Announcing the arrival of Benjamin "Graham" Neipling!!

OUR FAMILYDaddy and Graham
Mommy and Graham...not even 24 hours old yet...
Here's Graham...3 days old
Daddy had this stork ordered announcing Graham's arrival!

He's Here!!! He's Here!!! Graham arrived Friday, September 5, 2008 at 6:27pm after a Long and complicated labor and delivery BUT he was and is TOTALLY worth everything that we went through for him to get here!



He weighed 6lbs. 11oz and 19 inches long...


Okay, so where in the world do I start??

In the previous post, I told you guys that we were to be induced on Thursday, the 4th at 7:30am. Well, that didn't quite go according to the plan.

I didn't sleep at ALL Tuesday night or Wednesday night cause I was so excited about having Graham...PLUS, Chad and I ran errands all day Tuesday in the POURING RAIN...IN and OUT...IN and OUT of the car so I also developed a TERRIBLE head cold. And I mean TERRIBLE!! So back to the no sleeping part...I decided to finally get out of bed around 4am Thursday morning and start getting ready and finish packing all of our bags...I finish getting ready around 5:30am and decide to lie on the couch since I'm feeling like total POOP. 6:00am, the phone rings and it's the charge clerk at the hospital telling me not to come in at 7:30am because they don't have a room for me and for me to call them back at 9am to see when I can come in. In a way, I am kinda glad and hope that they move me to Friday since I am so sick and VERY EXTREMELY tired but then again, very disappointed because we really want to have him Thursday. So, I decide to take a nap and get as much rest as I can. I call them back at 9am they CAN get me in but it won't be until 1pm BUT it won't be my dr. delivering and they talked with Dr. H and she told them that she really would like for me to come Friday because she really wanted to be the one to deliver Graham. That meant a lot to me that she cared about us to want to be the one to deliver him so I agree to wait until Friday...so Friday at 7am is what they tell me.

So, Friday rolls around and I am feeling really good! Mom got me some really good cold medicine and I also got some really great sleep the night before so we make it to the hospital around 6:40am to check in. We all go to the Labor and Delivery waiting room and pick up the phone to tell them we are there to check in. The charge nurse tells me that my appt isn't until 8am...I WAS LIKE WHAT?!?! Well, I am certainly glad that I got the memo (sarcastic) because the other charge nurse said 7am!!!! Everyone (Chad, Mom, Greg, and Mary are all with me) is a little frustrated especially since we didn't get to do it on Thursday but I just decide to be nice and let it go and say Okay, we will wait. Even though I was FUMING inside, I didn't let the nurse know because I didn't want to make anyone mad at me since they will have mine and Graham's life in their hands.

8:10am rolls around and they still haven't called for us so Chad picks up the phone to call the desk. A nurse finally comes and gets us and says, "I'm so sorry, it's my fault...I was supposed to come and get you a while back and totally forgot." I had to seriously bite my tongue HARD...

So, they get me started in my room and run my IV at 8:30am. Dr. H arrives to see me around 8:45am and tells me that I am dilated to a 4 which is GREAT and she then breaks my water. Talk about a very uncomfortable feeling especially when it just keeps on trickling out through the day...Felt like I was constantly peeing myself. I start feeling contractions shortly after so nurse Caitlyn, who by the way was TOTALLY AWESOME, gives me Stadol (pain meds) because I didn't want to get the epidural quite yet...that Stadol totally KNOCKED ME OUT!!! Which is fine because unbeknownst to me at the time, I was going to need the rest and all of the energy possible for what was about to come.

They give me the Pitocin at 10am to REALLY bring on the contractions and help get me dilated further. Man, that stuff is no joke cause I immediately told them to get the nurse anesthetist cause I want my epidural ASAP! At 11:02am, I get my epidural and life is great...I'm dilating so fast that they take me OFF of the pitocin to try to slow everything down since my dr is delivering two babies and also will have to do an emergency c-section. So, at 1:40pm I'm dilated to a 9 and 100% effaced and Caitlyn tells me that she's going to have me start pushing soon. OH WOW!! I can't believe it's time!! All day long we kept hoping that I would have him by 3pm because my best friend Tabatha who lives in Hope (2 hrs. away) had been there with us all morning and afternoon and she had to leave at 3pm so she could get home to pick her kiddos up...We thought I wouldn't be pushing for long at all since my nurse and my doctor kept saying that I am dilating so fast and that he was so low and yada yada yada and that had us all excited. I really wanted Tab to be able to meet Graham before she had to leave.

