In Which Bubba and Beck Have a Baby

Readers, dears,

I don't want you to think I only show up here when I need to purge my brain lest it explode, but that's the reality of it. Once upon a time I wrote on the regular and loved it. Life has changed. Facebook taken over my online presence. It's lazy and condensed and instantly gratifying. But there are times I have too much to spill in a tiny status update mainly reserved for grievances against the world at large.

Yesterday was one such day.

Bubba and Beck have been expecting their first birth. They've miscarried 2 babies in the past 3 years so this pregnancy has been had us all more than a little anxious. At the midway point we found out baby was a boy. Bubba was over the moon as he is the only married grandson with our last name to be able to pass the name down.

Everything was going fine until a 2 weeks back when Doc told them Beck had too much amniotic fluid. Baby Boy was free floating preventing him from moving into delivery position. We knew a c-section might be a possibility. Beck has struggled with anxiety for years so this wasn't great news for her and she was really struggling.

Last Friday Pa called me and said Beck hadn't felt Little Man move all day so Doc was sending them to the hospital. A quick Doppler let them know he was doing OK. A very thorough ultrasound was done and they were sent home. Initially they would see Doc again on Wednesday of this week (tomorrow) to make the final call about delivery. The options at the time were to wait until the 39 week point and try to turn him manually and then induce labor or opt for the c-section. Beck was leaning more towards the c-section and I fully supported that. I would have hated to see her go through turning and induction just to have him flip back and have to have surgery anyway.

The excess fluid also meant he could easily wrap himself in his own umbilical cord. Family history has taught us to fear that. Beck asked me to be there for his delivery and I told her I would.

9 am yesterday found the FarmHands and me in Evansville for their dental check-ups. After a quick trip around town, lunch at the mall, and a visit to the Bible bookstore, we started the hour and a half drive home. As soon as we hit our tiny town, my phone rang.

QM said, "You need to pack your bags and get on the road." Doc had bumped their appointment up to Monday after Friday's excitement. When she looked everything over she decided it wasn't worth the risk waiting another 2 weeks for Becky to hit 39 weeks. She was going to do a c-section that evening. They checked Beck into the hospital and told Bubba he had time to run home and shower. QM packed up Princess's boys and ran to the hospital.

It was already after 2 pm. I was no where near ready to go and the FarmHands and I had already driven 3 hours. I called Bubba and told him my girls had vaccine appointments the next morning at 8 so we would hit the road as soon as they were done. He understood and was fine with that.

We got home, tossed our clothes in the wash and started cleaning the house in preparation to be gone. Of course, my house was a HOT MESS, so I was scrubbing bathrooms, stripping beds, directing the cleaning and vacuuming of the rest of the house, running the dish washer, and cleaning the bird cage all while fielding multiple texts and phone calls between friends and family members. I felt like I was running in circles for the next 3 hours.

At one point I called Pa to ask a question and he whispered, "Bubba is VERY angry." While he was home getting his shower, QM called and told him the doctor was there and ready and he needed to get to the hospital. He rushed back but by the time he got there, they'd already taken Beck back. We weren't sure what happened but Doc decided to put Beck fully under and Bubba wasn't allowed in the room.

Later that night we found out things had gone south very quickly. When they tried to set Beck's spinal block, Little Man's heart rate dropped. They couldn't get it back up and he was obviously in distress. Doc wasn't taking any chances so they knocked Beck out and got Little Man out as quickly as possible. The umbilical cord was wrapped tightly around his torso restricting his breathing. His bowels had moved due to the distress as well. From what I understand, Doc got him out so quickly, the general anesthesia hadn't even reached him yet. His blood sugar was also low. We're not sure if that's a result of the distress of if Beck was beginning to develop gestational diabetes.

Had Bubba and Beck not gone to the hospital on Friday, this blog post might have had a very different outcome. Thank God I can, instead, announce that at 4:20 on July 9th, my new nephew was born weighing 6 pounds, 14 ounces, and was 20 inches long. He has dark wavy hair and our Bucka's first name. He will spend a few days in the NICU due to his dramatic entrance, but it doing very well.

After multiple (and I'm talking a minimum of 20) phone calls back and forth between Pa, QM, Busha, Husband, Unkie Di, and myself, and almost as many changes in our trip plans, we decided to wait until Little Man graduates from the NICU before we head south. Princess's youngest was in the NICU when I went to visit and I wasn't allowed in the room. It was heart-wrenching. I told Bubba I couldn't do that again. He told me to wait at home until I could lay hands on our new boy.

The pictures I was sent today show much fewer tubes and wires, so he's already working hard to come home. I'm waiting, impatiently and thankfully, for the dust to settle.