Meeting my nephew... and other events

WRITTEN BY GUEST BLOGGER, Katie Sprules

*disclaimer: this is an EXTREMELY long post.  Sorry, I've never been short winded ;)


Hello All!!  I'm here to break the radio silence.  Mama and Papa Rafacz have been slightly extremely sleep deprieved and a little busy with the new bundle of joy so I'm here to fill you all in with some details until Elyse can get back to blogging more regularly.

Now this retelling of the birth story is all second hand info because I wasn't here for the actual birth...

My mom arrived March 3rd (3 days before Elyse's due date).  She described it as a "blizzard" the day she arrived.  For all I know, it could have been, but I think anything is shocking coming from 80 degree-perfect Arizona :)  Now, I wasn't here for that part but I guess there was a lot of laying around, watching tv and general cabin fever-ness.  You know what I'm talking about from Elyse's last post before Bennett's arrival "Playing the waiting game"... waiting for something to happen is kind of anxiety inducing.

I was on call in New York.  I ended up working through Friday in hopes of not pissing off my boss by  playing hooky for an entire week and decided to book a train ticket for Saturday night (technically Sunday morning) at 3am.  At that point Elyse had missed her due date and had an induction scheduled for a week later.  She was not in labor but she convinced me to come down anyways because my mom and Elyse needed some fresh meat aka new material.

Between the point when I booked my ticket and Saturday night when I was packing for the train, Elyse went into labor.  Crap.  I figured that labor takes a while and I might still make it for the birth.  Chris and my mom promised me to keep me updated and give me the play by play.

Here's the breakdown (to the best of my knowledge):

                  7:00  pm Elyse started having some serious contractions.
                11:00  pm Arrived at hospital.  Only 1cm dilated.
                11:30  pm-12:30 am  Walked laps in hospital hallway to try and kick-start labor.

                 1:00 am  Got a shot of morphine to sleep.  Sent them home.
                 3:00 am DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME
               *4:00 am Katie gets on Train
                 4:00 am Elyse woke Chris up with insane contractions
                 5:00 am Admitted to hospital.  3cm dilated. 90% effaced (whatever that means!?)
                 5:00 am -?  Pain, pain, pain and more pain

                 Lots of panic...
                 Timeline gets fuzzy...

*during contractions you are supposed to lay on Left side (because of reasons... better blood flow for babes or something... obviously I've never been pregnant...) Elyse would try and lay on her left side but baby B's heart rate would drop.   So they had her try laying on her back and baby B's heart rate continued to drop.  They wanted to check progress and broke her water to speed things up.  Things got bad.  Super intense.  B's heart dropped insanely low.  8 nurses ran into the room.  My mom says that the nurses flipped Elyse around like a pancake to get B's heart rate up.  At that point they didn't really explain what was happening... they did what they needed to get B's heart rate back.  My mom said that after the second time the heart rate dropped and all 8 nurses ran in, that the only position that Elyse could be in where baby B's heart rate didn't drop was on her right side (not on her left side or back).

They determined that after they broke her water there wasn't enough liquid for the baby so they gave Elyse liquid via a catheter to give baby B's some more mobility so his umbilical cord wasn't stuck on anything... or choking himself (it sounded a whole lot like they were filling up a water balloon).  I guess they had to do something more intrusive to measure baby B's heart rate (Chris just described the internal heart monitor as a cork screw looking device that got screwed into baby B's head... I assure you, I checked and baby B doesn't have any holes in his head...nor does he contain wine).

Finally epidural!  Elyse received the procedure laying down (which I guess never happens) because baby B's heart rate was still low.  Elyse finally started feeling better.  Relief, sweet relief!!

                    10:00 am I get this picture from Chris.

                   10:45 am Doctor finally arrived and determined Bennett was "sunny-side" up.
                                   The doctor tried to manually turn Bennett around.  It didn't work.
                                   Tried to deliver him sunny side down.  Didn't work.
                                   Last resort: Forceps.   That didn't work either.

                   11:30 am  Emergency C-section.  Umbilical cord wrapped around neck twice.
                   11:44 am Baby Bennett was born!!!
                   12:30 pm Auntie Katie arrived
                                   ...yes, I know my arrival wasn't as exciting as Bennett's.
                                   I got there just in time to hold my nephew and missed the drama.

Bennett Keith Rafacz

Born:

 March 9th 2014 11:44am

6lbs 14oz. 19 inches

Everyone is doing well in the Rafacz household.  Chris is a super star diaper changer and kangaroo snuggler and Elyse is the most amazing mother to baby B.  He is such a lucky little boy.  That little angel makes up for the sleep deprivation (so I'm told... I've been in charge of the dogs and have been getting plenty of sleep unlike momma and papa Rafacz)!

Grandma is over the moon and so is Auntie :)

Getting on his gear...

Georgia, Virginia and Higgins were a little skeptical at first but are warming up to the "new puppy" who smells like poop and sounds like a squeaker toy.  Everyone has needed some extra cuddles through the adjustment process.

Georgia has especially taken to Bennett... so much so that we started calling Bennett "her baby".

We are all in love.  And so are all of baby B's friends and family!  Chris & Elyse has been completely overwhelmed with love and support for little Bennett.  Calls, texts, emails, cards, flowers, food-- the works (although sometimes it has been questionable who Bennett's parents are- see card below).

Meeting Grandpa was the highlight of Bennett's night!  He even decided to "stay awake" extra late to welcome him to Virginia!

And now a million random pictures of the man of the hour...

That's all for now.  Gotta get back to doing what I do best... being a baby hog :)

xo Auntie Katie