After Juan's graduation, Kathleen decided to cancel her flight back to Seattle on Saturday and stay with the hope that Sarah would deliver early since she had been having some contractions that may have helped start her labor. Stephen stayed and worked on the roof of the duplex. They had the materials delivered to the roof on Friday and the worked much of Saturday even during the wind and rain which made it very difficult to keep the waterproof paper on the roof. Saturday had Juan, Michael, and Stephen working to clear off the old shingles from the far side or back of the sloped roof. At first they were trying to dump everything in the truck but they found that meant they couldn't dump anything off the roof when the truck was filled and had to be taken to the dump. Juan was the man that would take the old roofing material to the dump and they charged him $8 with each dump. Pretty good price. Juan made 3 runs on Saturday.
Sunday was a break which was a blessing since Stephen was getting sick. He had chills, a cough and he felt miserable. We did go to church at Sarah and Michael's ward where Sarah taught her last Gospel Doctrine lesson before her baby was due. She did a great job as usual. We made it back to Juan and Jessica's place for dinner and said goodbye to Susan and Cory and their kids. That evening Sarah and Michael teamed up against Jessica and Kathleen for a game of hand and foot. Sarah and Michael won much to Jessica's disgust at her mother...haha.
Monday found the boy's back on the roof. The weather was slightly better and they worked hard and fast. Michael's brother, David, was able to help in the morning and much of the roof was cleaned off and the shingles started to be placed down, working around the many pipes that came up through the roof. They added some vents in the roof also which was very important. Some of the boards had to be replaced before they could be covered also. There was a lot of work to do and Stephen was still feeling under the weather. They worked through Tuesday when Stephen had to leave on a plane for home, leaving Kathleen and the truck in Provo. They had most of the back half of the Duplex roof finished and it looked great. Stephen's plan was to come back the weekend after Mother's day. Kathleen stayed at Jessica and Juan's place for two more days before she moved over to Sarah and Michael's place. The goal was to get Sarah delivered so we went for a lot of walks.
Wednesday, the 10th of May was Kathleen's brother, Richard's 75th birthday. He was born on Mother's Day and made his mother a mother for the first time. Leonard called Kathleen and said they were going to have a birthday dinner for Richard the next day and where to go. The dinner was at a restaurant half way between Provo and Layton at an Italian place in Sandy. It was very nice to see Richard and Jolene and Leonard and talk family, politics and the gospel.
Friday was a trip to the gardens at Thanksgiving Point. That info is the previous post.
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| Hadlie with her pre-school friends. |
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| Hadlie and her friend.at the bouncing place. |
Saturday the 13th was an easy day. There was a fun birthday party for Hadlie at a Jumping place in Provo. Hadlie had a great time until she forgot to go potty and had an accident up on the 2nd floor way up to where grandma couldn't get to her. A call was made to Sarah but not answered and then to Jessica who had to leave work to bring a pair of panties to the jumping place for Hadlie. It was still fun but Hadlie didn't get as much time playing as she would have liked.
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| Michael was a great help. |
That night, Michael, Sarah and Kathleen went over to Juan and Jessica's place for dinner. During the evening Sarah was having some consistent contractions but by the time she went home and to bed they stopped again. Sunday was a nice day. Everyone at Sarah's place got up and started to walk....and walk...and walk. Jessica came over and cancelled Hadlie's talk since she wasn't going to be there. We walked together around the block. Walking brought on contractions but not very close. By the afternoon, we decided to go to the hospital and just see if they would keep Sarah since she was exhausted and both she and Jessica seemed slightly frustrated. Michael drove Sarah and Kathleen and Jessica brought their own cars. By the time we all got to the hospital, Sarah was checked in at the triage area and found to be 6 cm dilated. They admitted her to a room about 3:00 pm in the afternoon. They asked her if she wanted an IV, thankfully they at least started an IV with a saline lock, it was very needed later on.
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| First meeting with cord still attached. |
The midwife who admitted Sarah was named Elizabeth and she worked with Sarah helping her through contractions and relaxing. Sarah was very controlled throughout her labor. She didn't yell or scream and just focused on relaxing through each contraction. After about two hours they decided to speed things up and break the bag of water around the baby. That picked up the contractions a little but Sarah stayed in good control. Different positions were tried and Sarah could decide what worked for her. Finally she was complete and ready to push. She was a champion and with 3 pushes in 10 minutes she delivered her son, a 9# 1 oz baby boy at 7:38 in the evening. Sarah became a mother on Mother's day just like both of her grandmothers.
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They up the weight to 9# 1 oz which was probably more
accurate since he had already urinated.... |
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| Skin to Skin |
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| Proud Auntie Jessica |
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| The first meeting, skin to skin care. |
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| Checking out his Dad...they sure look alike. |
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| Grandpa meets Eric for the first time. |
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| First smile. |
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| Going home outfit. |
He was much bigger than everyone was expecting. Sarah had to be stitched up and she was given some IV fluid with oxytocin to help stop bleeding by contracting the uterus down but she bled out more than was usual for a vaginal delivery. She was given her son and then Michael had a turn holding him Skin-to-Skin which helps a newborn transition to post-uterine life. After 2 hours, Sarah was cleaned up and the nurses went to help her up to a wheelchair. On standing, Sarah said she felt like a rock was on her chest and after pivoting to a wheelchair, she passed out. After 30 seconds trying to rouse her in the chair, they decided to put her back in her bed and they asked for Michael's help. Once in bed with monitors back on her heart rate was noted to be above 230 and her O2 level was below 80. Her blood pressure was low but not bad around 100/60. The concern right away is blood loss or pulmonary embolism. IV fluids were pushed to increase her pressure. After 2 liters of IV they tried to stand her up again and she passed out again. After the 3rd time they called for an EKG and ordered her to stay in L&D to be monitored closely. That was about 3:30 in the morning. Jessica and Kathleen decided to go home to bed since they wouldn't be able to help anymore. They had been trying to hold Eric and let Sarah and Michael sleep until they moved her to the PostPartum floor.
The next morning they moved Sarah to the PostPartum floor in her bed. She still had issues while trying to stand. An x-ray was ordered along with a CT scan since her lab work showed an increase in her D-dimer which normal is 500 and her's was 4500, a possible indication of PE. Those tests were clear but every time Sarah tried to get up her heart rate started to increase to 150's or above and her O2 levels dropped. They watched her for 2 extra days. Lab work suggested that she was anemic so she received IV iron. Her magnesium levels were low to they gave her IV magnesium. They did a 24 hour cardiac telemetry and an echocardiogram. Each day she was able to stand up for longer periods of time until she was able to go to the bathroom, first with assistance and then on the third day she was getting up without help. Her heart rate would continue to rise on standing but she was tolerating it and able to ambulate sufficiently to go home. The doctor was going to suggest another day's stay but Sarah and Michael didn't want to stay any longer so she was discharged. She was told she had mild and moderate valve regurgitation in her heart. She was to see a cardiologist in 3 to 6 months after delivery to make sure everything was back to normal.
They were able to take Master Eric home on Wednesday night.
