milestoMORRIS: And then there were 4...

Well, if you didn't already know our sweet baby boy is finally here! Michael and I departed our house around 5:00am on Thursday, January 12th to head off to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas for our 5:30am appointment.

Gimme, Brittany, and Riley all camped out at our house the night before. Riley, Brittany, and I all piled up in our king sized bed around 2AM. I couldn't turn my brain off. I had to be up at 4:00am to shower and throw last minute packing into our hospital bag. I think I may have actually slept 30 minutes.

Riley made me take one last bare belly photo the night before - Ugh..... so here's the big giant belly!

After tossing and turning and thinking about what the next day was going to bring - I finally gave up trying to sleep and got out of bed at 3:45 before the alarm went off and hopped in the shower. Got out. Woke Michael up.... and with all of the clanking around the rest of the crew woke up. We left the house promptly at 5:00am. (We were actually ON TIME for once in our lives!)

Last pregnant photo just before we left the house.

We walked into Labor & Delivery and filled out some paper work - which was about as much paperwork as buying a home or car. Geez! We were handed our ~~awesome~~ estimated amount due pending our discharge. Egck! Moving on...they immediately put us into a room and told me to strip and handed over that -ever so lovely- hospital gown. Before I knew it, I had an IV and an epidural. For those of you that have ever had one - I have to say that it was much easier to get into the "ball" position as I was dilating to 10cm with Kambry than being stone cold painless for this go-round. I had nothing to distract me! It wasn't too bad though. The anesthesiologist was very informative and made me feel calm. Our L&D RN, "Mary", was amazing. The c-section was scheduled for 7:30am. Two hours of surgery preparation went by really fast. Just before they wheeled me down to the OR, Kambry showed up with Gimme. I don't know why, but I got so emotional when I saw Kambry for the first time that day. It was sort of the same feeling I had when I saw my brother, Brandon, on my wedding day. Just overwhelmed with emotion. Kambry handled me being hooked up to all of the wires, including an oxygen tube in my nose (I was getting panicky) well.

It was about 7:15am or so and they started wheeling me down. All of a sudden Michael disappeared. We got into the OR and I kept asking where my HUSBAND WAS! Apparently they don't allow husbands in the room for surgery prep... I definitely don't remember that from my first L&D. I was shaking and trembling from nervousness and the epidural. My heart rate was rising and a nurse was doing her best to make me feel more comfortable. I just kept closing my eyes taking deep breaths. Then, I hear my doctor, Dr. Pero, say, "Okay, let's bring the husband in!" MUSIC TO MY EARS! The nurse that was calming me immediately recognized how much more comfortable I was and said, "Well, that's all you needed was your husband - that's so sweet."

In comes Michael, with his "look like a doctor" suit on - as Kambry put it. I tried my best to fight back tears. Michael kept telling me not to cry so that he wouldn't. He just rubbed my hand and slowly calmed my nerves. The next few minutes flew by...I could smell weird smokey stuff coming from the burning tool they used to cut my skin... some more pulling and tugging.... then I hear Dr. Pero say, "Okay Amber - you're going to feel a big push on your stomach." BOY did I ever?! As soon as she pushed on the top of my stomach - just under my rib cage - I immediately felt like I could BREATHE! That deep breath that I've been wanting to take for months...

Mary the RN told Michael he could stand up and watch, so he did. Michael looked at me and said, "He's big!". Kohen Adner Morris was here at 7:31am weighing in at 8lbs 7oz. Michael started taking pictures and Mary asked him if she wanted him to take them so that he could be with me and Kohen. He gladly handed the camera over. She got some great shots for us, including one of him coming out of my stomach.

This is Kohen's very first photograph!

