A Birth Story, Part III

We welcomed the newest addition to our family, Torion Kenneth Woodruff, on March 2, 2013. He was born at 12:08 pm, weighing 7 lbs 7 ounces and measuring 20 inches long. He had lots of thick hair and was pretty mellow about the whole thing. Here's the full story:

The new baby boy was not due to arrive until March 19, when Mommy was scheduled for a C-section at PeaceHealth Southwest Family Birth Center with Dr. Chang. With about 3 weeks to go, Mommy was feeling the size of baby when she walked around at home and at work, but we figured this would go like the last couple births ... no action until the C-section. Well, we were wrong.

On Saturday morning at 5:00 am, Mommy felt a sudden urge to use the bathroom. When she did, it was an atypical gush of water. Mommy wasn't exactly sure what was going on, suspecting that perhaps her water had broken, so she laid back in bed and waited a bit. Pretty soon, she started having contractions. After these continued, she woke Daddy up at 8:00 am and told him that we needed to make a trip to the hospital to get checked out.

We scrambled to get everything ready, since we hadn't planned or packed ahead of time. Mommy called Auntie Greta and asked if she could watch Jillian and Bridget. After getting the girls ready and loaded up, we went over to Greta's house and dropped the girls off with Meagan, Zach and Adam while Greta joined us for the trip.

When we arrived at the Family Birth Center, they took Mommy to triage to check her out. The nurses took a swab to check if her water really had broken, and the results came back immediately "positive". Dr. Chang wasn't in for the day, but Dr. Fox was, and we were glad of that. Dr. Fox was originally the OBGYN for Bridget, but she was unable to deliver her when the time came. Dr. Fox was pretty much available for the C-section right away, so the preparations began and before we knew it, Mommy was in the surgery room waiting for the operation.

Mommy and Daddy chilled out listening to Coldplay in the room while the anesthesiologist Brian (same as the previous C-section) took care of Mommy. It wasn't long before we heard the baby crying and saw the NICU nurses cleaning him up. He got his color pretty quickly (his Apgar score was a 9!), and settled down just as fast. All swaddled up, Torion got to snuggle with Mommy while the doctors finished the operation.

After about an hour in the post-op observation room, Mommy and Torion headed to Room 151 to rest and recover for awhile. In short order, our first visitors came in: Auntie Greta, Aunt Julie and Cousin Cale. Not long after, Meagan and Zach arrived with Adam and the sisters. We hadn't told Jillian and Bridget that their baby brother was being born, because we weren't so sure ourselves. So, they were very excited that the big day had finally arrived. Both of them couldn't wait to hold Baby Torion.

Jillian got to hold Torion first, and was very careful with him, hardly moving and telling people to be quiet so he wouldn't wake up. Meanwhile, Bridget was melting down, wanting to hold him right now. When Bridget held Torion, she wanted to hug and kiss him the whole time. Later in the evening, Dany, Mckenna and Lindsey visited as well. After receiving lots of love, Torion and Mommy tried to get some sleep that night. It was a long night, because Torion was a restless and noisy sleeper.

The next day was full of work, with Torion learning to eat, doctors checking in and out, and Mommy trying to get some sleep. Torion and Mommy spent some time together alone while Daddy ran home to pick up some things and also do some lesson planning for the next 2 weeks. During that time, Scott and Cindy had paid a visit for a while. The girls had spent the night with Grannie and Papa Woodruff, so they all came down later that evening for some more snuggles and kisses.

On Monday, we were hoping to start wrapping things up and head home that night if Torion and Mommy looked like they were recovering well enough. Unfortunately, the circumcision schedule was pretty busy and the doctors couldn't get free for the procedure until the following day. So, we all relaxed for another day and night in the Family Birth Center.

On Tuesday, there were lots of nurses and doctors coming in and doing their checks. Dr. Sweitniki and a nurse came at noon and took Torion to another room for his circumcision. When they returned, they said he didn't even cry. We waited for another few hours while the nurse checked Torion to make sure the procedure went OK. It took quite awhile for this, and we didn't end up getting discharged until about 7 pm. We got Torion loaded into the carseat and eventually got everyone home at about 9:00 pm (after having to wait awhile for the pharmacy to fill a prescription). Torion was a good traveler, sleeping the entire time he was in the carseat.

That first night at home, we all had a pretty good night's sleep (despite waking every 2-3 hours for feeding), and the following afternoon, we welcomed Jillian and Bridget home. It was great to have our "Family of 5" together for the first time, and it was obvious Torion was fitting right in as the girls continued to want to hold him, and he continued sleeping throughout.