Introducing...

Wesley Scott Butler, born Thursday October 25th at 2:24 am.  Weighing 8 lbs and 20.5 inches long.  Beautiful as can be!!!

Right after being born

Resting after daddy give me my first bath!

This is the last picture of me pregnant.  I dont think I realized how big I was, and pretty uncomfortable :)

Doing skin to skin time right after birth, that was an amazing experience!

Getting love from Daddy (This hands down is one of my all time favorite pictures!)

So here is the whole story...

At my 37 week appointment, I went in and it was just the regular routine, leave a urine sample, get called back to the room where they check blood pressure and get the babies heartbeat.  Well the nurse took my blood pressure and she was concerned.  She went and got another cuff to see if that would be any different, and sure enough it wasn't.  My blood pressure was about 150/98, super super high.  She went and told Dr. Watabe and he came in very quickly and seemed somewhat concerned.  Thankfully there was no protein in my urine, which would have meant that I had pre-eclampsia.  Just to make sure that everything was okay, they sent us over to Labor and Delivery for a NST (non-stress test) and blood  work to make sure everything was okay.  At this point in time, Scott was getting excited that Wes could be coming that weekend, but I was freaking out because I still had things that I needed to get done before he came! The blood test came back normal, and the NST was good as well.  Wes' heartbeat was strong and after laying down and relaxing, my blood pressure was lowering.  So they sent me home to do a 24 hour urine test (you dont want to know about this :) ) to make sure that my protein levels were okay.  We had another NST on Saturday and again everything looked great again, including my urine test, but my blood pressure was still a little high so they kept me on bedrest, and chances were they were going to induce within a week.

So the next Tuesday, I had another Dr. appointment and of course, blood pressure was still high but no protein in my urine.  Dr. Watabe was concerned about my blood pressure so he said lets just induce on Wednesday!  Scott was thrilled, I was more on board, but still pretty nervous about everything!  The rest of Tuesday was spent with me trying to get everything ready, the hospital bag the car seat etc.  I got to bed late, and didnt sleep well cause I thought for sure I was going to sleep through the call from Labor and Delivery that they were ready for me.  But sure enough, at 7am we got the call that we needed to be at the hospital in an hour, we were about to have this baby!!

We arrived at the hospital, they got us checked in, changed and hooked up.  Dr Watabe came in and broke my water and started the pitocin.  The first couple of hours were not that bad, but once the contractions started, they were quite fun :)  At about 1:30 pm I was to the point that I was ready for an epidural.  It actually wasn't that bad, and made me much more comfortable.  Several, several hours later I was starting to feel the contractions  more and more especially on my left side.  I kept hitting my button, but nothing happened.   Scott being the amazing husband and priesthood holder was able to give me a blessing of comfort, and thanks to an AMAZING nurse we decided to totally redo my epidural.  The second time wasn't bad either, and was starting to work quite well.  The one downside was the nausea that I got real quick and fast, given that all I had had in the last 12 hours was apple, grape and cranberry juice it was pure liquid that came up :)  I didn't have enough time to find something to puke in so it went all over me.  My nurse was so great and even helped change my sheets!!

About this time I was starting to get pretty stressed, I wasn't progressing super quick, I was hungry, I was super tired, and really just wanted to have out little boy!!  As my stress increased, so did my anxiety and my blood pressure (the whole reason I was having this baby early)  Again, my nurse was awesome and with her and Scott's help I was able to calm down and get a small nap in.  At about midnight I was only at a 7 and the pitocin level I was at was not causing contractions strong enough to keep me progressing and we were convinced that I was going to have to have a c-section (which I totally did NOT want!) But because Dr. Watabe knew how much I did not want a c-section, he just increased my pitocin to try and get things progressing, and it worked!!  When they checked me about an hour and a half later I was to a 9! 

It was about that time, that I really felt the urge to push, we called the nurse and she said that I had to wait until I was full dialated to a 10.  It took all the strength in me to resist the urge to push, and after about 30 minutes I said to the nurse, that I HAD to push.  She said okay, just a few to help ease the pain.  After two pushes, he went from a station -2 to a 2!! (apparently that was quite the movement :) )  The nurse called in Dr. Watabe and 20 minutes later and about 4 pushes little Wesley was born!

I was so tired I had the hardest time even keeping my eyes open, but I loved seeing and holding our little one and loved doing skin to skin.  It was so surreal that we had a baby, this little guy was ours!!  

Scott went with Wes down to the nursery to give him a bath and clean him up while they helped move me downstairs.  When we got in the room, the nurse asked if we wanted to keep Wes in the room, or have him go to the nursery, both Scott and I were so tired that we asked them to take him so that we could get just a few hours of sleep.  After about 3 hours the nurse came in to take my vitals and I asked if they would send Wes in, about an hour later he still hadnt been brought in.  So I called the nurse station, and asked them to bring him into our room.  About 30 minutes later the pediatrician on call came in and told me that Wes was having some problems with his breathing and they were going to keep him in the nursery to monitor him for a few hours.

About 30 minutes later, I was freaking out and since I wasnt really in too great of shape, I sent Scott to the nursery to find out what was going on.  After what seemed like the longest 45 minutes of my life, Scott came back and told me that Wes had stopped breathing in the middle of the night, and they had to give him oxygen to help with his breathing.  I am so glad that we had him to go the nursery so that someone was there to monitor him!!  Oh the sweet tender mercies of the Lord.

So they thought that they would just need to give him a little oxygen for a couple of hours and he would be okay, but his O2 stats were not maintaining so they put him in NICU so that they could keep monitoring him and make sure that everything was okay.  After about 6 hours of not seeing him, I was able to get down to the NICU to see my little boy.

Here he is with all his monitors and oxygen :(

Thursday was a good day, Wes was getting alot better!  He was still on oxygen, but the hope was to wein him off the oxygen through the night.  We were finally able to feed him, and since I had nothing to feed him, we fed him formula.  But the nurse told us to feed him too much for his little stomach and that night he was vomiting all night, and of course still needed the oxygen.  So Friday morning when we went to see him, thinking that he would be off oxygen and would be able to come into our room, we walked in to two nurses hovering over him and getting ready to empty the rest of his stomach.

It about broke my heart to see my little boy have a tube put down his throat and his nose aspirated.  But after that, he seemed to be doing alot better!  Scott had to leave that afternoon to go to work and do a presentation.  So I was left alone with my many emotions, hormones and a baby in NICU.  I was a mess, but after a crying phone call with Scott and him making me feel a lot better, I went to see my little boy again, and was able to hold him all afternoon and just have some sweet mother and son bonding time.  

So glad to have the oxygen off!!!

The next morning we were hoping and praying that everything would pass for Wes to be released with us and we would be able to all go home together, and thankfully he was released with us!!!

Wes lost almost a pound while in NICU, so all the clothes that we brought to take him home in, drowned him so I had to send Scott to Target to get a newborn outfit, and I love that it matched the carseat and had cars all over it! :)

Our first family photo, never mind the fact that Scott is not looking at the camera and I look like three sheets to the wind!

We have absolutely loved having Wes in our home.  I am so grateful that the Lord blessed us with this little guy.  A year ago at this time we were just starting our last round of clomid in hopes to get pregnant after a year and a half of trying.  I thought for sure we were never going to have a baby, but the Lord had different plans for us and I am so so grateful for everything that we have been blessed with.  Being a mother is something that I have hoped and prayed for, for so long and it is more than anything I could have asked for!!