My wife has been through a lot of pain this week. On Sunday I came home early from a meeting at church because Lindsey had texted me saying she was in a ton of pain. She had already passed a kidney stone 7 weeks earlier, so she was pretty sure that was happening again. So as soon as I got home we rushed off to the hospital because she was in a ton of pain. For those women who have passed a kidney stone and delivered a baby, I am told that passing a kidney stone is much worse. When we got to the hospital they loaded up Lindsey up on morphine to help with the pain. They even gave her a morphine pump so she could give herself more when needed. I was worried she was going to become addicted!
By early Monday morning she passed a kidney stone and we thought the worst had passed and we could go home soon. Little did we know that there were two more kidney stones in Lindsey that she passed in the next few hours. Below is the last one she passed. Word spread around the hospital about how big the last kidney stone was that Lindsey passed, so doctors started coming to our room to see it.
During a check of Lindsey while we were at the hospital, they told her she was 100% effaced, but not dilated. So at least we knew our baby wasn't coming then.
Finally by Monday evening they let Lindsey out of the hospital after they confirmed there were no more kidney stones. So after 26 hours of Lindsey sitting in a hospital and me watching my wife be in a ton of pain, we went home.
Monday night we relaxed and Lindsey caught up on some much needed sleep. Tuesday morning we went in for Lindsey's regularly scheduled checkup with her OB/GYN. At that appointment they told her she was 2cm dilated!! We couldnt believe it.
Right as we walked out of the doctor's office, Lindsey had her first contraction. She had a few more on our walk to the car and it seemed pretty evident that the baby was coming. But we thought we had at least another week to prepare, so we rushed home to get ready.
I went into nesting mode! I hear that usually that is what the expectant mother does, but somehow it happened to me. So I scrubbed the floors, cleaned the bathroom, finished a touch up paint job on the crib, etc. It was kind of funny to see myself getting in this mode. But I knew the baby was coming!
We had a few errands to run as well. Saturday night we had stopped by Best Buy to check out video cameras and had planned on coming back this week to purchase one. So on our way to the hospital we purchased one. By that point Lindsey's mom and flown in from Denver and my brother and his wife were nice enough to pick her up from the airport and meet up with us at Best Buy. After Best Buy Lindsey and her mom went to get a pedicure. Lindsey really wanted one before childbirth, so off they went. It was kind of funny to see Lindsey having contractions while she was getting her nails done! After the pedicure we went straight to the hospital.
We had put off going to the hospital until the last moment because we had spent so much time there. When we showed up to check-in, all the nurses knew us from our two previous visits to the hospital for kidney stones (at 30 weeks and 37 weeks). It was pretty funny to be so well known at the labor and delivery department without ever having a baby!
So many people had told Lindsey that labor wasn't that bad once the epidural kicks in. Well when we showed up at the hospital they were extremely busy and couldnt give Lindsey an epidural for two hours. So that meant more pain for Lindsey after dealing with kidney stones a little over 24 hours before.
Finally she got an epidural, but unfortunately it didnt completely help. She was still having a ton of back pain that the epidural wasnt helping. They tried to up the dosage, but it didn't work. So after hearing about how great epidurals are and how much they help, the one Lindsey got wasnt heping all that much.
At around 10:45am on Wednesday April 22, it was time to start pushing. The epidural wasnt completely working for her so she was still in a ton of pain during delivery. But at 11:22am, Camden Justin Neumann joined us!!!!!
Our son was here! He weighed in at 7.4lbs and 20 inches. I was in a daze because I couldnt believe I was a Dad!!! And I also couldnt believe how great Lindsey did in the delivery, even though she was in so much pain! But while I was looking at our new son, the nurse hit the "Code Blue" button because he was turning purple and not getting enough air. Next thing I knew there were literally 10 doctors and nurses rushing into our room to look at our son. Not exactly the sight you want to have when one of your kids is born. They tried to stimulate his breathing and that wasnt helping. He was breathing on his own, but he wasnt getting enough oxygen in his body. So they started giving him oxygen right away and his color got a little better.
But they had to rush him off to the Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit(NICU) to get him more care. I kissed Lindsey and made sure she was ok, and then rushed off with our baby to the NICU. On the way down I kept thinking about how our baby needed emergency care and they didnt know exactly what was wrong. Not exactly what you want to happen with any baby. They got him to the NICU and hooked him up with tons of instruments. They had him on oxygen, an IV in his arm, a tube down his throat and another tube through is umbilical cord. A little intimidating to see, but I was glad he was getting care. After they had him all set up, I finally sat down and said a prayer asking Heavenly Father to watch over our son and make sure he would be ok. I had felt helpless all week when Lindsey had her kidney stones and then labor because I couldnt do anything for the pain, and now I felt helpless with our son.
Camden is now doing so much better. Last night we got to hold him for the first time and it was such an amazing feeling. I had been wanting to hold him so bad, but wasnt able to until then.
We feel so blessed to be parents and are so happy for all the exciting times that await us!
Monday morning when we showed up at the hospital to spend the day with Camden, the nurse watching over him asked us if we were ready to take him home. We were wondering what she was talking about because on Sunday they told us he would probably go home on Wednesday. The nurse said that Camden had been doing real well and that he was ready to go home, but they wanted to make sure we were emotionally ready for him to come home with us! We couldnt believe what we were hearing. Of course he had only been there since Wednesday, but to us it had seemed like weeks. Lindsey and I kept looking at each other with huge grins on our faces because we couldnt believe he was actually going to come home. They said he needed to have a few more tests done before he could leave, but that most likely in the evening he would go home.
When we got home, Lindsey's mom had decorated our place with baby stuff. She has been staying with us for over a week now and has been so great and helping out in so many ways. Life has certainly been less stressful with her help.
It's great having Camden home! We feel so blessed to be parents to one of Heavenly Father's children and we really appreciate everyone's support and prayers.