The next 10-15 minutes felt like hours. I couldn't see Kohen. I could only hear these tiny little cries - and I could only see Michael's face. Mary told Michael he could go over to the table where they were suctioning Kohen. I could tell that something was wrong by the look on Michael's face. He could hear the doctor's talking about Kohen's breathing. Meanwhile, I'm fearing the absolute worse. The only update I have is the look in Michael's eyes. Finally I asked what was wrong. They told Michael he was breathing really shallow and that he had swallowed a lot of fluid. They then called in some specialists to evaluate him while we were still in the OR. The specialists told the OB's to take Kohen

I asked Michael if I was going to get to even see him - and once again - I saw my baby for the first time on a camera screen (same with Kambry - Grr! Hate c-sections!). He was huge! Mary then told me they were wrapping him up to bring him to me. I quietly sobbed as I anticipated seeing his little face for the first time. I looked over and saw Michael with the camera - and then came my baby boy! I swear if you could see the photos and flip them you could get a play-by-play, he took SO many pictures of our first meeting.

After our brief meeting, the nurses stormed off with Kohen to the nursery. I told Michael to go with him while they sewed me back up. It seemed like it took a LIFETIME for them to sew me back up but it only took them about 20-30 minutes.

Mary wheeled me back to the same room they did the pre-op for recovery. The two of us waited and she calmed me down by telling me that it was pretty common for these things to happen and that if something was really wrong they would've taken him to the NICU instead of the nursery. I was pretty calmed by that information...but no mom in the world wants to have to even worry about something at birth no matter how big or small! Michael came back to the room, with our posse in-tow. He gave me the update. Kohen's blood sugar was low and they were probably going to keep him in there for a while. I looked over at Mary. Without me even saying a word to her, she picked up the phone - looked at me and said, "I'm calling them now." Real woman-shiz right there.... The nursery said they had fed him formula with a tube because his blood sugar was too low and that they were probably going to keep him in there for observation for an hour or two. It was about 8:00-8:30am....

I had to stay in the recovery room for about an hour and a half or so. In this time, we thoroughly violated the "4-Person" rule. I had visits from my favorite people.... Dude showed me a video of Kohen getting a bath and the nurse put his hair into a mohawk and I got to see Kambry's reactions to Kohen and Michael being in scrubs... Ugh... sucked to not get to see it all in person - thank goodness for technology!

"Daddy! You're like a doctor!"

We had quite an audience - here are a few of our favorite family members and friends that came to welcome Kohen. Love you guys!

So back to the timeline - I finally got wheeled up to the post partum room and everyone finally got to come in at once and hang out while we waited for Kohen to get the AOK from the pediatrician. I think it wasn't until 10:30 or 11 that they FINALLY brought him in to me. If it weren't for all of the visitors, that time would've slowly passed by.

Finally! We were reunited with our bundle of joy. And what a joy he was. He was absolutely perfect in every way. The nurses came in every couple of hours to check his blood-sugar until it was in the acceptable range. End of day one - day two - they said he was slightly jaundice but nothing that required him to be under the lights and that it would ease up on its own.... and that it did.

Our little family of 4 :)

We had to spend 5 days in the hospital due to some minor complications with me. I had the beginnings of cellulitis which is some sort of infection of the "cells"... whatever the hell that means... and then I had this crazy rash break out from my rib cage to my thighs. I was allergic to just about every piece of material that they had to use in operation as well as the leg compressions. We had some great nurses! We even got one of them a gift. Amanda - loved her. We had lots of visitors in our tiny little room. Michael and I were reminded of just how many people love and care about us. It's amazing - even through adversity - how many people we have that deeply care for us. We are so lucky to have so many avenues of support. I have the best family in the world and Michael has some of the greatest friends and grandparents on the planet. Kohen just doesn't know how good he's going to have it :).

We finally got to come home on day 5-midday. THANK GOODNESS!!

Kohen is doing GREAT. He is feeding really well despite his struggle to get back to his birth weight in the first week... the pediatricians will just watch his weight gain closely as his little stomach gets used to being on the outside. Kambry is the most nurturing big "stister". She really is a big help.... and Michael, well I have no idea what I did to deserve such a fantastic husband but I am so lucky that he is the father of my children.

Here's a few pictures that I took of Kohen at 10 days old. Going to have fun with this little guy!