Tuesday, October 5, 2010

He's Here!!! Introducing James Ervin Crapo

Last Tuesday I went to bed at 10:30 and was woken up at 12:50 by my water breaking. I was so not ready for that. I hadn't looked at the clock yet but Michael was in the bathroom so I assumed it was after 3:00 and he was up getting ready for work. I called to him and told him my water just broke, he's like 'you're kidding right?' no I wasn't kidding, it was the real thing. So I got up and started getting dressed, and packing a few things because I didn't have anything ready yet.

We arrived at the hospital and checked in, got to my room and the nurse checked me. They still did the test to see if my water had broken, which I don't get, hello I've had 6 babies, don't you think I know when my water has broken. I was dilated to 4, not bad considering I had been a 1 1/2 on Monday. I figured it wouldn't be much more then 2 hours, the last four kids were all born right about 2 hours after my water broke. But I laid there until about 5:00 with contractions coming and going, not ever getting very strong or consistent. At 5:00 I got up and went to the bathroom and then the contractions started getting stronger. At 5:30 I was only at a 5, I was getting a little frustrated at this point. I got up and went to the bathroom again and Michael told me not to have the baby in the toilet. Ha ha, funny I said, she just checked me and I'm not going to have him yet.

Getting up and moving around that little bit must have really helped because within 20 minutes I was getting very uncomfortable. Surprisingly the contractions were strong but not as painful as I remember them being with the other kids. I called the nurse in and she checked me, wow, I only had a little bit of anterior lip. She said not to push yet and went to get the doctor. He walked into the room just as I had another contraction and I tried not to push. But with the next contraction while he was still in the corner dressing I pushed and the nurse told him the head was out and with another push he was out. I sat up and touched him as he lay there on the bed, what a beautiful wonder he was. All too soon the doctor was there suctioning him out and handing him off to the nurse so she could take him straight to the nursery because he was of course 6 weeks early and they wanted him in there in case there were complications with him.

He was born at 6:01, a little more than 5 hours after my water broke. Michael went to the nursery with him and came back a little later to tell me that he was 4lbs 5oz, and 17 inches long. I thought that was a very strange coincidence for him and Ammon to have both been born at 34 weeks and 2 days and to both weigh the exact same. But I later found out that he was actually 15 oz, Michael hadn't seen the 1 when the nurse wrote the weight down.


James was in the nursery in the infant warmer with oxygen until 10:00 that night, he was breathing it was just very shallow. He also had an IV, the nurses tried 6 times to put it in his hands or feet and each time blew the vein. Finally they called in the anesthesiologist and he put it in a vein on his forehead. He had antibiotics just as a precaution because it was unknown why my water broke, if I had an infection they wanted to take care of it before he got sick. He finally got to come into my room on Thursday after lunch. Michael brought the kids down after school and they all held him and loved on him.







What a blessing he is, to be here and be healthy. I am so glad he didn't have to spend more time in the hospital. I think they made Ammon stay until he was 5 lbs. When we left the hospital James weighed 4 lbs. 14 oz. I'm sure it was due to the continuous flow of IV fluids they were giving him, for everything he lost they were pumping it back in.