What an exciting few days! We are thrilled to have a new baby and he is quite cute too! I want to thank all of our friends and family for supporting us on this emotional roller coaster of a week. We apologize for not returning any phone calls, messages, or emails. We know how many people care and support us, but sometimes it becomes overwhelming and we just need time to take it all in. If we haven't been able to update you, we apologize as well. We will catch up with everyone soon, we promise!
I will try to recap the last few days, please feel free to read all about Parker's arrival into the world.
Parker's Birth Story:Chris and I headed to Labor and Delivery on the morning of 12/31/08. We got there about 7:30am and got settled into our room, met our nurse, filled out paperwork, asked questions, and all of that good stuff. The nurse started my pitocin about 9:20am and things were a little slow at first. The nurse midwife told them to up the anty and really get things moving after she came in to check on me. Well, up the the anty we sure did! Contractions started and was easily able to breath and relax my way through them at first. Quickly, they started to get pretty intense and nurses were in and out to check on me. Parker's heart rate was becoming pretty irregular with the contractions. They kept changing my position to keep him moving in there. At one point the nurse rolled me on my left side and instantly my water broke! Boy, did the contractions move quickly after that. At that point, things were pretty intense and my mind gets a little blurry. They checked me and I was 4cm dilated. Awesome! They could start my epidural. (Whoever invented that needs a big hug and kiss from me!) By the time they got the epidural rolling they checked me again and I was 7cm. Things were really moving. Shortly after that I was fully dilated. Time to push! Parker didn't like that so much! The nurse midwife asked me to wait around for mother nature to make things progress without pushing. It was a little tough but not too bad since I had the epidural. When we finally decided to push it took 45 minutes and Parker was here at 5:20pm! He seemed like such a little peanut!
Parker's First Few Minutes of Life:When Parker first arrived he was struggling to breath so he looked like a little baby smurf. He also had his cord wrapped around each of his ankles. Everyone was moving pretty quickly in the delivery room. I kept looking at Chris and my sister they had some really scared looks on their faces, but luckily I was a little out of it and didn't really comprehend what was going on. The NICU team came in and started to take care of him. You could hear him cry which was really reassuring but it was definitely a struggle. They quickly brought him to me for a kiss. Chris, the NICU team, and baby Parker were off to the NICU nursery. They got him there and started caring for him immediately. It was pretty emotional for Chris to have see his brand new baby go through some medical procedures only being a few minutes old. I was in recovery with my Mom and sister. The NICU nurse and Chris came back after a little while and reassured me that although Parker had a rough start he would be fine soon.
Parker is a Fighter!I finally got to see our little baby about 11:00pm. It was very emotional to see him hooked up to monitors and have an IV in his arm. He also had a little space helmet over his head. He was breathing on his own but needed a little extra oxygen to help him out. He looked a lot better than he did in the delivery room, he was like a little pink piglet now! By the next afternoon, he was about 3/4th of a day old he had already pulled out the tube that was going down his to his belly. What a little stinker! When my sister and I went to visit him later that afternoon he was breathing open air! No more space helmet! (This probably seems like a short time to most of you, but to a brand new Mommy it seemed like a lifetime) I finally got to hold him when was a little over 24 hours old, what a great feeling that was. The morning of Day 2 he moved into a regular nursery baby crib! He still had an IV and some monitors, but he looked like a normal baby now. I had to be discharged from the hospital that afternoon and that was not easy to leave that hospital with NO baby. I knew that he was in some of the best hands, but it wasn't what we had anticipated when we arrived at the hospital on 12/31/08. For now, we will try to spend as much time as possible with him at the NICU and watch him make more leaps and bounds to get healthy enough to come home. Dr. Dean told me that he would probably allow him to come home on Wed 1/7 or Thu 1/8.
Keep looking for updates on the Lowe Family!
