truman paul simons.

I love this kid.

It’s about time I sit down and write an update. I don’t like getting behind on our family blog, but with a new kid, a move to a new house and some kind of weird ‘bug’ on my blog I have put it off. After wasting way to much time trying to fix our blog with no success I decided to start a new one. It’s a work in progress trying to get it all set up the way I want – thanks for your patients and keep checking back.

Okay, on to the good stuff - the new kid and ‘the story.’ Gregg and I want to sincerely thank everyone for their comments, emails, messages, cards, gifts, visits and well wishes. The first night we were home from the hospital we sat down and read all the cards, emails and messages – we felt very thankful for the friendship! Thank You! Truman has been a great baby (I am nervous to blog about it because I am afraid I might jinx myself).

Saturday, April 18 my mom and dad took me on an afternoon walk around the golf course to see if we could start labor. At 2:00 am Sunday morning after getting up to go to the bathroom I got back in bed and had my first contraction. They were consistently 10 minutes apart. At 4:00 am I called my sister Tiffany to tell her what was happening (I know, a little early to call someone especially considering it was 3 am in Arizona, but she made me promise I would call when I went into labor AND I figured there was a good chance she was awake considering she has a 3 week old baby).

At noon I called the hospital to tell them I was coming in to get checked. When we got to the hospital my doctor was there waiting for me. I was dilated to a 3 – he stripped my membranes to see if we could get things rolling. Gregg and I walked around the hospital and within 45 minutes my contractions got more intense. By 4:00 pm I was wondering where the anesthesiologist was – I started telling people “I don’t do pain.”

At 8:30 pm I was fully dilated and ready to go! Gregg kept telling me that the Denver Nuggets game started at 8:30 pm so the baby needed to come before that or after 10:30 pm. Good timing (or bad) – I was fully dilated and ready to start pushing right at 8:30! So at 9:00 pm with the Nuggets game playing in the back ground I started pushing. By 10:30 pm I was tired and in tears. The baby was SLOWLY moving down – very slowly. I was most frustrated with the pushing – I kept asking if I was a good pusher. The nurse and doctor kept reassuring me that I was pushing great – they kept saying ‘it takes an average of 2 hours on your first baby.’

At about 11:00 pm my doctor said he would use the vacuum but that I only got 6 pushes/pulls before he would go to a c-section. I wasn’t sure if he was serious or trying to scare me into pushing harder. After a few really hard pushes from my side and pulls from his side they saw enough to realize that Truman was POSTERIOR! (head down but FACE up…the wrong way!) And he was coming at an angle. Ouch! A push or two later his head was out and I could see the doctor unwrapping the umbilical cord from Truman’s neck.

Come to find out I was a good pusher – Truman was just coming out at an angle and posterior. I was actually a perfect candidate for a c-section but Truman’s heart rate never dropped so I was able to deliver normally (thankfully). He had a little cone head for the first few hours and a bad hickey on the side of his head (from the vacuum) for a few days.

The first weekend we were home his bilirubin score was high. He had to be on a bilirubin blue light bed ALL weekend (24-7 except for feedings). It looks like a baby tanning bed with blue nights. He did not like be naked all the time velcroed into a straight jacket.

 

(you can see the blue light in the picture below)

 

He has been such a great kid. Eats great, poops great, sleeps great.
We are very thankful.