Dave had to do some travelling for work. UGH! He was gone two weeks in a row - DOUBLE UGH! He asked if I would prefer him to come home for a week in between or just be gone for two weeks. I decided to just have him gone two weeks in a row. It would be easier to just get it all over with and not get used to him being around and dreading him being gone again. It was fine and the boys really were so good, but I like it best when we're all together.
To celebrate our survival of the last two weeks we went out for donuts the day Daddy was coming home. They both LOVE chocolate bars...it was a fun outing. I love me some donuts!
For easter I treated Dave to some See's candy. One of our favorite chocolates is their butter chew, which is chocolate covered caramel - AWESOME! After finishing off his little box he decided to give caramel and chocolate covered caramel a try. It turned out awesome and I can't wait for him to make more. A man working in the kitchen is pretty great, but a man making chocolate and caramels...does it get much better than that?!?!?!
Well, I was 37 weeks and I decided it was time to start officially over-doing-it to get True to come. On March 7th at about 9:40am, the boys and I got to the parking lot of the local nursery to buy a bunch of plants to plant in the front yard. Nothing like physical work to get me more dilated. I pulled into my parking spot, got out of the car, opened up the back door on the van to get the kids out and my "water" broke. Charlie had already taken his seat belt off. So I said, "Oh Charlie, hunny, you have to get back in your seat, Mommy's water just broke." He looks at me and says, "What water? You're not holding any water" I then told him my belly has a bunch of water in it that comes out when it's time for True to come and that it just came out." (fortunately he didn't ask any more questions) Of course Jenny was more than an hour away at an appointment, so I called our sweet neighbor and friend Miss Mary Ellen. She said she could meet me at the house. So I grabbed a blanket from the back of the van to set down on my seat...I could tell I was already soaked to my knees. I had already called Dave and of course he had carpooled that day with his buddy so he said he would meet me at the hospital. I met ME at our house so I could grab my bag and last minute stuff, but when I got out of the van and looked at the towel there was a good amount of blood on the towel. I went into a slight panic. ME showed up shortly and the second her door opened I said, "We have to go now, I'm bleeding" She ran and got in the van. I drove to the hospital with ME and the kids in the van. On the way, Me said, "I think we should pray" She bowed her head and prayed for the baby and I. It was so sweet and really helped calm me. Don't get me wrong I knew God was going to take care of me and True, but it was comforting nonetheless. We got to the hospital I told the boys I loved them, thanked ME and told her Jenny would be there to relieve her as soon as she got back into town. I headed into the hospital, stopped at the front desk and said my water broke, I need to get to labor and delivery immediately because I'm bleeding. I got there, explained to the nurses what happened. There were no available rooms, so they set me up in an old nursery with a gurney. I got into my fashionable hospital gown and let me tell you I was soaked to my knees and there was A LOT of blood. The nurses remained calm and that helped to keep me calm too. I was feeling True move so I wasn't too concerned, but the blood was disconcerting. Thye did an ultra sound, took my blood pressure, got True on a monitor. They checked me and I was a 1. I was still leaking "water" and one nurse thought it looked a little green which is a sign of meconium. So that was a little cause for concern too. My doctor showed up shortly after this he said everything looks fine and that hopefully he'll be back shortly to deliver. (My labors are usually pretty fast. Charlie was 8 hours and Ben was 3.5). I stopped leaking and was moved to a room. The next several hours they kept me closely monitored. I was feeling NOTHING. The nurses kept asking if I wanted to watch a show or a movie and I kept telling them that I was enjoying the quiet. Dave and I walked the halls, we played cards, we talked. At about 6pm Thursday I thought I was starting to feel the contractions get a little stronger. Thinking this is going to go really quickly I asked Dave if he wanted to call our sister-in-law Kris. She had asked to be in the labor room. She showed up shortly. Nothing happened for the next 4 hours. My doctor had come in and said he would be available for a delivery all night until 6am then he's going on