Baby Connor has arrived!!!

Our precious bundle of joy is finally here!! Connor was born at 2:09 am on Wednesday, December 8th. He was 8 pounds 8 ounces and 19.75 inches long. You might be wondering why it took me so long to post about little Connor's arrival, and it's all because of his eventful birth. Connor ended up being born via emergency c-section, so needless to say, we've had a hectic week since he's been born!!

I've had so many people ask about the "story" behind the c-section, so I figured this would be a good place to go through what happened. Basically, on Tuesday night, I started having HUGE contractions. If you'll recall, I was already dilated and we'd had our share of contractions already, but these were insanely hard ones. The kids just happened to fall asleep very early on Tuesday evening (they fell asleep at 6pm which is totally not like them) so they were asleep as Chris and I bustled around the house and tried to decide if this was the "real thing". We started timing contractions at 10:20pm, and were in the car on the way to the hospital with two wide-awake children by 11:20pm because my contractions were getting closer and closer with each one. We didn't even wait for the doctor to call us back and when she did call my cell as we were half way to the hospital, she said it's a good thing that we left before she called. When we got to the hospital, we learned that it was a REALLY good thing that we left when we did: I was already dilated to 8cm. They said that it was too late to have an epidural because this baby was on his way! So, they gave me inter-thecal morphine, which is just one shot in the back and the effects last for about two hours. The shot took the pain of my contractions away but I could feel everything else, which was just a crazy experience since I had epidurals for both Caleb and Hannah's births. Anyway, the doctor came in minutes after I received the shot. She broke my water and said "Okay, it's time to push!" Everything was happening crazy-fast, but it was exciting to know that we would meet Connor very soon!! The kids were with us at the hospital and Chris' parents were on their way to pick them up, however, everything was happening so fast that the kids had to go sit with the nurses while Chris stood by my side. (They didn't mind. The nurses colored with them and gave them snacks---they were in heaven!) I started pushing but Connor wasn't making much progress in coming out. It was determined that he was sunny-side up (face-up) and it would be harder to get him out. We kept trying but all that was happening was that Connor's heart rate would go way down with each contraction and it wasn't recovering the way the doctor wanted it to. She (the doctor) ended up trying to use suction on Connor's head (so while I was pushing, she was pulling), but again, it wasn't working. Finally, the doctor said that if he didn't come out with one more push, she was going to have to do a c-section to get him out quicker. One push later (after an hour of pushing), with Connor still in, everything really started happening fast!! All of a sudden, they started running me (in my bed) down the hall to the operating room. At the same time, they put a code over the loudspeaker and said "c-section! c-section!", which made people start running around everywhere doing various things that I'm sure they've had to do practice drills for. They pushed me past Chris who said, "I'll be right beside you!" to me, just as a nurse told him, "Oh, no, Dad can't go. Sorry." Chris was left in the dust while everyone rushed into the O.R. with me. It was like I was in the middle of a medical drama and everything was just happening so fast!! Once in the O.R., they had me knocked out within minutes. Connor was born just a few minutes after that, and he got to meet his Daddy, siblings and grandparents, all while I was unconscious! They woke me up an hour after Connor was born, and I finally got to meet my precious boy. This is when we got to know more about the c-section itself. As it turned out, Connor had a knot in his umbilical cord that we didn't know about until he was born. With every push, the cord was tightening the knot, which was making Connor's heart rate go down. If he would have come out with the pushing, the knot would have really tightened and he would have lost oxygen to his brain. As it was, the knot never tightened (because of the c-section) and when they tested the blood in the cord after his birth, they found that no oxygen was lost to Connor's brain and he was born perfectly healthy. How amazing it was that everything turned out so wonderfully!! I think I prayed about five times between the time we were put in the delivery room to the time they put me out. I really feel like God was guiding the whole event because I wasn't scared one bit as they rushed me into the operating room and told me all sorts of details of what was going on. It's like He was whispering in my ear, "Let these people use the knowledge I gave them to take care of what needs to be done. They know what they're doing and your little boy will be here soon." We are so grateful and blessed to have everything turn out the way that it did. It also makes me sorry for all the times I complained about Connor taking too long to arrive---there was a plan in place the whole time, so I never needed to worry.

The other big event happened as we were discharged from the hospital on Saturday. I'm sure you've heard or have your own stories about the "December Blizzard" that we had this past weekend. We were discharged on Saturday around lunchtime---just in time to drive in the worst conditions I have ever seen!! (I was 10-years old when the "Halloween Blizzard" happened back in 1991, and all I recall of that one was fun playing in the snow and several snow days from school.) This storm was so horrible that even the snow plows couldn't keep up. It took us 2.5 hours to drive from the hospital in Edina, to my mom's house in Lakeville to our home in Cottage Grove. (Normally, this trip would have taken just an hour or less.) We saw a hundred vehicles (at least) stuck or in ditches, and we had to make several detours as there were multiple cars stuck on every on- and off-ramp throughout the metro. We finally made it home (with two kids who thought this was an adventure and one baby who thankfully slept the whole way), and I've never been so happy to see my house as I was at the moment we pulled onto our street. I believe we ended up with around 15 inches of snow in our town, while the town just north of us ended up with 20 inches. What a story we'll be able to tell Connor about not only his birth, but also the crazy drive home from the hospital. Again, so many prayers were said and answered as we trekked home that day.