Wesley Michael's Birth Story

This beautiful baby boy came into our lives on June 15, 2015 @ 7:42 am. Our day started off pretty early (at 4 am) as I had a scheduled c section and we had to be at the hospital at 5:15 for my c section to start at 7:15. I tried to go to sleep around 11pm the night before (after having a little snack at 10:30 since I couldn't eat after that). I ended up having one of the homemade cinnamon rolls that Mama and Pee's cousin Lisa sent to us and it was amazing.

This picture was taken Sunday night, our last night as a family of 3!

That night, I saw every.hour.pass. on the clock. I think I may have gotten a total of 2 hours of sleep. I was excited, nervous and just anxious about finally learning who this little person growing inside of me was!

When 4 rolled around I jumped out of bed and got in the shower to get ready. We packed our last minute things and made sure everyone was ready. Les and Dellie were already at our house before we were even ready to roll :) I snuck into Trey's room to give him a final kiss and had to hold back tears. The next time I saw him he would be a big brother and his life would forever be changed. 

We had a game plan in place- Pee and Jamie would let Trey sleep and Danielle was coming to get him at 6 am so they could meet us up at the hospital.  Mama rode with the Toler girls and Mrs Mildred rode with Jim and I. We got there, valet parked the cars, checked in and headed up to labor and delivery. There we learned that we would have to say our goodbyes until baby was born. I was hoping I would get to see them one more time before heading to the OR but that was not the case. We hugged and kissed and Jim and I headed back.

We got settled into our room and I changed into my gown and answered 9,835 questions from the nursing staff while they got me all ready to go. They were taking FOREVER. There was a new nurse learning and the bloodbank people also had a new person with them so that combination just made the process so slow. It was SO slow that Dr. Hurtado got there and I didn't even have my IV fluids running yet. She was upset with them that if they didn't hurry anesthesia would take the 7:30 spot over us and we would get pushed back. She stood in the doorway and pretty much stared them down until they got a move on- love her!

The next part really surprised me, after my IV was put into place I was told to walk back to the OR. I was expecting to get rolled into there in a bed or wheelchair but nope, I walked right in! When we got to the doorway, Jim was told he had to go wait in the waiting room while I got my epidural and they would come and get him once it was time. When I kissed him goodbye I had to hold back the tears. I talked myself through it and felt them welling up in my eyes but was strong and didn't let them fall. 

Once I got into the OR I had NO idea what to expect. There I met the team who would be assisting Dr. Hurtado with our sweet baby's birth. The anesthesiologist started getting my epidural in and it took her quite a while to get it just right. During this time I felt myself feeling faint and I started to sweat really bad. At one point, I thought I was going to pass out. Before I knew it, the nurse anesthetist, Bart, was in my ear, talking me through it. He told me things like "if you get sick you won't be able to hold your baby" "you're not going to get sick, you got this". He was amazing to say the least. After a few more minutes it was in and he immediately gave me something to help my nausea. He said my blood pressure was really low so that was also making me feel sick. He was amazing and kept giving me a little of it every so often to make sure I didn't feel sick again.

Once I was all prepped (and the team did an AMAZING job explaining to me what they were doing and what was happening since I couldn't see beyond the sterile field), the fun part started. Bart asked me what kind of music I liked and I told him country but specifically Eric Church as Jim and I both love him. He found Today's Country and Eric Church's "Wrecking Ball" was playing which was so appropriate- a song about making babies while a baby is being born :)

Before I knew what was happening, Jim was back by my side and less than 10 minutes later they were announcing that the baby was almost here. Bart took our camera and became our birth photographer. I will always be thankful he did this for us! It was the most surreal but exciting thing ever.

The doctor helping Dr. Hurtado looked over the drape and told me I would feel some pressure then I felt and saw him push all his weight down on my abdomen. At that time, Bart announced the baby was here and I heard those sweet loud cries! Jim was still sitting down at my head at this point so Bart snapped away with the camera and literally captured Wesley's first breath.

For some reason this photo reminds me of Michelangelo's famous panting in the Cistine Chapel of the creation of Adam where God and Adam are reaching out towards each other.

They told Jim to stand up and asked him if he wanted to announce to everyone what the baby was. I heard the loudest strongest little cries and saw Dr. Hurtado lift the baby up. Jim announced to me that it was a BOY!



My heart felt so full at that moment. Although I thought the baby was a girl and I wanted to have a little girl, when it came down to it I was so excited for Trey to have a brother and just felt all these crazy emotions. I loved him right away. I worried about how I would love another baby as much as I love Trey and I truly feel like I grew another heart- one for each of them.

They had to take him for a couple of minutes to suction out his lungs as he had quite a bit of fluid in them and he was a little purple from the fluid. I told Jim to go with him and just a few minutes later, Wesley was in my arms! I got to hold him right on the OR table and it was the best feeling ever.





It was a little awkward holding him on the table since I was lying perfectly flat so after a few minutes I handed him back to Jim and just stared at his perfect little face and pout.



Once they were almost done stitching me up, Jim took Wesley out to the waiting room for our family to find out that he was a boy and to meet him for the first time! Wesley's Nanny snapped this picture of Jim coming down the hallway and she said at that moment she felt her heart was going to burst with excitement- so sweet!!