a field trip with his daughter in the morning-pressure's on. My night nurse came in at 10:30 checked me...still a 1 and she had a really hard time finding the 1. She then suggested we start some Pitocin. At this point, I was like, "YES, let's get this show on the road!!" I got all hooked up. For the rest of the night Dave and Kris took turns walking the halls with me, we tried sleeping, the nurse kept upping my Pitocin, but still NOTHING. By morning I was at 16 miliunits of Pitocin and usually they don't go over 20 and still not feeling ANYTHING! It was so frustrating!! I was so tired and really not looking forward to labor now because I was fatigued. At 8am my morning nurse, Mary, came in. She was my day nurse the day before too. She said she was shocked I was still here and wondered if I had two bags of waters, a hind bag and a forebag. When the doctor on-call on March 8th came in Mary asked the doctor to check for a hindbag. The doctor confirmed that there was a bag, she burst it and said I was 2cm. Within 20 minutes of that bag being burst my contractions kicked in hard. Too hard. I asked Mary if we could turn off the Pitocin because I'm 2 cm, but my contractions feel like I should be at a 7. She said she could bump it down really low, but not off all the way in case my body decided to stop contracting. I went with it, and breathed my best, but yowsers I was in a lot of pain. The back pain was crazy. Dave suggested a shower, so I did that for a while which helped, but gracious this was a seriously hard labor. I remember sobbing at one point in the shower because I didn't know how much longer I could deal with the pain. By the time I got back to the bed I was a 7 or 8. From here on I don't remember timing much but it seemed to pass pretty quickly. Dave was amazing. He held my hand and kept telling me I was doing a good job and how every contraction is one closer to getting to hold True. I finally felt the urge to push. The nurses came in checked me I was a 9. HALLELUJAH!! I was almost there. I remember focusing on the shiny ceiling tiles during contractions. I was told that since he hadn't dropped before my water broke that was why I was experiencing so much back labor and with the Pitocin in my system it made the contractions really hard too. I was a 10! Hooray! I could push. The doctor showed up. I pushed during 3 separate contractions (I was very motivated to get him out, the doctor made a comment about how fast I was at pushing him out) and he came at 12:40 - over 26 hours since my first bag broke. He weighed in at 6 lbs 11oz and 18.75 inches long. A tiny guy, but not tiny for three weeks early...I can't imagine how big he would have been if he'd been on time - YIKES!
Our handsome, precious boy Truman 'True' Miller Sanderson
The boys meeting him for the first time. Benny's first words were, "Momma no talk and no teeth" We had, had many discussions about how True would not talk and how he would not have teeth.
Showing them his cute, tiny little toes.
Big Brothers!!!!
So exciting, just checking him all out.
I LOVE this picture! I love how happy and proud my guys are. I love how I'm a little out of focus and looking at my handsome, amazing husband. Thank you God for my sweet family. My cup runneth over.
Here we are as a family of 5!!!
Ben loving on True
Papa and Truman. My parents left their house the previous day when I called and told them my water had broken. True had so many people waiting for him. Even Dave parent's had driven out Thursday night thinking he would arrive. He was worth the wait.
Me and my precious boy.
Jenny came for a visit and brought Maggie with her. Love this one of the two of them.
Benny was so proud of his brother.
Since my water had broken a day in advance of his arrival we both had to stay in the hospital for 2 nights (which made my stay 3 nights total) to make sure there was no infection. It was a little frustrating, but mostly nice because it forced me to take it easy, spend more precious time with my boy and I took advantage of the quiet and the meals being brought to me three times a day! His nights were hard. The first night he had a hard time keeping his temperature up and the second night he had a hard time with his blood sugar. His poor little heels were a mess when we left. He did acclimate to everything they did for him so it was encouraging to the nurses and Dave and I. The second night I was trying to nurse him, but he was having a hard time. The nurse ended up bringing in a bottle of formula. This little guy chugged down half of it. He was just done with the colostrum and ready for the real stuff. He caught on pretty quick with nursing that next day and he's been a champ ever since.
Love my Family!
