The Bean

This is our Son Hunter!

We just call him The Bean, Bean, Beany, Beanzors!

"Dear do you have The Bean?"

"Where's The Bean?"

"What's The Bean says?"

Hunter was born April 2nd, 2008. He is nearly 6 months old, which is quite shocking because everyone always says, "Oh the time just flies, they grow up so fast you know!" and I always thought, "What is everyone talking about?". When I was pregnant it felt like 19 months till he was finally here. I was so impatient and excited and I just wanted to see his little wee face. Time went by so slowly. Now he's here and it's shocking how fast he is growing. He was just a wee bit of a thing when he was born. He was 4 lbs, 14 oz. Now he's nearly 17 lbs, most of which is cheek, both ass and face! Ha ha. Babies are supposed to double their birth weight by 6 months, not quadruple their weight by 5 months!

Regardless of his size, he is doing phenomenally well. He is so healthy. He hasn't been sick since he was born and he stands! He loves standing! He can't stand without help balancing but he is so strong and he wants to stand on your lap or the counter or where ever. Every chance he gets. He he he!

Hunter was born with Trisomy 21, also known as Down Syndrome. We did not know before he was born that he had Down Syndrome (DS) but he did have an enlargement of the ventricles in an area of the brain that the Doctors felt needed to be monitored. They wanted make sure that the ventricles didn't grow any bigger and become hydrocephalus which in layman terms is "water on the brain". His ventricles never got any bigger and the Doctors felt that everything should be OK. They had me come in twice a month for the duration of my pregnancy for ultrasounds to check on baby just to make sure nothing had changed. I was offed an Amniocentesis which I declined. David and I discussed the operation and decided that it wasn't work the risk and no matter what the outcome we wouldn't terminate the pregnancy. We were also told that there was a very, very small chance that the baby would have DS as the enlargement of the ventricles was not directly related to DS at all. Additionally, baby passed all the soft markers in utero that suggest DS. So we just carried on, excited to meet the new Hunter James Ross whenever he was ready to come.

May 31st, 2008, I went in for yet another routine (or so I thought) ultrasound. I waited in the ultrasound room for what felt like ages. Dave took Sam across the street for blood work and called me to see if I was ready to be picked up but no one had come back into the room to tell me what was going on yet. I still hadn't seen the doctor who usually came in to say "Yep still looks good!". But I just waited. When the US tech came back she asked if I could follow her to a room to wait for the Doctor who would come and talk to me about the US. Same old, Same old. I waited in that room for another 20 mins I think. Finally, two doctors came in to talk to me. I thought at first one was perhaps doing a practicum, or whatever Doctors do. Just standing by watching and learning. But I guess not. I was told that Hunter's ventricles had not gotten any bigger and that things looked fine in that department, but that he hadn't grown at all since the last US. I thought that was kinda odd, because when Dave had been in the room with me, we were doing the math on his weight from the US to see how big he had gotten and for some reason our math was working out wrong and he was weighing the same as last time we came in for and US. We just assumed our math was wrong. But now I had to Doctors telling me the same thing. He hadn't grown at all in two weeks and the placenta was probably having a hard time feeding him and he needed to come out.

"What do you mean he needs to come out?" - me

I was pretty much told that he would have a better chance if they induced labour right away.

But of course that still didn't sink in and I asked when.

"Well we will make an appointment for you to go to Peter Lougheed Hospital for tomorrow morning." - Doc

"Are you shitting me?" - me (yep I'm that classy)

No, he says, we aren't.

Tomorrow was April fools, so can you see my brain reeling?

Dave was finally back with me at this point and the Doctors finished explaining what needed to be done. That night we rushed around town grabbing the last few tings we needed before baby came. Breast pump, Nursing bras, tiny baby clothes. We made plans for Samuel to stay with some friends of the family the following day. He was a bit of a mess and we told him he didn't have to go to school.

