Birth Story

*Attention male readers- may be too much information for you so please skip to following post*

Several of you have been asking for the details from little Nolan's arrival and I am finally getting around to putting it all together (a month later!!). This is long but I am thankful to get it written down somewhere as I don't want to forget a single detail!

I was scheduled to be induced on June 15th (the day he arrived). Both sets of parents were there by Monday evening and we enjoyed a delicious dinner at Cracker Barrel (ate my last full plate of french toast, eggs, and bacon, and all without guilt!) and then got to bed, as 5am would come early. Of course Jon and I didn't get a whole lot of sleep as we were nervous and anxious for what was to come.

We got to the hospital shortly after 5am and the nurses had our room ready to go. After answering lots of questions and getting to know us and our wishes for a natural delivery, our nurse (who was great) said we could check to see how dilated I was and possibly not have to start pitocin (the induction drug). Sure enough- the past few days of intermittent contractions and uncomfortableness had proved to be productive- I was dilated to a 4 and 95% effaced.

The nurse said she would call the doctor and ask her to come break my water as soon as she could so we could get things moving. She also said she would move us to a room with a jacuzzi, as I wanted to try it for managing the labor pain. We decided to get out and walk and keep things moving and by 7:30, we had changed rooms and one of my physician's partners came and broke my water. Yeah- that was weird and it made it a bit more uncomfortable for staying up and walking- but they've seen it all around there- so they made me feel really comfortable! When they broke my water, they saw that there was meconium in the sac, so they educated us on the change in procedures for birth (RT and NICU nurse would be there and I would get him on my chest, only if he cried right away). This was concerning, but we just had such a peace, knowing that he was in God's hands!

My physician came in an hour later to check in and was happy to see us walking around but surprised to see me looking as comfortable as I was. She suggested we try nipple stimulation again to get things moving, and sure enough, not even 5 minutes after trying it, the contractions were coming full force. The thing that seemed to be most helpful for getting through the contractions was to alternate my methods of coping. I changed from the birthing ball, to walking, to laying, to massage, to whatever we could think of, and it really helped! About 5 cm (I'm guessing), I got in the jacuzzi and that was a God send! The jets and warm water with Jon there to massage my neck through contractions was really, really helpful! I must say- my husband was amazing! This period of the birth was honestly my favorite because it is such an intimate experience and there is no one else in the world I would have wanted to experience that with. Jon was right there with me for every pain and talking to me and holding me as I needed. We laughed and talked and really treasured our last few hours as us. Probably my all time favorite moment in life to be honest!

The family had arrived by this point and they would walk with us here and there but mostly hung out in the lobby. Izabel brought walkie talkies so we could check in with each other. :) So sweet! She was pretty worried about me! My contractions were 2 to 3 minutes apart around 1pm and were really picking up on the monitor so my nurse decided to check me. I was a 6.5 now! I was happy with this- but not happy enough b/c that was 3-4 hours for 2.5 cm. In my mind, there was no way I could go 3.5 more or 3 or 4 hours more with the contractions coming every 2 minutes! The contractions were never soooo painful that I couldn't take it- it was just that mentally and physically I was getting soo tired! After much discussion I thankfully opted away from the narcotics and just decided to get the epidural. It's crazy how once that word comes out of your mouth, you're done! You want that pain to stop now! :) The doc was in really quickly though and the epidural was very easy.

We had enough time to let our family know where we were measuring and that I was getting an epidural, but that was our last free moment before Nolan arrived. Within 5 minutes of getting the epidural, Nolan's heart rate started to drop. Pretty low a few times but with oxygen and laying on my side, it got better. The bad thing was- with having to be on one side, the medicine from the epidural was not having it's effect on the other side. The doc came back in once to attempt to help that, and it did! The wonderful nurse who labored with us all day ended up having to leave an hour before Nolan was born, but the new nurse was great as well. A nurse was constantly in the room at this point as things were moving fast! They checked me again about 20 min after the epidural and I was a 9! After 10-20 more minutes, they called my physician and I was complete!

