Adam works nights, so we’ve had a lot of talks about what if I went into labor while he was at work and it was the middle of the night. We spoke to Yvonne, and she was our back up in case that happened. But I’ve told myself a million times, labor hardly ever happens out of the blue. I’ll feel lousy for hours before anything happens, I’ll have plenty of time to tell Adam that we’d probably have to head to the hospital later in the day, or the next afternoon. Of course that is exactly what DIDN’T happen.
At 2 a.m. I woke up and realized I was bleeding, pretty badly, but not having any contractions. After my heart almost stopped, I called the doctor who reluctantly told me to come to the hospital, but said that, “It’s probably nothing, I’m sure it’s fine.” This had never happened to me before, and I’m no doctor, but I was pretty sure this meant the baby would be coming sooner than later. I called Adam. No answer, no response to text messages. I called Yvonne, no answer, no response to text messages. I called Yvonne 6 MORE TIMES, no answer. Who could watch Sarai?? I called my neighbor (who didn’t even realize she was a back up, heck, I didn’t either!), she’s in Maine on vacation! So I called my principal, she lives right in the village and gave me her number in case of emergency… disconnected!! (She just retired and had moved to NC the day before!) I called 3 more coworkers and friends… automatic pick-up. Doesn’t anyone leave their phone on in the middle of the night???
In all this chaos, I called Adam’s job. He was napping somewhere in the building, they found him, he called, and headed home. My doctor called me back, twice, now suddenly more concerned and wanted me to go to the nearest hospital instead of going to my hospital (a difference of about 10 minutes). I scrolled through my phone looking for someone, anyone!, who lives close who might answer their phone. I called Rose, she was Sarai’s OT temp for a few weeks, and she lives right in the village. She answered! And she headed over to watch Sarai. She tried to convince me to drive me to the hospital, but I said I could drive myself. I still wasn’t feeling contractions, I felt fine really.
At the hospital I was hooked up to the monitor right away, I was having contractions and was 4 cm dilated. The bleeding didn’t really alarm anyone, and in fact, no one really had an answer for where it was coming from. An ultrasound didn’t show that I had a placental abruption. Adam got to the hospital around 4 a.m., contractions suddenly got stronger and things really took off. We called my mom, who headed down from Syracuse right away. I got an epidural… (Halleluiah! The best epidural on the planet!)… suddenly, 7 cm dilated… I had some ice chips…. Suddenly 10 cm dilated! I pushed for a while, and my mom made it! 15 minutes after she got to the hospital, Caleb was born!
With blonde hair and blue eyes, he looks NOTHING like Sarai.
The transition to two kids has been pretty good. Adam has been home, thank goodness, and will be home for a couple more weeks. That has made things much easier. Sarai has been pretty good with Caleb, and Caleb is a perfect baby! He’s calm, he’s a good sleeper, I didn’t know babies could be this good! It’s not easy to be alone with both kids. Today I took them both out alone for the first time, and just getting them both in and out of the car is VERY difficult. But it’s something we’ll all have to get used to.
We’re trying to keep Sarai to her schedule as much as possible, keeping her therapies and taking her to playgroup. She recently got new braces, AFO’s, that seem to help keep her toes from dragging when she walks. The botox has made her muscles more loose and she scissors her feet less when walking. And we got her cool kitty-crocs to jazz-up the AFO’s!
Super cute!!
Reading stories and doing art projects keep her busy too…
Outing at the park…
She is officially off of Sabril… no more meds for her! Whoo hoo!!
We’ve had lots of visitors come to visit our new little guy, and our old big girl!
We’re still looking into alternative therapies for Sarai. We’re still considering acupuncture, we will be starting swim therapy through early intervention in September, and I’m trying to work on getting insurance to maybe pay for hippotherapy. Hippotherapy is on a horse, and is supposed to be very beneficial for kids with CP in improving muscle tone and balance. I’ll keep you posted!
I hope you’re all staying cool out there and enjoying your summer!
Love and kisses to you and your families! Muuuuah!!
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