We were all ready to go to the hospital the next morning. We had an appointment for 9:30 am to be induced. Apparently hospitals don't have to keep appointments. I was finally induced at 12:30 in the afternoon. Dave took the day off to be with us and to meet his new baby boy.

We were asked to wait and hour so that the nurses could monitor me. I didn't really feel anything as far as contractions. An hour later I was told that we could go home and if i didnt have any further contractions within 6 hours that i would have to come back to be induced again. If I did have contractions, I was to wait till they were very strong and I felt ready to push, then come back. Well I felt no contractions by 6 pm so we packed up Samuel and took him back to a family friends house and headed back to the Hospital.

It was 10:30 pm or later, if I recall correctly, when I was finally induced a second time. The doctor that did the induction the second time was so cute. She used two applications and says to me "We'll see you in a couple hours." I said "Are you sure this time?" "Oh Yeah!" she says. Indeed!

I honestly don't have an accurate account of what time things started happening but I know that we needed to go for a walk and see Chelsea who had been waiting at the hospital since 10 am. We went down to visit her in the cafeteria, me in my scrubs. And I remember it was then that I was really having contractions because I was stopped dead in my tracks while walking. We quickly made our way back to the labour and delivery ward.

Not more than an hour later I was in a room on a bed, having contractions so bad I was puking, shouting so loud I woke up three women in the same room. Dave says I walked to the private delivery room but I really don't remember that. I spent roughly five hours in that room, struggling through the most intense and catastrophic pain I have ever endured. I could not have any pain killers because baby (who was on a heart rate monitor the entire time) was having a hard time. His heart rate would drop so dramatically every time I had a contraction. It got so bad that poor Jasmine, my nurse, had to turn the volume OFF of the heart rate monitor because I thought baby was dying. His heart rate would drop from 120 or higher to 60 or even lower, which is about a beat per second, and when you are having contractions every 2 mins, 4 seconds feels like 4 minutes.

I was allowed Nitrous though!!! GOD BLESS GAS!! WOOT!

I still FELT the pain, but it was as though I didn't care. I was so far off in LaLa Land that the pain was just... It was like being reaaaaaallly huge and some tiny little ant was biting your big toe. You could feel it, but it was a long way off. I think that's the best way to describe it.

At roughly 5:25 am or so, the on call Doctors decided that things weren't working the way they should be. I had only dilated 5 cm, they had to break my water for me which didn't help. They then proceeded to re waterify me. They put amniotic fluid back in to keep baby ok. That didn't help. Finally they decided to do a C-Section. All I could say was Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

Mean while, Dave and Chelsea, poor guys watching all this, tearing up, struggling to sleep or keep sane through all the insanity.

By 5:35 I was on a stretcher, wheeled into the operating room, and spread eagle for all to see.

I got a Spinal after the first epidural didn't work. I was numb from the breast bone down, all I could see was the ceiling, SUPER bright lights, and a blue tarp in front of me. While I was being scrubbed and painted with iodine Dave was being scrubbed up (he he he do you see the pun there? Mom does I'm sure). He was lead into the operating room and sat beside me (I think). MAN!!! I have never seen a sexier man in blue scrubs. Just looked so good, and brought out his blue eyes! I was so happy to see him. I felt like everything would be OK now. I had him there and I would be OK.

Baby Beany was born at 5:48 am. Tuesday, April 2nd, 2008.

He was shockingly cute. Both Doctors who did the C-Section gasped and swooned over him when he came out.

I didn't get to hold him right away, but I did get a quick glimpse of him before they hurried him off. I then spent 20 agonizing minutes in a waiting room on a bed with some frigging pressure things attached to my legs, keeping the blood moving I guess.

After that I was rolled on my bed into the Neonatal intensive care unit to see my boy. I really should post the pic of me holding him for the first time ever. I look like death. But I still love it!

I've never seen anything so amazing in my life as that tiny little boy. I love him beyond imagine!