Luca Sol Wall

Luca Sol was born at 9:11am on Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
5 lbs, 7 oz

The story...

I came into the hospital last night (Monday) at 6pm for another poorly named Non-Stress Test. My dad came with because Daniel is super sick with the flu or a bad cold. The NST measures the baby's heart rate in relation to when he moves or I have a contraction - it should go up a tad for a certain amount of time. After an hour, they weren't seeing it go up enough. So, they asked me to stay the night to be monitored throughout the night. *eye roll* I also had an ultrasound that revealed that I had too little amniotc fluid (in complete opposition to earlier in my preggersness).

I had to convince Daniel to stay home and my dad left around 11pm. After declining a sleeping pill - because I do NOT need help sleeping - I fnally fell asleep around 1am. At 3am, I was woken up by a nurse bustling in because the baby's heart rate had dropped way low. Happened a week before during monitoring. Probably not a big deal.

After that though, his heart rate, while normal, never really picked up when he moved or even during contractions. In fact, during contractions it dropped. Not good.

At 7am, Daniel came to the hospital looking quite a bit better - though I could tell it was a disguise.. :) At 7:15, I put my hands on my belly and asked the baby if it was time to come out. Somewhere in me, I knew. Ten minutes later a doctor came in and told me that he wanted to "prepare me" for the likelyhood that I'd be having the baby... today. Then the real surprise - by cesarian. The drops in the baby's heart rate during really mild contractions meant that he wouldn't be able to handle going through labor.

Trying to keep my cool, I asked what the timeline for all this was. "About an hour."

Daniel and I stare at each other. Stunned Silence.

Our Doula came, calming me down right away. And then it was time. Daniel dressed in scrubs. Now, I'm not afraid of needles. What I am afraid of is two things - spinal cord damage and anestesia, esp. the latter. I had a bad experience with some Nitrous Oxide many years ago and I'm afraid it scarred me.

A nurse, Aime held me while I got the shot in the back twice. I'd like to say that was the wost part, but the dry wretching with a 2/3 numb body freaked me out quite a bit. As soon as it passed though, I was completely blissed out. Daniel came in the room and sat near my head. I spent the first third of the procedure goofily staring at Daniel telling him how much I love him. And then I heard the baby cry and spent the last two thirds crying deliriously happily. That baby cry is heavenly!!!

Daniel held him like a pro (much to my surprise) and we just cuddled and cooed at the baby while they stitched me back up. Back in our room, I breastfed him. I gotta say, I was rather convinced that nothing was going to come out, but I was wrong indeed. It was a little tough because I was still numb including my arms. But hey, I let the doula and the nurse manhandle my boobs and it was all fine. Luca was raring to go and breast fed for a full hour. He was looking and acting great!

We had been warned many times that he would probably be born with low blood sugar thanks to my gestational diabetes and that he would probably need an IV. But he looked so good on arrival that they didn't do the test for two hours. When they finally did, it was low. Shockingly low. A 3 for anyone who understands BS numbers. They retested three times on different machines. Because, really, he just wasn't acting like his blood sugar was so low. Well, it was and they took him to the "Level 2 Nursery" for care. Daniel went with.

For my part, I was so exhausted that my eyes keept drooping. That's about where we are now. Daniel has spent a lot of time at the nursery with the baby. I only managed a short visit later on with my inscison. The baby's blood sugars are stabilized and now they have to ween him off the IV. It will probably take a couple days. We're in the hospital until Friday morning assuming nothing goes wrong. I might be okay enough to walk by tomorrow morning and EAT!!!!!

Dudes... I am so in love. With my husband and his incredible calm, devotion, and persisitence. And now with Baby Luca. His cry just fills me with joy. I can't wait to hold him in my arms again.

Want to see some photos?


Welcome to the world, Luca



Getting ready...


My first glance


Daniel has made sure to touch and hold the baby a lot! He's going to be such a good papa!
In the nursery....


My first visit to the nursery. The glassy-eyed look would be thanks to the df

Yup. Luca, you are your papa's son. :)

So, so, so excited!!

A day one video...