Baby Aydan is born!

Two days before Thanksgiving (at 28 weeks pregnant), I went into preterm labor, which landed me in the hospital for a long and boring 4 days! They finally let me go home, but on strict bedrest. No cooking, cleaning, getting up or doing ANYTHING except go to the bathroom and take a quick 5 minute shower. It was horrible to go from being the one who does most of the household stuff, plus take care of Ilana, to being able to do absolutely nothing but lay on the bed or couch.

Michael became a "single" parent pretty much - but was absolutely amazing at it! Since he was working, we had to have some friends watch Ilana during the day, which we soon learned was starting to affect her. She had fun, but it's hard to take a two year old who is used to being on a routine and schedule and is at home most of the time, and switching up her routine and taking her from friend to friend and her not get to see Mommy or Daddy for a good 7-8 hours or so. Michael decided it'd be best to take leave from work so he could take care of her, plus all the household stuff, and be able to care for me. Thankfully he was approved to take leave from work until Christmas - which helped out tremendously!! Unfortunately, plans soon changed...

Saturday at 7:30 pm (12/13/08 - 30 weeks and 5 days pregnant), my water broke! We quickly got our stuff together, dropped Ilana off at a friends and then headed to our local hospital. They ended up transferring me to a hospital about an hour away by ambulance because our local hospital didn't have a NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit). Once we got to the new hospital contractions went from 5-7 minutes apart to about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes apart, but still weren't the strongest. After about 9 hours, the contractions decreased to every 10-20 minutes,
and then almost became nonexistant by Sunday evening. The doctor's said that since I was so early, they didn't want to push the labor. Monday morning (31 weeks pregnant), they decided to induce me, since I was already 8 cm dilated and my water had broken - they were afraid of infection.

The Pitocin was given around 10:45-11am, and kicked in close to 11:30am. I had contractions every minute for about 5 minutes and then they quickly got even closer - about 5-10 seconds apart. And these were EXCRUCIATING!!! My pain with Ilana wasn't even that bad, and so after 15 minutes of it, I asked for some IV meds. At 11:45 she came in to give them to me, and was starting to hook them up, when I felt the urge to push. I started pushing while they tried contacting all the docs and NICU people, and he was out 10 minutes later at 11:58! It was
crazy because it was so packed in there - literally 15 doctors, nurses, and NICU people. They took him as soon as he was out, and all the NICU doctor's assessed him and let me have a look at him before they whisked him away (we didn't get to hold him, though! :(). Literally 2 minutes after I pushed him out, the IV meds started to kick in (of course it had to be AFTER I give birth!), and I was passed out asleep by the time they all left the room!

He was 4 pounds 9 ounces and 17 1/2 inches long!!! A LOT bigger than anyone expected - which was most definitely God answering prayers!!!