Isn’t he gorgeous??! :D Looks just like Daddy :)
Wow, so where to start this blog now that I’ve introduced our lil Bigfoot?? Well for one, even though I’ve sent out a ‘thank you’ to family and friends, I have to say THANK YOU again. The support, amazing love, and constant prayers that were shared with our little family during our 51 hour trek of labor and delivery will never be forgotten. The prayers and love were constantly felt throughout every moment, which was such a gift for us! You all have no idea how much it meant and still means to us. We are still so incredibly moved and so grateful for how God has shared this goodness with us through our parents (the new and wonderful grandparents), our siblings (two pretty awesome uncles), extended family/relatives, and our second family of friends.
Our Birth Story
As all of you know, I was praying and hoping for a natural/vaginal delivery. And for the first two days and even on the third day I truly thought that it would come to fruition - given that I pushed for 3 hours while dilated at a 10. Bigfoot was positioned at a +2 - ready to meet his Mama and Daddy. But, as it would happen, my bone structure and Bigfoot’s size were not friends.
However, I was right about one thing! Our lil’ Bigfoot must know the gift of the Mass. Sunday morning arrived and I started feeling slight contractions at 9:30 AM. Not anything terrible at all so we decided to go to Mass figuring we needed to be nourished for the long-haul :) We went to Mass and then during the Final Blessing, my water broke! We felt excitement and a load of other emotions. GeekMan ran to get the car in a frenzy while I waddled my way out of Church. We called our obgyn and he instructed us to head to the hospital. We went home, got all our needs together and hopped in the car to the hospital.
At this point there were so many thoughts and emotions circling us. We couldn’t believe we would be meeting our little one within 24 hours (or so we thought lol) Upon arrival to the hospital, we got all prepped and ready to go. It was confirmed that there was amniotic fluid present and we were off to start our baby marathon.
All of Sunday and through the night we naturally were laboring and doing everything under the moon to induce and get consistent contraction to foster dilation. Our 18th hour came early Monday morning and we ultimately opted for getting induced with pitocin in hopes to further dilate. Hence, began our “medicated” birth, still hoping to avoid a c-section. During this early morning time, because we had not slept or ate we requested to do so, which our Dr was wonderful about. We then ate, slept, and then got ready for our next phase.
Pitocin started around 1pm and continued through the evening. The contractions were consistent, getting harder, and we were doing our Bradley thang - coping and managing pain :) Then came the shift change :P The new nurse increased my pitocin by 6 units in a very short time frame. My body was already responding well to the pitocin and dilating at the rate previously set, so this increase sent my body into straight hard labor contractions with no minute down times for about an hour and some. The “and some” was when we were waiting for the anesthesiologist to bring me an epidural because the pain I was feeling was not normal and the contractions were not subsiding even after the nurse turned off the pitocin and tried to flush my body of it. Fortunately, with your prayers we got through this time unharmed and lil’ Bigfoot remained the complete Champ that he is the ENTIRE time.
I think everyone on staff was always impressed with his constant strong heartbeat. He even had hiccups twice up to this point since labor started!
Well, after the epi-peppy kicked in they started the pitocin again and we were dilated at a 10 in no time. We were at a +2 by 7:30/8AM Tuesday morning. We started pushing at 8:30 (as family and friends know :)) only to be interrupted at 9:30 because there was a truck on blazing fire outside my room! ..I kid you not… Code Red was announced and the next thing you know I was trying to push our lil’ Bigfoot out of me down the hospital hallways to my transition/more “safe” room. Soon, drama quieted back down, we resumed pushing for another 2 hours only to find that our lil’ Bigfoot just was not going to fit. We had been at the same place for most of the three hours and could not get him over my tailbone? I think it was because of his posterior positioning, but who knows. After this, we were rushed to an emergency C-section. Alot of this time turned into quite the blur, but dear Geekman managed to get a good deal of it on video. I remember some, but admittedly, there are times I struggle to remember the sweet mama-moments because of the anesthetics given during the surgery. All in all, surgery went as well as major surgery could go after so much laboring and for that we are incredibly grateful. Also, when the time came, GeekMan announced with tears in his eyes that our baby was indeed a baby boy! We were both crying as much as lil Bigfoot when we laid our eyes on our little miracle! Beautiful baby Bigfoot arrived at 12:30PM :) Definitely, the best *gift* I’ve ever received in my life thus far!
Needless to say, things happened not as imagined but in the grand scheme of it all I know God’s Hand was always present keeping and protecting us. Not only that, but God gave us this beautiful baby boy! This pregnancy has been surrounded with such awesome prayer I know that all the beautiful lessons that God will have for us will continue to reveal themselves to us in the days to come. We have already been overwhelmed with all the amazing doctors, nurses, and staff at the hospital. They were all so incredible and kind. Each one we met this past week truly has been a blessing. The way they served us is beyond words. Also, our family and friends have been our rock, and for that we will never be able to thank you enough. To be honest, each sentence in this one paragraph deserves a blog post in and of themselves, which I hope to do once I figure out how to manage baby time and my time a bit better :)
Since leaving the hospital, I have been on quite the little recovery journey, which is why I have been MIA. Not to mention learning the many ropes of mommyhood :) And apparently, the duration and stages that our labor and delivery took was equivalent to me delivering four babies. Eeps! My goodness, I am one stubborn woman! Anywho, since recovery was expected to be a bit challenging my mom and mother in law graciously offered to stay with me the following two weeks (a week each). Words cannot express my gratitude and gratefulness or any other emotion I feel towards having my mom as well as my mother in law here those two weeks. (I also hope to dedicate a blog post to these experiences because those two weeks really meant so much to me) They both helped me figure out life with our lil’ Bigfoot as well as how to cope/manage recovery from labor and surgery :D So, for now, another huge thank you to both of them for being so willing to come be by my side. And, a ginormous Thank YOU to my dad and father in law for the sacrifice they imparted by being willing to share their amazing wives with our family.
Yay! Our lil’ growing family :D GeekMan and I are entirely grateful and pray that we have the Grace to be open to all that God still has planned in these upcoming weeks of recovery meanwhile adjusting to mommy and daddyhood. :D If anything, God really has already blessed him and I. He has given us so many amazing opportunities to grow together as well as grow with Him in such a short time. I feel I/we still need more time to digest it all :)Few souls understand what God would accomplish in them if they were to abandon themselves unreservedly to Him and if they were to allow His grace to mold them accordingly. — St. Ignatius Loyola
Pray that we, as a family, will have the grace to embrace our vocations unreservedly so that He may mold us into all that we are called to be, each moment of every day.
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