Shep - birth story, details, update, etc...

It's Monday. Shep is 6 days old. I never dreamed we would still be here at the hospital or that I would ever have a child in the NICU. That's just one of those things that happens to other people. We never think about it happening to us, right? God's plans were different from ours and we may never know His good and perfect reasoning in this. But, one thing is for sure, He is in control and whatever His reason, we know it is what was best for our entire family.

After he came off the oxygen hood and cannula, he still had all the sensors everywhere and the feeding tube in. That is a diaper wrapped around his left arm where his IV was in it's first site. It has since been in 3 other places due to irritation, dislocation, etc. We got this great picture when he was awake and wide-eyed.

Oh wow! We were thrilled. They brought him to our room for the first time and I nursed him for the first time at 5:00 on Friday. It was such a relief and such a burden lifted.

Kennedy and Jude came up for a short time Saturday. It didn't take long for them to get bored in our little room and Shep can only be so much entertainment for 4- and 2-year-olds. So, Cary found a Droopy cartoon on YouTube and they were thrilled...can't you tell! (o:



Jude looked at Shep for quite a while before he thought it might be okay to give him a kiss. Once he did that, he has asked several times about his "bruzzer." He seems to be excited about Shep for the first time. Some time over the weekend, he pulled a pillowcase out of a drawer in his room. It was a red one with a razorback on it. He brought it to Janey and said it was for Shep. I guess he just wanted to share. I'm glad he's finally embracing all of this...we were concerned for a while.

Here he is sporting his first hog hat that his Daddy bought him in the hospital gift shop. It was nice to finally take some pics without tubes, and wires and such.

Birth Story

We checked in at 7:00 am Tuesday morning. They put us in triage because they didn't have a room/bed for us yet. There had been a full moon the night before and several women had gone into labor. They were packed. While in triage, I changed clothes, they started my IV, hooked me up to the fetal monitor and monitor for my contractions, and I signed a million pieces of paper. Once a room was ready (around 8:15-8:30 I think) they wheeled me and my bed down the hall and into a room. Cary and I got situated in room 264 and at 9:00 am Dr. Lawrence came in to break my water and get things going

I was already dilated to 5 cm. Within 30 minutes mild contractions had started and I was anxious to get the show on the road. Around 11:00 or so, I was pretty uncomfortable and laboring pretty hard, but the pain was still manageable at that point. Around noon, I asked the nurse to check my progress. I was so discouraged when she said I was at 5 cm. She seemed excited but she didn't know that I was at 5 cm when I came in and that was no progress in my book.

Between then and around 1:20-1:25, my labor hit high gear and I was in some serious pain. The nurse checked me again and I was at 7 cm. During the next 10-15 minutes, the pain level was off the charts and labor was intense. I was begging for demerol...shoot, I think I would have taken crack if some had been available. The nurse left to get approval for demerol from Dr L, and before she could get back I told Cary that the baby was coming...NOW! He headed out to the hallway to find her. She meandered back into the room not believing him. After all, she had just checked me not 10 minutes prior and I was at 7 cm. When she walked in the room, I told her that the baby was coming...NOW! She very non-chalantly examined me. Her eyes got big and then she believed me. Yep, I had gone from 7 cm to 10 cm in about 10 minutes. She called for the nursery and Dr L..."now." OH, I see...NOW you believe me! This ain't my first rodeo, lady! I know what it feels like to birth a baby! Dr L and nursery staff came rushing in all suited up and ready. One more contraction and his head was out, then before a second contraction could hardly get started good, here came the rest of him. He was anxious to greet the world. He was born so quickly, he had abrasions on his head from hitting my pelvis so hard...the nurses called them skid marks. Welcome GEORGE SHEPARD "SHEP" CONDRAY! You know the rest of the story if you have been reading the blog.

Wow! I finally did it...birthed a baby completely without meds. #1 I had an epidural for 6 of the 9 hours, #2 I had an epidural just before delivery, #3 I had 2 half doses of demerol, #4 drug-free. I can't tell you how I feel as a result. It was a dream of mine to be able to do it drug free. Not so I can boast about it, just because I wanted to know that I could do it.

Let me pause right here to say that I KNOW I wouldn't/couldn't have made it through it drug-free without the amazing coaching abilities of my wonderful husband. He pushed me where he knew down deep I wanted to go but couldn't go alone. He held my hand, looked me in the eye, and said "you CAN do this." Yet again, God has used him to make another of my dreams come true. What have I done in my life to deserve such a wonderful blessing of a man?

So, here we are 6 days later and getting ready to go home in the morning. It's been a roller coaster ride, but we know that God is in it. We are ready to end this short, bumpy ride in the amusement park, and head over to another attraction. Not that life at home with 4 children under 5 years old will be the carousel, but at least it will be a thrill ride in a more familiar area of the park.