Introducing...

Grayson David Fowles

   So I'm skipping ahead since I didn't catch up before baby boy came. So here's his birth story....

         This pregnancy was the easiest of all my pregnancies. I didn't even feel pregnant or different until 5 or 6 months along. I was really blessed to not be tired or anything in my first trimester(usually am) so I could keep the house on the market. The doctors would comment how perfect my numbers all were especially with my age. Yes 35 is old for having a baby :) So I was bummed that starting at 36 weeks I would have to do a weekly non stress test due to my age since everything was going so well. I was all set to talk to the doctor about not doing them. I mean hello the pregnancy was going along perfectly.

          The time came for my 36 week appointment. I was most annoyed about the extra test because it meant I had to go to the office in American Fork instead of the one in town. So anyway I made arrangements with an old neighbor to pick Maddie up from school and dropped Hannah off at my sisters house and headed off to the Dr. The nurse called me back and went to take my blood pressure. I could tell she wasn't happy with the result when she told me to sit there and relax for a few and we would try again. Well we tried a few times and it didn't get better. Then I met with the doctor who really wasn't pleased(there goes my plan for getting out of the non stress tests). He ordered me to the hospital for more tests including a 24 hour urine test which is just horrible! He said if those came back bad then he would induce me that next Monday...uhhh ahhh! Well I did the tests and luckily they showed I most likely did not have preeclampsia so I was not induced at 37 weeks. I did however go shopping and start getting ready for baby since we were not ready at all.

           So the next week at my appointment I saw a different doctor who once again wasn't pleased with my blood pressure. It was better than the week before but still not good. He told me that if it was still up the following week then that was it they would induce. "Once you are 38 weeks we are just looking for a reason."  Okay after that he was out of the room, no time for questions. Not sure what he meant.

          Well Tuesday, April 15th was my 38 week appointment. Dave had wanted to come but a meeting had been scheduled for right during it so I went alone. I dropped Maddie off at her friend Chloe's house and then took Hannah to Susan's, gave her a little kiss and told her I would see her soon. I was seeing Dr. Ollerton who I knew did not take induction lightly. I was pretty sure he would not schedule an induction for me. Well surprise surprise my blood pressure was up again. When Dr O came in he told me I would be induced right away. So after finishing my exam he headed out and called the hospital while I stood there in shock though I did get a text off to Dave. "Today is the day" to which he responded "You messing with me?" So after that I drove myself to the hospital. It took a while to get a hold of Dave and took him some time to leave work but he eventually joined me 2.5 hours after I got to the hospital. Luckily Susan was able to keep Hannah and Jared & Jordyn picked up the rest of them from school and took care of them.

          Alright so I got induced. They didn't start the Pitocin until 2:00 so I knew we were in for a night time baby. They were monitoring my blood pressure and I was told if it didn't go down I would have to do magnesium. The nurse told me that it makes you feel gross so I didn't want that but she said I could have a seizure if the blood pressure went up. So I tried to relax. I posted on facebook that I was praying all went well and in return lots of friends commented that they would pray as well. Everything was going fine until they broke my water. Baby boy didn't like that, his heart rate dropped. The doctor stayed around for awhile and even tried placing a monitor that attaches to baby's head. Eventually he seemed to be doing better. A little after 9pm it started to get crazier. His heart rate dropped again. They tried putting another monitor on his head. It wasn't getting any better. At 9:30 the dr checked and I was a 5 in a half. He didn't leave the room. Then another nurse came in and put me on oxygen. They moved me around trying to find a position that made baby happy but we couldn't find one. I was really stressing out. You could just feel the stress in the room. I knew it wasn't good that the doctor was staying in there. I started to really worry about baby. Dave had given me a blessing earlier and I was trying to remember if it mentioned baby coming home with us and I couldn't remember. I was scared that our little boy wasn't going to make it. I know dramatic but the feeling in the room wasn't good. A couple minutes before ten the doctor said something about seeing if I was complete. Well turns out I was and baby's head was already on the way out. Grayson was born at 10:01 pm with out even one push.

         Then the doctor saw what he called a "true knot" in the umbilical cord. They made a big deal over it and told us how rare it was. Everything went smoothly from there. Dr Ollerton went and turned off the monitors that had been watching baby boy's heart rate and made some comment about how sometimes you are really relieved to be able to turn them off and be done. I could tell he had been really worried about the delivery. He also told me I was lucky I was complete when I was. i'm guessing if I wasn't they would have taken measures to deliver baby then anyway. When the nurse was giving Grayson a bath she told us that they hardly ever see a true knot but when they do it's with a stillborn. Okay wow that's crazy. Our little man was lucky. After finding that out I was really happy that I had my blood pressure problems and was induced early because who knows what could have happened. The next day Dave ran into our first nurse from Labor and Delivery(she was with me until 6pm) and she said "I heard you had a real nail biter". Yeah I guess they talk about the deliveries and she had heard how ours went.

  So anyway here's some more pics of our sweet little man.

Our smallest weighing in at only 6 lbs 14 oz

Yep he's hungry

Pacifier baby already

Not so sure about being cleaned

   Dave brought the girls by on Wednesday morning to meet their new brother. Hannah walked right over to me with her hands out asking to hold him.

Aunt Susan was our first visitor.

Hospital pics have come a long way since Tanner was born

After school Dave brought all the kids. The poor boys only got to spend an hour at the hospital. Tanner had his Hope of America program at BYU that night.

Dave spent very little time at  the hospital since the kids needed shuttled around everywhere.

All dressed to go home.

I had an awesome nurse the last day. I suffered a minor break down and she started crying right along with me. She also polled all the other nurses trying to help us name him. The poor kid didn't get his name until minutes before we were discharged.

And we are on our way home ready to start this crazy adventure with 5 kids.