It was pretty exciting but also a bit scary! :) We started pushing with the nurse at that point. It was so weird, b/c you imagine what that point is going to be like your whole life and then- you're there! :) It was great!! Jon's face at the start was pretty priceless! :) I just kept listening to his voice b/c I knew he would be honest about my efforts and if they were really working or not! :) I pushed for about 30 min and then the nurse called my doctor. Everyone arrived and everything was set up fairly quickly! I believe I pushed 3 times once my doctor was ready and then he was here!! 5:07 pm! Praise God! He cried right away and they put him on my chest. I cannot even describe how I felt, but it was a mix of pure joy and amazement! I just kept thinking- ooo he's so cute! :)

They took him to the warmer and gave him oxygen for a few seconds and got him checked out. Poor Jon looked happy but did not have the expression of joy I expected. He later told me he just felt so confused about wether to stay with me or stay with him and it was so hard to see the two people he loved the most being worked on. :) Nolan decided to come out with his hand on his head, so he did some damage on the way out! I had two deep tears and then an outer tear as well. So there was a significant amount of sewing up to be completed. Once everything was finished and cleaned up, we asked our doctor to go and tell our family that baby was here and we were all doing fine- and that was it! :)

Things calmed quickly and the nurse helped me attempt to feed Nolan right away. He took less than 5 minutes of instruction and he was going strong!! :) At this point, Jon and I just looked at each other and the tears began to flow. He had been holding it in and now we were both a mess! :) So precious! After feeding Nolan, we had all the grandparents and Izabel come in. They first screamed when they saw him, then they screamed when we said HIS name. :) What a special moment to introduce your son to your family! We named him Nolan after my mom's dad who passed away when she was in her twenties. I never got to meet him, but I feel like I did because so many people loved him and share openly about how amazing he was. William (Nolan's middle name) is for his dad's middle name, and his grandpa and great grandpa's first name. And- I guess you know where Hughes comes from! :)

My dad got a good squeeze right away as he had to leave to travel for business. He was just smitten to have his first grandson! We were quickly moved to the post-pardum floor next. It was so fun to carry him and be wheeled up to our new room as the new family! At this point we attempted to send the news on facebook and via text. It was so fun to hear from everyone! :) The rest of that day was a blur- literally. I remember that I was so tired my vision was getting blurry! :) That night, Nolan got his first bath and had his footprints done. After all of this, the nurses said they were having concerns about his continued high respiratory rates (noticed by his nose flaring). At about 2 am they took him and said they'd be back in 20 min after checking him again and we waited and waited and he didn't come back. As tired as you are.... you just don't feel right when your baby is not where he's supposed to be. I went down and saw him laying under the warmer with multiple people around, someone taking his blood, and Nolan not reacting at all. This really concerned me!! The nurse said he probably wasn't feeling too hot but that he had vomited up some fluid, so they expected he'd feel better soon. They took labs to be sure he didn't not have an infection and also did a chest x-ray to check for fluid on the lungs. The rest of the night, Jon and I rotated staying with him in the nursery as he had to be under observation.

The next morning, the majority of the labs and the x-ray came back normal, so they let us have our baby back! Obviously, we didn't get a whole lot of sleep, and neither did he! The next two days were full of visitors and lots of snuggles from everyone! I LOVED being in the hospital and it might sound weird, but I often wish we could go back!! :) It was great to order food when we wanted, have people all around, and just not be responsible for anything but loving each other!! On the 17th, they cleared me to be released. I was feeling really pretty good but our pediatrician did not want Nolan to leave until the next day- when all the labs would be back. We begged for them to let us stay one more night but insurance would not cover it. Therefore, Nolan had to be admitted to the NICU for one night and we stayed there with him. Boy was it fun sleeping in a recliner and having to use a one stall public restroom 2 days after giving birth!! :) The stay was long but Nolan continued to do well, so around noon on the 18th we were on our way home!!

My mom and Izabel welcomed us home as the rest of the family had to get back to the real world (they hated it though!). My mom and Iz ended up staying for 2 weeks and there is no way we could have done it without them!! So many people brought us meals and took care of us! We are soo thankful!

So- that was really long, but like I said- I know I will love being able to read through this years from now! Nolan is such a blessing from God! I cannot wait for #2!! :)

Nolan's Third Day (Are we going home?)

Thursday morning we woke up already to get heading home. Nolan's breathing was doing so much better, and we were hoping for a good report from the doctor so he could get his....ummm "operation." But, when the doctor came in...she said that while his breathing was doing better, she wanted to see one more day of no growth on his blood cultures, to be sure he didn't have an infection. That meant we had to stay another night. BUT, insurance wouldn't cover another night for Heather and I, so we had to admit Nolan to the NICU :(. Praise God they had space in his room where we could sleep, and so we stayed the night down in the NICU. Thankfully we didn't have to check in to the NICU until the afternoon, though, so we hung out for the majority of the day in Heather's hospital room.

