Baby number 6 was due on August 20. We arranged our move to Utah to be as settled as we could with job and living and insurance well before he was set to arrive. And a good thing too. On Wednesday night, July 31, as we were getting settled and going to bed, Brittney's water broke. I was just trying to go to sleep, and it had been a long day. I got up and looked up how soon we needed to go to the hospital and we decided to try to hold off until morning. We weren't really prepared for any of this, as in our minds we still had three weeks to go. We didn't have a bag of stuff to take to the hospital with us, baby clothes set out, car seat, or a name picked out. I slept a bit for the rest of the night, but Brittney couldn't sleep and got some things packed and ready to go.
Alec, Charlie, and Gwen were in Idaho for That Famous Preston Night Rodeo with Grandma and some cousins. We had decided it wouldn't be good for us to be that far away from the hospital, and a good thing too. This meant that we just had to find someone to watch Freddy and Max, but also that Grandma wasn't home to watch them. We texted Thom and Brittany in the morning and Thom came over and took them to his house, and then we headed to the hospital. Throughout all of the night Brittney had been having on-and-off contractions, sometimes closer together, but as we made our way through the streets of Provo and Orem to Orem Community Hospital the frequency dropped down to only every 20 minutes or so.
When we arrived at the hospital Brittney said she felt like an imposter because she wasn't really "in labor." But we knew that her water had broken and that they wouldn't send us home. The nurses first took us into a small triage room where they confirmed (quickly) that her water had indeed broken. Then they took us back to a nice big labor/delivery/recovery room and we got settled in. We were expecting to be given pitocin like happened with Freddy (water broke 3.5 weeks early) and Alec (induced 5 days late). The doctor on call thought it would be best to wait until about 1pm and give Brittney a chance to have things progress naturally. This was a little discouraging as I was anticipating just sitting around in the room without much happening until then, and then being in labor for most of the afternoon and potentially into the evening.
Fortunately, Brittney starting having more regular contractions and things progressed on their own. Brittney tried to move around, she sat on an exercise ball and we took a few walks around the hallways. By about 12:30 they told the doctor to come in the the hospital because she was getting close. He checked her once he got there and said that she "Still had a little ways to go." That was discouraging for Brittney as it made it seem like there was still so far to go. Heavy contractions continued for a while and finally the doctor said she could start pushing. After pushing through 3 or 4 contractions, he was finally here! Brittney was amazing! Theodore didn't cry at first and they had to siphon some gunk out of his mouth. But once they did he gave a nice strong cry and it was music to our ears. He kept crying until they laid him down on Brittney's chest, when he calmed down instantly. I am always amazed at how instant that calming connection is made, our kids have always known at once that they are safe and at home once they are in her arms. (Sometimes I think that is the most basic definition of our family, a group of people for whom Brittney is safety, peace, and home. I guess that doesn't really describe her, though, but it works for the rest of us!)
The afterbirth stuff is always not fun, and this time was no exception. They let Theodore stay on Brittney's chest for a good long while which was nice. Finally they took him and did measurements and cleaned him off a bit. Everything seemed like it was doing good.
Thom and Brittney brought Freddy and Max to see their new little brother later that afternoon, and it was so fun to see them all together. Freddy was super interested in holding him, while Max seemed appropriately interested and concerned.
Since Brittney had gestational diabetes during this pregnancy, the doctors were concerned about Theodore's blood sugar levels. They had to test him periodically (I think every 2 hours for the first little while, then every 6 hours after that), and he was always just above the concerned level. But to make sure he stayed high enough we needed to make sure he was getting something to eat. This was a bit of a problem, since Theodore was not at all interested in eating for about the first 24 hours. He didn't want to suck on anything, but he would drink if we syringed formula into his mouth. We ended up trying to breast-feed him like normal, but syringe formula into his mouth when he was on the breast since he wasn't sucking enough to get anything out. This was pretty annoying, since it took someone helping Brittney but we were lucky to have a wonderful nurse the first night that helped Brittney through the night feedings.
Theodore (barely) passed all of his blood sugar tests and by the second day started to be a little more interested in eating. Alec and Gwen were able to come visit him on their way back from Idaho, and again it was wonderful to see the kids holding him and loving on him. That morning before their visit we had finally decided on a name. Since he came early we hadn't quite gotten around to the final discussions regarding his name. But we both decided that we loved "Theodore," especially when we saw the meaning: "God's gift." Charlie and Alec came to the hospital again on Friday night, and then I went home to help with the nighttime routine for Max and the others. At what seemed like long last, Theodore had met all of his siblings.
Another hospital adventure was the echocardiogram that Theodore had to get. Because Brittney had gestational diabetes, after we moved to Utah we were referred to a specialty clinic for handling that complication. On our first meeting with them they did a super in-depth ultrasound, like 45-50 minutes long. The doctors noticed that Theodore had a small hole in his heart, a ventricular septal defect. The doctor said this was the most common type of infant heart abnormality, and that it almost never posed much of a long term problem, often closing up on its own. He said that we should do an echocardiogram once Theodore was born, and then just make sure our pediatrician was aware of it.
So the day he was born, later in the evening, we went to an area in the nursery to get it done. The machinery wasn't working (it was unable to connect to the database at another hospital that it needed to or something), because apparently they hadn't had to do one at that hospital for a while. So it turned out that actually did the echo the next morning. The echo confirmed the hole in his heart and also showed another small one between to other parts of the heart that from what the doctor said probably wouldn't close up on their one, but also shouldn't pose much of a problem. From reading online it seems like each can be corrected with a surgery if they are causing trouble, but for right now we don't have to do anything about it except be aware. We are grateful that it seems that none of this should impact Theodore's life and health at all.
On Saturday morning everything was still good, so we got to go home. Our kids were out on the driveway waiting to welcome us home, which was pretty fun. On to our crazy lives as an 8-person family! Welcome, Theodore! We love you!