So I start pushing at 2:00pm and everything is going great! I'm pushing really well and they can see Graham's full head of black hair...So I just keep pushing and pushing and pushing AND pushing and NOTHING. He's only coming out so much. And then it happens. I start feeling the contractions...HARD contractions and they are TERRIBLE!!! The only place I can feel them is on my front and back left side. OH MY!!!!!!!!!!!! is all I can say about that...it's terrible...absolutely HORRIBLE!! Not only is that hurting but so is the spot in between my shoulder blades from having to lift up and curl my chest in over my belly as I'm pushing. I start having major spasms in my upper back/shoulders that the pain is overwhelming the pain of the contractions. They give me 3 or 4 epidurals or stronger doses (however that works...I wasn't paying attention, I was just screaming for MORE MORE MORE!!!!). And the labor pains STILL won't go away! They finally have me switch labor positions and that didn't work too well either because they had me propped up facing the bed and sitting/squatting on my legs and my legs start turning blue cause they are DEAD...can't feel them what so ever and plus at that point, there were a total of probably 7 people in my room (doc, nurses, anesthesiologist, etc.) and there's just so much chaos going on. So they get me back to the position to where I am laying on my back but I just can't do it anymore because the spasms in between my shoulders are distracting me from pushing. Yes, I am THAT girl that you can hear screaming and crying because the pain was HORRIFIC...to those ladies who have had their babies naturally with no pain relief, I COMMEND YOU!!! Dr. H also realized that Graham was facing up and his chin was getting caught on my pelvis and he couldn't make it through there so the entire time I was pushing, she was hoping that he would turn over and come out face down. Well, it never happened. So after almost 3 hours of pushing, she decided that we needed to do a c-section. She could tell how exhausted and how much pain I was in plus because of the position that Graham was in, she couldn't extract him with a vacuum or forceps. We were just devastated that we had to do a c-section...it was very VERY emotional for us but we had to do what we had to do because Graham wasn't coming out without the surgery. I was so nervous during the entire pushing process because I was so worried that Graham was in distress since I was...but he wasn't...they said that he was just as happy as he could be in there...I can't thank my mom and Chad enough for being there for me and being a part of the labor (they were my leg holders! ha). They were such awesome coaches but I did have to tell them to stop after a while because they were distracting me with one being in each ear and then I have the nurse and Dr. H coaching as well. It was just too much for me to deal with at the time...

They prepped me and Chad for the operating room and wheeled us in there...I was pretty miserable the entire time because not only was I so doped up from all of the pain medication and epidurals during the pushing, but they also had to medicate me MORE before the surgery cause I could STILL feel my left side...Dr. H would pinch me and I could feel it...What made me miserable was that all of the meds had me shaking uncontrollably and that dang blood pressure cuff would squeeze my arm so hard and tight every few minutes that I just wanted to cry!!! I still have bruises from the cuff.

But then, at 6:27am I heard the cries of our healthy baby boy and then she showed him to me and I lost it...seeing his beautiful face for the first time brought this overwhelming feeling of absolute unconditional love and completeness to me. (Gosh, I'm balling right now just talking and thinking about it!)

So, that is the story of our labor and delivery.

We were supposed to be able to leave early on Monday, the 8th but Graham had jaundice while we were in the hospital and his bilirubin levels were high since his liver isn't mature enough to break down his red bloods cells as fast as they are being produced so they had to start phototherapy on him and they said we would have to stay another night if not two. Thankfully they were able to do it in our room, but I cried and cried and cried when they put him in the incubator looking thing. I was just so sad that I couldn't hold him in my arms except to breastfeed. I fed him every 30 min by breast feeding but then Chad would feed him afterwards with a 15ml syringe mix of formula and my breast milk that I had to pump in between feedings. The nurses came around 4pm to take him to test his bilirubin levels to see if they had dropped (his count was 14.7 and they wanted it as low as 12.) and in the meantime, we had to move to another room. So mom and I moved to the other room we were going to stay in while Chad ran some errands that I needed done. Right as we were settling into our new room, my nurse came in with the wonderful news! His bilirubin levels dropped to 12 and we could go home!!! We were so excited!!! I absolutely DID NOT want to stay any more nights in that place! 3 nights was definitely enough!!

We greatly appreciate all of the nurses and doctors that took care of us during our stay! Everyone was just absolutely wonderful and it really did make our stay a pleasant one while we were there!

Also a big thanks to our families and to our friends (Tabatha, Jennifer and Trent, Shauntel, Jessica, Kari, Mandi and baby Cole, Amy S., Micah and Morgan, Wes and Davis) and to my boss Butch Calhoun and his girlfriend Donna and Chad's bosses Debbie and Bill for visiting us and for the beautiful flowers and stuffed animals! We are truly blessed!!

There have been a lot of people who would like to come by the house to meet Graham and we would love to have you anytime!!! Please come by! Just don't expect Mommy to look well rested and put together!

We are home now and Graham's Mimi (my mom) will be with us until the 19th and it's been so nice having her here to help us out. She lets me nap and get work and other things done when I need the time...She's been cooking and cleaning and grocery shopping and all that good stuff! Graham loves having his Mimi around!

We are adjusting really well with a new baby. So far so good...now it may be a different story once Mimi leaves but right now everything is great! I've been having to skip the feeding schedule and just feed him when he is hungry because of the jaundice...they want him to eat as much as possible so he can get his bilirubin count down by excreting it through his stools. They also want him to sunbathe in front of the windows as much as possible...it's been a lil hard to do since it's been cloudy but where there is a will, there's a way! ;)

Sorry all of this is so scattered and my grammar and spelling is terrible but I'm trying to get this done!

Leave comments! We LOVE comments! :)

Love,

Stephanie, Chad and Graham