Then, they wheeled me into recovery where I was reunited with my little june bug and was able to nurse him. He latched on right away! I was feeling a little groggy from the medications but overall felt really good. Wesley's temperature was having a hard time regulating so they let me hold him while they wheeled me up to my room and then we had to do skin to skin time for a while before anyone else could hold him. Which was a-ok with me :) :)

Jim kept on his scrubs for a while as he said they made him feel important :) The OR baby nurse put Wesley's footprints on them and also wrote  on the front "It's A..." and "BOY!" on the back. She was a hoot and very proud of herself for this.

Once his temp was regulated he was passed around like a sweet little hot potato and everyone got their chance to hold him and love on him.

Adelle was up at 4am and waited all day to do just this.

We had a few more visitors come to see us in the hospital and love on our little man. Danielle, Hallee and Reed brought Trey up that afternoon and he got to meet his little brother for the first time. He did not want to hold him but he was really excited to see him and wanted to hug and kiss him and be close to him.









 I was worried about what he would think about me being in the hospital bed but he was not concerned at all. He was mainly excited to see GG and actually pushed Jim out of the way to run to her when he saw her.

Women's offers a sibling cake that comes with your stay. We ordered one for Trey and it came while he was visiting. He was so excited to see the cake but we forgot to take a picture of it before we cut it...oops! It was super good and we all shared it and got a little slice.

I was so thankful that Danielle offered to take Trey for the day and bring him later to meet his brother. He had so much fun at her house eating breakfast, playing and swimming and also snuggled up with her and took a nice long nap :)

Later on that evening, Uncle T and Uncle Robert came to visit and meet Wesley and get in some sweet snuggles of course!





Late Monday night, Wesley got his first bath. Women's is super centered on mother/baby now so they do not ever take the baby from you (unless there is a problem). Wesley never ever went to the nursery except right after his circumcision. He did NOT like his bath even though they had him under a nice little warmer and all. He screamed his little lungs out but when he was all dried off they let him hang out under the warmer for about 20-30 minutes and he loved it! He was like a tiny little sun-bather under that thing. It was too cute. Because they don't utilize the nursery anymore, we also got to watch Wesley take his hearing test (which he passed with flying colors) which was pretty cool. Some c section babies don't pass the first time because of excess fluid but thankfully Wes did great! They also do not take the baby out of your room for you to sleep (uh oh!) but just like his big-bro, Wesley has been a pretty amazing sleeper from day one so we did not have any issues with him being in our room and we managed to get some decent sleep while we were in the hospital.

We ended up spending three nights in the hospital and were discharged early Thursday morning. To say we were ready was an understatement. Unlike my first postpartum experience, I was feeling great and was up and dressed the very next day walking the halls. As soon as my catheter and epidural could come out I was wanting to get up and use the bathroom and shower. That first shower after having a baby is so amazing!

Our experience at Women's was no less than amazing. All the staff members were so awesome from the OR staff, to the nurses and even the housekeepers. I cannot say enough good things about that hospital. I truly would not have a baby anywhere else.

I made sure I stayed on top of my pain and took my medications when it was time and I think that really helped my recovery. Also I wore an abdominal binder for the first week and a half and not only did it help my uterus and tummy shrink back to size it felt really good to have that extra support especially the first few times I got up out of bed. I also got up and walked a lot. I had lots of swelling in my feet and ankles from all the IV fluids but I made sure I did a lot of walking as well. Most of it consisted of walking in the halls to get ice or water and Jim and I took Wesley out on a little family walk also.

Tuesday (day 2 of life) my milk came in! Yep, you read that right, day 2! I was shocked but really excited and a little in pain... So I had to break out the handy dandy hospital grade pump because little Wesley just couldn't eat enough to keep up and I was starting to get really engorged. I ended up having to pump a handful of times while in the hospital and we made a make shift ice chest to bring our  milk home. We ended up bring home close to 10 ounces of milk which is just crazy to me!

When Dr. Hurtado came on Wednesday to check on me, Trey was there holding Wesley. When she saw that, she came over and held my hand and just cried. She said it brought back so many memories of when her kiddos were little and it just was so sweet to her...just one of the many reasons I love her so much!

We were discharged early Thursday morning but snapped some photos of Wesley and Dr. Hurtado before we left. We also got some pictures of Mama and Daddy and Wesley as well.







His precious gown was monogrammed by his Sarrie and yes we have a pink one too, hehe!





We loaded the little guy into our car and headed home so excited to be getting out of there.

Aunt Jamie and MawMaw had to go back to Florida, but Mama and Pee were not leaving until the next morning so we were greeted with supper, a clean house and a happy toddler!

It was SO nice to be home and to be able to sleep in our own bed. I kept saying it over and over again but it was so true. It was nice to be able to snuggle with both of my boys and not have to face time with Trey before bedtime.

We tried to make the most out of the time we had to be there but we were really missing our big boy even though he came up to the hospital twice to see us while we were there. When we got home, we were welcomed by sweet sussies all over the house. 

Nanny and Dellie made this precious sign.

GG made the wreath.

GG and Trey made the adorable signs for our doors!

I will post more on Trey's transition soon but it honestly feels as if Wesley was always a part of our family. So far, the transition has been seamless and I thank God for that!

Welcome to the world Wesley Michael (or Wesley MYcal) as Trey says. You have filled a hole in our family we didn't know existed and have brought us so much joy in happiness in the short time you've been on earth. We thank God for choosing us to be your Mama and Daddy and we love you sweet boy!

Here are a few more pictures of Wesley from our hospital stay...