Here is Iz checking on his breathing. Sounds good to her!

Jon's parents came in early in the morning and had to get in the car to head out to Indiana before lunch.

Grandpa Hughes saying Bye

Grandma Hughes getting one last snuggle

Heather's Mom was able to stay with us and help out with so much! She wasn't originally planning on coming to the hospital on Thursday since we were supposed to be discharged, but since we were stuck at the hospital she came up in the evening to get some squeezes herself!

Our cute little sleeper.

Mom (looking so beautiful) getting a couple of squeezes before we moved our little Nolan downstairs to the NICU.

Nolan's favorite sleeping pose...catching flies.

Dad, getting ready for the move. Heather's room was pretty cool, so I had the jacket on, but Nolan's NICU room was VERY VERY Warm (have to keep it warm for those little guys).

Here is our little Nolan in the NICU. Part of the protocol is that they have to hook them up to monitors which stay on the whole time they are in the NICU (it was so sad).

But, Nolan's beautiful Mommy was there to comfort him. This is probably my favorite picture of the two of them...so sweet.

Here he is wide awake before bed time. He was such a good boy. It was hard having him connected to a machine, but I have to admit he looks pretty sweet here.

Night time in the NICU is VERY quiet. A lot of the parents can't stay the whole time with their little guys, and some of the mom's are on an entirely different floor getting their own care. The Nurses down there (and in our whole hospital) were fantastic. They took great care of our little Nolan, and we knew he was in good hands. And, as sad as it was to be down there, it was kind of fun too. Heather and I just chatted and had a great time just the two of us. Since Nolan was on a monitor, the nurses didn'thave to come in, so we actually got some good rest without people coming in and out. And one night wasn't too bad.

Tomorrow we go home (ok we have been home for a while...but we are behind in blogland :))

J&H

Nolan's Second Day

After a long first night, Nolan woke up to what we all hoped would be a much smoother second day.

Here he is just getting ready to wake up.

We simply cannot get over how handsome this little gift of God truly is.

Nolan was mostly sleepy the second day, but here he is for a few alert seconds. We didn't see more than just a squint of his eyes, but he is just as beautiful awake.

Opening your eyes tires a boy out.

We are blessed to have so many great friends at church, many of whom were able to stop by and meet Nolan on his second day of life.. Below are a few of them. First up are Carolyn and Fred Potts. Carolyn is the first person you meet when you walk in the doors at church. She's got an eye for "strangers" but she's never actually met one. And, Carolyn and Fred are the parents of my boss' Judicial Assistant. (P.S. doesn't Mama look so good!?!?!?)

Next is Mitch the church's worship pastor.

Mozart, Colleen and little Tre are good friends of ours from our Sunday Morning small group. Mozart and Colleen are vocational missionaries with Campus Crusade for Christ and are currently raising support to go on full time. Tre, the not-so-little little guy pictured here is a star baseball player here in town.

Grandma and Grandpa Hughes, me and the cutest baby in the world.

Three generations of Hughes Boys. Hard to believe that only 26 (almost 27) years ago I was the one all swaddled up.

After a long hard day of visiting with friends and family, our little Nolan was exhausted. Here he is all tucked in for bed.

The second night as a vast improvement on the first. We were able to keep little Nolan in our room with us. He slept great and only woke us up a couple of times. His breathing was much better. Mom was starting on her recovery, and was already doing great (see how great she looks above). And we were enjoying being pampered with room service and a free hospitality room filled with food. Being in the Hospital (besides the ups and downs of Nol's breathing) was surprisingly really fun!

Welcome Nolan William Hughes

He's finally here, and he was so worth the wait! Sorry that it has taken us so long to get this blog up to date, but with this we officially welcome Nolan to "Life with the Hughes'"

I know many of you are interested in hearing the birth story, and I (Jon) will share some of the basics in this post, but I'll leave the whole story for Heather to tell in a later post.

Our little "B" decided to be a bit stubborn and to wait until after Heather's due date to arrive. Heather's doctor offered to schedule us for an induction and (thought we wanted to avoid it) we felt that an induction was probably the route we would go. So on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 at 5 am, we checked in to Bryan LGH Hospital in Lincoln, Nebraska for our scheduled induction.

