Carson Daniel Wiens! Born December 22nd, 2011 at 4:00am weighing 7lbs 8 ounces.
Earlier in the week Mark and I had been discussing how it would be a nice surprise to have the baby early - rather than have our due date come and go and be overdue. Little did we know a few short days later we'd be meeting our new baby!
Wednesday morning (December 21st) I was busy getting ready for Logan's friend Theo, and his mom Charmaine to come over for a play date. They were scheduled to arrive in 10 minutes (9:30 am) so I was busily loading the dishwasher when my water began to gush. I was in complete shock! There had been no previous indicators that something was going to happen. No back pain, no contractions, nothing! After making a few phone calls and arrangements for the kids, my mom drove me to the hospital. (Mark was at work).
When we arrived we were disappointed to find that the unit was full to the brim. They had no room for us in triage or in the delivery room. They quickly gave me my first dose of antibiotics (the reason we went to the hospital right away in the first place (as I was positive for GBS)) and then sent us on our way to wander the hospital. (They told me not to go home as when my water broke with Katie she came really fast!) We went and spent 4 hrs in the cafeteria before returning back to the unit for another round of antibiotics. I was still not having any contractions. Around 6:30pm they FINALLY had a room available for me and started me on oxytocin to get labor started. (Mark arrived at the hospital around 5:30pm).
They upped the dosage of oxytocin every half hour. It wasn't until I was at the maximum dosage amount for about 2 hours that I started to feel the contractions. Things were going really easily until about 3:00am - that's when the pain became too much for me to manage on my own, so I started using the gas and fentenol (sp?). The doctor came in around 3:55am to check on my progress. At that point I was dilated 9.5cm. She said she was going to go deliver another baby and that she thought I would probably be next.
The INSTANT she left the room Carson decided it was time to come. I told the nurse it was time to start pushing. She agreed, and said we would start pushing, and when we were close, she'd call the doctor to come deliver. We pushed only once and then the nurse started to panic. She told me to stop pushing and ran to call for the doctor to come deliever the baby. While she was calling, and attempting to put on gloves at the same time, Carson came "shooting" out. Shooting seems like a funny word to use, but it really is the truth. Mark was standing at the end of the bed and was shell shocked when all of a sudden Carson came "shooting out". Mark SWEARS Carson got air and landed a good foot and a half away from me at the end of the bed. Nurses came running in, Mark cut the umbilical cord and THEN the doctor arrived. It was quite exciting.
Everything was going well at first. We were brought over to postpartum where we spent the next day. Both grandmas came to visit, as did Carson's big sister Katie. Katie was impressed with him for probably the first 2 minutes, then she was more excited about my breakfast tray and proceeded to eat everything on it.
The nurses started to suspect something was wrong with Carson shortly after we arrived in postpartum. Carson continuously moaned. Not a loud, painful cry - just a low humming sound. At first they suspected it may be his lungs (as he was 3 weeks early). They started running a bunch of tests. His lungs checked out fine, so they did some other routine tests just to be sure. One of the standard tests is a glucouse test. A normal glucose reading is normally above 2.6. Carson's came back at 2.1 and continously dropped from there (to as low at 1.1). At that point (10pm on the 22nd) the doctors from NICU were called in for an assesment. They decided to admit him to NICU and start him on a glucose IV. Since they weren't sure what was causing him to have low blood sugar they ran MORE tests - including blood cultures - which take 48 hours for results. They suspected it might be an infection (since my water broke and he wasn't born until 18 hours later and I was positive for GBS) so they also started him on several antibiotics via IV.
The glucose IV proved effective right away. His sugar levels rose almost immediately. So they started to lower the glucose dosage every 3 hours until they felt he no longer needed it. They had to leave the IV in however to continue giving Carson his antibiotics. Even though his sugar levels were now normal, we could not leave the hospital until the blood cultures came back. (Just incase it WAS an infection and we needed to have more antibiotics.) The blood cultures came back negative on Christmas morning - so we got to take home one awesome Christmas present! (Since he did not have an infection they assume Carson was just having issues transistioning from life in the womb to the life outside.)
Compared to his brother and sister (who were 9lbs 2 ounces and 8lbs 12 ounces) Carson seems so tiny to us! All of the sleepers that barely fit Logan and Katie are much too big for him.
Carson came home just in time for Christmas. Though Christmas wasn't quite like we had planned, we still had an awesome night as a family of 5. The kids opened their presents and got to know their baby brother. Katie is in love with Carson. When he cries she is very concerned. When he's awake she gets so excited and likes to talk to him and bring him his blanket and stuffed animals. Logan isn't as enamoured with his baby brother yet - he's been too busy playing with daddy who has the week off of work. The two of them will be best friends in no time I'm sure.
