He's Here!!

Meet the newest addition to out little family, McKay Craig Nelson. He was born on March 18, at 11:20am. He weighed 7lb even and was 19 1/2 in long. He is perfect in every way. Here's the story of how our little Mckay came into the world.

The days leading up to his birth I was having all of the good old nesting instincts. I wanted to make lots of food, clean like crazy, and just work myself to the max. I over did it on Tuesday and that night I could barely walk. Matt had been working in the ER and had the worst hours known to man, 2 pm -12 am every night. So even if I over did it I had no one to help me. On Wednesday, I could feel my body break down from all the hard work. My legs and feet were so swollen it hurt to stand on them. I also started to feel some abnormal pain in my upper stomach. Not labor pain just something that wasn't right. After telling Matt what was going on, his doctor instincts kicked in and realized that some of the things that I was complaining about were signs of preeclampsia. I had Ammon early because I had preeclampsia so there was a chance I could get it again. The only way we would know if I was getting it was to take my blood pressure and see if it was high. Good thing I have a husband with all the supplies. We took my blood pressure and it was 140/90, which is a lot higher then my usual blood pressure. We called my doctor to tell her what was going on and she told us to go to the hospital right away. We called up our neighbors, Isreal and Rebecca to watch Ammon and cleaned up the house just in case we were really going to have the baby. We didn't want to leave it a mess.:)

We decided to take a picture right before we left just in case this was the last time to do so. Good thing we did:) Sorry the pictures blurry, we have no idea how to work our new camera.

At this time it was around 8:00 pm. It seemed so surreal to be driving to the hospital knowing that the next time I go home I could be coming home with a new little baby. It didn't seem right when we got there. Matt and I took our time waking to the ER doors as if we were out for a stroll in the park. After having some blood work done and a urine test, there were no signs of preeclampsia other then my high blood pressure. Even though my blood work came back clean, it didn't mean that I wasn't going into preeclampsia. My doctor checked me to see if I had dilated any more than my last doctors visit. I was now dilated to a 4, maybe 5. She told me that she would feel better if I stayed so they could keep an eye on my blood pressure because they didn't want it to get worse and have it turn into preeclampsia. They sent me to my own room and told me that they would break my water early in the morning to induce labor. I couldn't believe this was happening. Matt decided to stay with me that night in case there was any new developments and thank heavens he did. Around 1 or 2 in the morning I started to have some strong, consistent contractions. I wasn't expecting this to happen. Matt was sleeping and I didn't want to wake him up but things started to happen fast. I had nurses come in and check on me that were shocked that I was having contractions like I was, just because I wasn't suppose to be in labor until they broke my water. My body started to go into labor on it's own(Probably with some help from the doctors short stubby fingers). After a few hours of no sleep and painful contractions, I woke up Matt, crying, telling him that I wanted an epidural. I was having contractions every 2 - 3 min. Holy crap, those hurt so bad. I thought that I was going to break the bed when they came on just because I was pulling and pushing anything that was in my reach. They wouldn't give me an epidural until I had a liter of IV fluid in me. So I had to suffer. I have to say to you women that do this whole thing naturally, you are truly strong and brave! I really couldn't handle it. I think some swear words were flying here and there but at the time I felt totally justified:).

Around 7 or so the Anesthesiologist came in to give me an epidural. I was so worried because my contractions were getting so close to each other and I didn't want another Ammon experience to happen where I get the epidural but then 2 min later I deliver the baby before it kicked in. Well, luckily it worked. I got my epidural in time!! But there were some complications with the epidural. They accidentally punctured my spinal cord and I was having a spinal fluid leak. There was nothing they could do for the resultant spinal headaches until the baby was delivered. Lucky me. Well, even though there was a problem with the epidural I still LOVED and worshiped the anesthesia. Wow, does it work miracles. After some time I could look over at the monitor and see that I was having a pretty strong contraction and couldn't feel anything. I had no idea it could do something like that.

This is me after getting the epidural. Yeah I don't think I would look this happy if I wasn't on drugs.