When we arrived our Nurse had our room, the pitocin bag, the monitors, and had most of our admission papers ready to go. After answering all the questions they already had the answers to :) the nurse went over the induction procedure with us. But, before hooking up the Pitocin, the Nurse asked if we wanted to try and just break Heather's water and see if labor progressed on its own. Well we did, and well it did! Praise God!!!

Here is soon to be Mom looking beautiful and calm. Heather, as most of you know, is the most amazingly composed woman at all times, and during labor was no different. What a beautiful mommy!

The last picture of just the two of us.

Heather, still looking gorgeous as ever. And even closer to being a mom.

We arrived at the hospital at 5:00 am, they broke Heather's water at 7:30 am, and around 4:15 Heather was ready to push!

At 5:07 pm Central, our little "B" made his presence known in this world. And....its a boy!!!! As the nurses and doctor told us our little B was a "he" we couldn't stop smiling. We were a couple of proud parents.

Our little guy had a rough go getting here (I'll let Heather share all the details in her later post) but he had meconium in the amniotic sac and had the cord wrapped twice around his neck. Praise God that they had to break Heather's water at the Hospital and knew right away that he had meconium in his swimming pool. The respiratory and NICU nurses were ready to go when he arrived in case he didn't cry. They told us if he cried, then Heather would get to hold him immediately, if he didn't, they would have to take him right over to the warmer. Like the good baby he is, he cried right away! So the nurses let Heather hold him skin to skin. After a couple of minutes they took him over to the warmer to do his APGAR and to remove any "mec" from his throat. As they took him over, they asked us if he had a name and without hesitation we both (with elation) said "Its Nolan."

Here is dad checking out the little miracle under the warmer. He weighed 8lbs, 3oz, and was 19.75 inches long.

He fits just perfectly.

Beautiful mommy and Nolan, snuggling for the first of many times.

The First family photo of the three of us. We are so very proud of our beautiful Son!

Nolan's favorite pose. He is his father's son (I always sleep with my hand near my face, and so does he). Isn't he the most handsome thing you have ever seen.

The proud Grandpas.

Jon's dad (pictured first) got to stay for a few days, and he quickly fell in love.

Unfortunately, this is the only picture we have of Nolan and Heather's dad as he had to go on a business trip right after our little guy was born.

The Proud Grandmas.

Heather's mom checking the little guy out. She fell in love pretty quickly. And, thankfully, she has been able to stay and help us out ever since Nolan's birth.

Jon's Mom fell in love quickly too. She had to leave earlier than she wanted to, but she and Nolan get along very well and Grandma Hughes will be back in just a couple of days to spend Fourth of July weekend with us (grandpa Hughes too).

Izabel cuddling up with the little guy. She is quite protective of and very good to little Nolan. They are quite the pair.

After all of our family left the hospital, the new Mom and Dad cuddled up with the little guy until the nurse came to assess him. They told us they would assess him in the nursery and come get us in just a couple of minutes for his bath. Heather and I both wish now that we would have gone with the little guy, but after a long day we thought we would just wait for his bath. When the nurse didn't come to get us for thirty minutes, dad jumped out of bed and ran down to check on the guy. The poor little guy was having some breathing problems, so the nurses had to keep a close watch on him. After taking his vitals and changing his schedule to every 3 hours for vitals (rather than every 6), the nurse helped us give him his first bath. Here she is giving Nolan a sweet comeover (he loves his hair being brushed).

After his bath, we took the little guy back to our room, and three hours later, they came and got him for a new observation (approximately 2 in the morning). This time his breathing was still accelerated and he was flairing his nostrils. The nurses called in a NICU respiratory nurse to get a second opinion. She agreed that his breathing was too rapid and a cause for concern. So, they called the pediatrician who ordered lab work done. And they ordered that he stay in the nursery for the rest of the night for close observation. Heather and I switched off staying down and holding the little guy. Here he is before we were allowed to hold him relaxing spread eagle under the warmer with a poor monitor hooked up to him.

After all of his labs came back normal, they let us take him back to our room. BUT! The pediatrician called later to check in and ordered that he go back to the nursery, so they woke us up again to steal our little guy. It was a rough first night for the little guy, but he found a way to calm himself down (here he is discovering his thumb for the first time).

Well that is it for Nolan's first day here with us. He is such a sweetie, and we promise to get more pictures updated soon. We thank God daily for him and for blessing our lives with such an amazingly sweet little guy. We love you all and can't wait to introduce you (those who haven't met him yet) to our bundle of joy.