his brother, Camden, who was 22 ½ inches long, but who outweighed him by quite a bit as our biggest at 9 pounds 8 ounces). He is healthy, and he latched on without a problem and nursed for at least 20 minutes on each side right after he was born – that is definitely the best that any of my boys have done on their very first try, so hopefully that is a sign that he will continue to do well with the nursing and we won’t have to go through all the stress of lactation specialists that we had to get help from with Camden and Isaac. Courtland seems to be a very good sleeper – resting most of the day so far. Michael gave him a sponge bath this morning, which he enjoyed. Michael said that we should relish his cute little newborn cry, since we won’t have that around for a while again after Courtland gets older (actually, I think Michael’s exact words were that we wouldn’t hear that again until we have grandkids). And Courtland keeps making these sweet little baby noises in his sleep. We were relieved that he hasn’t shown any signs of difficulty breathing (although they insured us that Isaac’s problem when he was born didn’t seem to be genetic from any of the histories or exams that they did, we still wondered about the possibility of Courtland having a problem too). Oh, and he opens his big eyes so wide when he is awake – blinking and looking all around. And he has hair, too – about the same amount as his brothers (except Eli who didn’t have much at all when he was born), and I think it is going to be light-colored. I think that he may look like Kolby – his face is a little rounder, and I always thought that Kolby’s and Camden’s faces were a little more round and Eli’s and Isaac’s faces were a little longer when they were each newborns. Michael said that he wants to look at some newborn pictures of each boy and see who he thinks Courtland looks like the most. We haven’t seen any dimples yet, like Camden and Isaac, but those sometimes don’t make an appearance until later when they really start to give you big smiles. Oh, and he definitely has a cute Bradshaw nose – I think kind of like Isaac’s.

Michael called home this morning to tell the boys that Courtland was here. When he told Eli that Courtland was out of Mommy’s tummy, he said there was a long pause before Eli said in a rather exaggerated tone, “Oh my!” I think Michael is going to try to pick up the boys later on this afternoon and bring them over to see the baby, since (miracle of miracles) none of our boys are contagious with anything! (Whenever I’ve had a baby in the past, our older kids have always had something, like rosiolla or strep throat, which made things a little more difficult). And then this evening Michael is picking my mom up at the airport. The plan is for her to come for a few days to see the baby, but with her broken arm after that snowboarder hit her a couple weeks ago she was concerned about us having to help her do things like get dressed, so they made plans that she will stay for a few days, and then in a week (after Michael has to go back to work), both of my parents and my brothers all get to come for a week (I am thinking that the idea is that way they can help me with the baby and the boys and they can also help mom get around while she’s here too). I’m sorry that mom has to deal with this broken arm, but I have to admit that I am quite excited that it works out to have everyone come!

Well, I took a good nap after we got moved to our room, which I needed – I was exhausted! And now Michael and Courtland are both taking naps too, which is probably good for both of them. Since I only recently gained the ability to move my legs once I woke up from my nap, I haven’t been up and about. Courtland is laying in his little basinet right next to my bed sleeping, and he is adorable, but I am hesitant to get up and try to find the camera to take pictures of him, since I don’t know for sure if I have all the feeling back in my legs yet or not. So, I don’t have a good close-up picture of Courtland to post yet, but I’ll get one soon. For now, these couple that we took with him right after he was born will have to do.