After that I was finally able to lay down and get some rest. I was so tired and it felt so good not to feel the pain. Around 9:00 a nurse came in to see if I had dilated further. I was still at a 6. Ten minutes later my doctor came in and checked. I was at a 9. Yeah, I go really fast. My doctor broke my water and said that I would start feeling like pushing soon and to let her know when I did. We all just sat around waiting for me to have the urge to push. I didn't really know what to think or what to feel for, just because the epidural was doing it's job. But, soon, I could tell there was something different. I called the doctor in and then it was time for the pushing. (sorry if I'm going into too much detail). In my mind I thought that when you have an epidural, you're not supposed to feel anything. Well in my case I could feel it all. I'm sure that the epidural helped a little bit, but I wasn't expecting to feel anything and when I did it was the end of the world. I was screaming and crying and acting like a two year old by saying owie, owie,owie. After 6 pushes little McKay was out and on my chest. I felt so bad because even though it was so amazing to deliver a child, I couldn't truly enjoy the moment because I was in so much pain. It didn't seem real to have had a baby. He was no longer in me and now he was in my arms. They took him away while I got stitched up. They told me I could have some drugs, but that it would make me feel really sleepy. I said I would take anything. After they were done with me, it hit me that I was tired. I couldn't even keep my eyes open. People would start talking to me and I had no idea what they were saying. Ha ha I think they thought I was a little odd. One of the nurses kept saying that I was funny. I have no idea what I was doing in order for her to think that but apparently I was doing or saying something funny.

After taking a little nap and having the drugs out of my system I was back to normal. I was finally able to enjoy the sweet little angel that had just come into my life. He really is perfect. He has a lot of hair and has perfect features. His little nose, mouth, and eyes are perfect. I can't get over how handsome he is. I had no idea a mother could have so much love for a child of her own, and still love another child just as much. I love him so much!!

We had no idea what we were going to name him. It took us till Friday night to name him. Matt has always loved the name McKay. I couldn't come up with anything else that would be better and so we went for it and I love it now. He's named after David O. McKay. His middle name is after my dad, Craig.

Right out of the shoot.

First time holding my new little boy.

The proud dad. Matt had bronchitis just a couple day's before so we thought it would be best for him to wear a mask.

A very excited Grandmother. My mom was able to come out and help just in time to be there at the hospital. I don't know what I would do without her. Thanks mom for everything.

The new big brother. Ammon came to visit us at the hospital but he didn't want anything to do with McKay. This picture was taken when we got home. All Ammon wants to do it hold the baby and take care of him. I am such a lucky mom to have the two cutest little boys in the whole world.

This is my cute little OB Doctor. She was so good and I'm really glad I had her. Don't mind the spot light that we have on us. We couldn't find the over head lights in the room.

Later that day I could start feeling the spinal headaches come on. I don't know if anyone has ever had those before but they are worse then any migraine you've ever had. If you're laying down you don't feel anything. You feel perfectly normal but the second you sit up or stand, all hell breaks loose. It's hard to focus and hard to do anything. I don't even know how to explain it other than to say it's absolutely horrible. It kind of feels like someone got a pan and hit it as hard as they could across your head. I hope no one has to experience it. I had to go and have another procedure done in order for it to be fixed. I had to wait till Friday morning/afternoon to do it though, so until then I just had to lay flat and try not to move much. Well, finally it was time for them to take me upstairs to get it done. It's funny how when you're in labor you will do anything in order for that pain to leave you. Even if you have to have a big long needle go into your spine. It doesn't matter. But if you think about having a big long needle going into your spine any other day, it's kind of scary. I was really nervous to have it done. What they do is take about 15 ml of your own blood and inject it into the epidural space near where the spinal cord was punctured. The blood tamponades the leak and also clots to form a patch on the dura mater (the sheath that holds in the spinal fluid), thereby keeping the spinal fluid from leaking out. Well, they wheeled me in with Matt walking beside me. I was so nervous that I told Matt not to leave my side. When we got into the room, the nurse came in and right away told Matt, very rudely, that he could not be there and he had to leave immediately. Matt tried to explain that he worked at this hospital and was just accepted into an Anesthesiology program (anesthesiologist do this procedure), but she could care less and kicked him out. I started crying so hard. I think I was more afraid of the mean nurse than anything else. How could someone be so rude when clearly the patient was freaking out. I really couldn't control myself. It was one of those cries where you keep hiccuping and you can't talk at all even if you try. Can I just say that my hormones were a little out of whack and she just happened to push the wrong button. The entire time that she was doing stuff to me I was balling my eyes out. She didn't once try to comfort me in any way. I did not like that nurse at all. Then to make things worse the doctor came in and didn't seem very nice either and so I started to cry even harder. Man I felt stupid. The nurse then told the doctor about Matt wanting to be there for the procedure. At first he said no, but then he had Matt come in to talk to him. He decided that Matt could stay. Thank heavens. After that I did a lot better. They gave me some drugs to calm me down and to help with the pain. I'll tell you though, it was not fun to have them stick me in the spine with a giant needle. When they were done I could tell immediately that my headache was gone. The doctors advised us to stay for another night just to make sure I was doing alright.

The next day was Saturday and it was time for us to go home. We went home without a hitch.



Just some pictures from the Hospital that I thought were to good to leave out.