Our Sweet Hunter Cole

Thank you, Dad, for updating our blog. (My dad jokes that even at my funeral, I'd have requested someone to update my blog, haha.)

I just wanted to expand upon our adventurous, yet glorious day yesterday as we welcomed our son, Hunter Cole, into the world. I believe that Hunter would have been born yesterday, regardless of whether or not our c-section was to be scheduled. When we got to the hospital, my contractions were less than 10 minutes apart. Needless to say, I was in a lot of pain already at certain moments prior to the surgery. However, the routine c-section ended up being anything but routine...but should this suprise us? Of course not. If anything went normally with this pregnancy, then that would be, well, abnormal!

Everything was fine with the baby, praise the Lord. He was breech and turned around backwards. That made it a little challenging for the doctor to remove him. Hunter came out crying right away, which was such a precious sound to hear so immediately. (We had not heard this as immediate with Madison, but little did we know she had some lung problems.) And, Hunter displayed that he was all boy right away as the doctor was lifting him out and he peed all over me. Of course, we were just so happy to meet and finally see our beautiful little boy!!!! He was so, so beautiful, with a perfectly round head and healthy, big body weighing in at 7 lb 11 oz.

The next paragraph is graphic, so you are forewarned...
While Hunter was with a Neonatologist getting checked out in the OR, I started to feel increasing pain - not near my incision, but toward the underneath of my rib cage. It spread to the rest of my abdomen like a bad stomach ache, then finally feeling like stinging fire. The doctor was collecting the cord blood and then we heard him speak very quickly and give orders to the assisting doctor, nurses and anesthesiologist to gather certain tools and administer a series of drugs I can't even pronounce. My uterus suddenly inverted and turned itself inside out. Later, the doctor told us that it was so severe, he was half a minute away from performing a complete hystorectomy on me. He said this type of thing is very unusual and in fact, he hadn't seen it happen in about five years. Thankfully, due to swift and steady hands, the doctors were able to manually manipulate the uterus and righted it into position. My body was in so much pain that even with my epidural, I was crying because I hurt so badly. Next, the doctor needed to remove my cerclage. Part of it had broken off, but the knot itelf was still in. However, tissue had grown over it and was unable to be removed. So, we have to decide whether to just leave it in forever, or it will need to be removed surgically in a couple months. The doctor is consulting with other doctors before we make a decision. Due to all of the increased pain, they gave me more pain medication and it knocked me out. I next woke up in the recovery room. I was only supposed to be in this room for about an hour before going to my post partum room, but I was actually in there for about 2 1/2 hrs. My body temp dropped and remained at 94 degrees. When I woke up, I was unbearably cold, so much in pain, and had all of this space-age material draped on me. Finally, my temp raised to 97 degrees and I was allowed to be taken to the nursery to see my baby!

Because of the added pushing and pulling in the OR, I've experienced more pain than normal while recovering. I felt like I had been run over by a truck over and over again. But, when I see my little boy's face, all that pain just goes away (almost). :) We have thoroughly enjoyed every minute with him. Although we were so very happy when Madison was born, we were still very much wrought with concern for her health and her life in general. It is so nice this time to be able to hold our baby right away, to nurse him, and to have him in our room! What a huge treat that we do not take for granted.

Hunter is doing wonderfully. We are in awe of his little squeals, his newborn smell, his long fingers and toes, his baby soft skin, and his bright blue eyes. The doctor did have a couple concerns, one being a balled spot on his head where the skin had not healed properly. They gave him an ultrasound on his brain yesterday, but everything looks just fine. His skull and brain are not damaged, it's just his skin. Otherwise, he is a very happy baby. He started out feeding really well. Today has been more of a challenge. He's having a little tongue issue while nursing and it's just been a challenge to keep him awake long enough to eat! But, with lots of hard, tedious work today...we are working through it. It takes a lot of patience.

Madison came to visit us today in all her Big Sister glory! She just stared and stared at her little brother when she first arrived. After a few minutes, she was over it and much more interested in things around my hospital room. How many things she could touch, pull down, etc. I looked down at my one day old baby...then looked over at my 18 month old baby...and thought "Oh my, what have we gotten ourselves into?" But, we'll just take it one day at a time, learn as we go, and try to laugh and enjoy each moment.

We've enjoyed several sweet visitors already. We were told we can go home on Thursday. We also thank you beyond words for your kind emails, texts, voicemails, calls...and your many coveted prayers. We feel so incredibly blessed by you. We give God all the glory for bringing us through this so far. We've got some more small hurdles to jump (some I have chosen not to write about), but I just have to remind myself to trust in Him. I continue to look to Him, as I know He won't leave us hanging! He will show us the way...as He always has in the past...He will continue to do so as He leads us in the future.