May 14th, 2010

The Day Our Lives Changed (for the better)!

Alyssa had, what we would find out later to be her last doctor's appointment on May 7th. Michael came home early from a job in Nevada two weeks prior to make sure he wouldn't miss the birth of his son. At the appointment we were told by Dr. Sree, that we could schedule an induction as early as the following Monday. So, after giving it some thought we decided to go ahead. We called the hospital and unfortunately they were full for scheduled inductions and the waiting list was full as well. For Tuesday (Alyssa's birthday) they only had spots on the waiting list, so we put our name down. In the event that we didn't make the cut on Tuesday, we were able to have a scheduled spot for Friday. (Our doctor had off on Wednesday's and was not in the Appleton office on Thursdays) We didn't receive a call Monday night informing us that we "made the cut" for Tuesday, so we thought Friday would be the day.

Fast forward to Thursday morning - 2am - Alyssa started having contractions and they came every couple hours, but we weren't thinking anything of it. By 2pm, they were every hour. By 8:00pm they were every 10-20 minutes, so we called the nurse hot line and were informed that UNLESS they were every 2 minutes apart for 2 hours we would not be admitted, so we were supposed to sit tight and relax at home. By 9:30 they were every 5-10 minutes apart and a very anxious dad-to-be called the nurse hot line again and she finally said "I'll call the hospital and you can go ahead and go if you want, but they more than likely won't keep you"...we think she was tired of us calling and wanted to get to bed herself:)

We finally went to the hospital and got up to a room at about 11pm. Alyssa was only dilated 1cm and after about an hour of walking the nurse gave us the option to go home and come back at 6am, for our scheduled induction or just stay over night. We decided to stay overnight since we were checked in, had our suitcase, and were more than ready for the baby to come! It was a good thing we stayed because at 3:30 the following morning the contractions were every 2 minutes. Alyssa's mom came to the hospital around 8:30 that morning and soon followed Katie (her sister) and Ella (Katie's daughter)! The morning seemed to fly by (well, for most of us) and before we knew it, it was 1:00 in the afternoon and the nurse said it was time to start pushing. This was, of course, after one round of pain meds and the wonderful "epidural"!!

1:57pm - the time our little man, Dallas Michael Jeffers, made his dramatic entrance into the world. Before the doctor could even make it to the hospital (later we found out she was stuck at a broken traffic light) Dallas decided to come out on his own in between contractions. The nurse called for help, three nurses came running the room, one pressed the "code red" button, and the doctor came in just in time to "catch" Dallas. He had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, he swallowed the miconium and had fluid in his lungs which was preventing him from crying and made it tough for him to breath, one of the nurses was working on him as we all watched. After a few minutes she decided to take him to the Special Care Nursery. Of course we were all very concerned, but Alyssa new her little man was SO strong (like his daddy), she had no doubt he would pull through. Michael was very scared, but he spent a lot of time in the SCN with Dallas where he would soon learn he really WAS strong!

Dallas spent a total of 6 hours in the SCN and Alyssa was not able to see him until about 4:00 that afternoon. (The epidural had to wear off before she was allowed to leave her room) But, she was able to see lots of pictures and videos that Michael took of him so she wouldn't miss his first cries!

8:00 that night was the first time Dallas was with his mom and dad and he was lucky to be joined by his Poppy (Alyssa's dad) too!

We were all SO ready to leave by Saturday morning, but we were told we had to stay another day since Dallas had a rough start. They wanted to make sure he was good and healthy before sending him home. Don't ever let anyone tell you those hospital beds are comfy, they are NOT!!! So, finally Sunday morning at about 11am we were able to leave and take our little man home with us. The newborn outfit we had picked out for him was drowning him and he looked SO small in his car seat, but we were ready to be the best parents in the world and start showing Dallas off to everyone!

Please enjoy the pictures below, these are from his first few days in this big, big world!

Dallas Michael Jeffers born May 14th, 2010

1:57pm

7lb. 5.5 oz.

20 inches long

Dallas on Oxygen in the Special Care Nursery

One of our favorite pictures from the hospital

Swaddled up, he has loved this from Day 1!

One of Mama's favorite pictures:)

Going home from the hospital!