Wednesday, April 17, 2013

What Makes Us Crazy


    For those of you that do not know me, I'm Alli.  I met my husband, Josh,  at our homeschool co-op in 2008.  We dated for a while and always knew that we would get married. On Christmas Eve, 2009 he proposed and of course I said yes!  We were married the year we graduated high school, August 21, 2010.
 
     In November, we had a positive pregnancy test!  We were so excited!  My pregnancy was really easy and we could not wait to meet our baby boy, Boaz.  When I went into labor, we headed to the hospital who ended up giving me meds to stop the contractions and Phenergan to combat the nausea. Well, Phenergan knocks me out and I sleep for hours.  By the time they sent me back home, my parents had made it to the hospital.  So, we all loaded up and head to our 3rd floor apartment at around 12am.  By the time I climbed all those stairs and laid down, my water broke!  So back to the hospital we went.  I think I was in labor for about 7-9 hours. I slept through most of my labor thanks to the Phenergan.  I was 6cm by the time they finally got me my epidural  and not long after I was ready to push.  It took a total of five contractions and Boaz was born!  It was so easy.  When Boaz was born late July of 2011, we found out that God had made him with an extra chromosome (Down syndrome)!  We were not expecting it but we love him all the same.  After all, God did give him an extra chromosome for a reason and he adds a lot of joy to our lives!  He did not need any surgeries and was very healthy.  What a blessing!

    In November 2011, I was pregnant again!  I was sure I was having a girl, but we found out it was a boy (I was still just as excited!). Emory was born via c-section.  Pregnancy with him was a little bit more uncomfortable than with Boaz, but it was not bad.  When I started feeling contractions, it was around midnight. Josh was already asleep but there was no hope for me sleeping. I kept timing my contractions but they were all around 10 minutes apart. Around 3am, they were unbearable to lay down, so I got out of bed and cleaned the house.  Around 5 am I woke up Josh who was confused why I woke him since he needed to get up at 5:15 for work.  I told he wasn't going into work that day and that we needed to go the hospital soon.  I think we headed into the hospital around 7am after dropping Boaz off with a friend.  I was 3cm when we got there so they went ahead and admitted me.  My doctor had a very busy day at the office so he was back and forth. When it was time for my epidural, a student did it.  That one didn't stick and I was not progressing from  9cm to 10cm. They kept trying to roll me on my right side to manipulate the epidural medicine but Emory was not responding to that well.  They ended up putting in another epidural.  There were several hours were my body was fighting the urge to push because I was not fully dialated. I think that pain may be worse than contractions. At this point my doctor had realized that it was 5pm and he hadn't been called to deliver Emory who he thought would be here by 1:30pm.  He decided we needed to do a c-section. They prepared me for the c-section and wheeled me to the OR. They said I could have two people in there with me so I chose my mom and Josh.  When my doctor pinched me to see if I was numb, I felt it on my right side (same side that was having trouble to whole time). So the anesthesiologist came back in and decided to do a spinal block.  He didn't sit me up completely which clearly concerned my doctor, but the anesthesiologist continued anyways.  They laid me back down and my throat started to feel weird. Having never had a spinal block in the past, I wrote it off as normal. Next thing I know, it felt like I couldn't breath at all. This panicked the anesthesiologist, but he kept saying that if I could talk then I could breath.  Well, of course the next thing that happens is not being able to talk.  It was a horrible feeling.  My thoughts we completely coherent but I could tell the doctor that I couldn't talk!  He asks me to squeeze his hand and when nothing happens, they rush mom and Josh out of the room.  I remember them putting the mask on me to put me under and my doctor saying 'she can't feel it now so I'm going in!'.  The next thing I remember is waking up in a huge room.  After a little while, they rolled me into the level 2 nursery where Josh was waiting and I was able to see Emory for the first time. Mom and Josh later said that they could here the commotion of the delivery but then they did not hear Emory cry for a long few seconds.  My doctor said that he was blue when they delivered him.   I am so thankful that God had His hand on both of us. My doctor was a Christian and I am pretty sure that he was praying when this was all happening, for which I am very greatful.  By God's grace, Emory is completely healthy!  

    In September 2012, we were blessed with a house to rent which has been great for the boys!  

    With Down syndrome, you have A LOT of appointments to go to.  And each appointment runs 'routine' tests to make sure everything is working properly.  So, we went to the endocrinologist and had routine blood work done. One afternoon, I relieved a call that Boaz was showing early signs of Type 1 Diabetes.  He gave us a Blood Glucose Meter and told us to check his sugar once a week. The first night that we checked it was the night before the Buddy Walk (a walk to raise awareness for Down syndrome). It was higher than it should be so we called the doctor and ended up going in after the Buddy Walk when his sugar was again high.  Boaz was then diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes and he is doing great!

Ok I think that gives you a pretty good idea why our life is so crazy!  Thanks for hanging in there and reading such a long post!

1 comment:

  1. LOVE it! :) Excited to see more of your life in the days ahead!

    ReplyDelete

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