Michael Eldon Call

A lot has happened since I last posted on the blog; the biggest would be adding a new baby to the family.  Here's the whole story of Michael Eldon Call - "Mike" for short.

tiny baby ultrasound

Mike is our complete and total miracle baby for all intents and purposes. Just thinking of his journey so far causes me goosebumps in many parts.  It starts out with my first appointment at the very beginning of the new year.  I went in for the routine first appointment including an ultrasound to get a more accurate dating and due date for the pregnancy. By my calculations I should have been 8 weeks; the doctors' dating said 10 weeks; the ultrasound said 5 weeks with no heartbeat. I was completely heartbroken as this is one of my biggest fears having already lost one before Pete.  The doctor said most likely it was a miscarriage as none of the dates would possibly have it that small; they'd check again in a week but be prepared for the loss more than likely that week.  I went home completely devastated; Pete and Nora were utterly confused because they didn't know yet about the baby.  I asked Phil for a Priesthood Blessing, mostly just wanting the strength to continue on through the loss and endure the horror again.  What Phil was a mouthpiece for was not that at all. He said our baby would be fine and be born into our family.  I was at a complete loss and lived on pins and needles for the next week, trying to have the faith but terror always around an unguarded corner of my mind. I went in to the next appointment and there was a baby kicking around with a wonderfully healthy heartbeat!  A few extra appointments happened because of the bizarre nature of his sudden growth and catching up to where I thought he should be, which perplexed the doctors.  

Next of the hurdles to cross came from a poorly located placenta, constant bleeding from me, poor cord attachment on the placenta, and a test result that significantly increased our chances for Mike having Down Syndrome.   Lots of tests later, the bleeding didn't have a cause, the placenta moved to a much better location, the cord corrected itself, and further genetic testing showed he didn't have Down Syndrome.  I also managed to pass 2 glucose tests with flying colors, despite the doctor not believing I'd produced a 10 pound baby previously without diabetes being present.  I had more ultrasounds and testing done for Mike than I had with the other 2 combined. The Lord's promise to us that he would be born to us healthy was coming true despite all the doctors told us and warned us about with each discovery.  Each one corrected in time and ended up not being cause for concern.

The night of July 30th, (37 weeks) I went to bed as normal. At midnight,  I woke up to my water breaking.  In the morning we went to the hospital after finding a sitter for the kids, since my parents hadn't arrived yet because Mike was so early.  I was admitted, received confirmation that the water had broken, and got hooked up to monitors.  Mike's heartbeat kept falling when I was sitting up so I had to lay in bed the duration of labor on my sides. I was planning on a natural, medication-free birth but required pitocin due to lack of labor really starting and not wanting to risk infection.  In case you were wondering, being stuck in bed with pitocin-induced contractions is pretty much torture without painkillers. I finally caved in and requested an epidural.  They came in and ran the line for it; contractions were the worst I'd experienced with any of the kids, just coming constantly with no breaks.  (Getting an epidural is no fun, you have to sit on the edge of the bed, holding still while being in pain from the contractions but also having a giant freaking needle shoved in your spine and not wanting a mistake so you don't get paralyzed.)  They got the thing placed, and before running the test dose I felt the need to push.  He was coming before the medicine was in me, I'd sat through all of that only to have to go through it without any meds after all.  After 15 minutes of pushing and extreme whining and complaining (that the nicu nurses were giggling about later to me) he was born weighing in at 8 pounds 9 oz.  I was amazed with how tiny he was; the nurses all thought I was crazy saying a 8 lbs + baby was tiny as a 37 weeker, but compared to Nora's 10-pound entrance to the world, he was a tiny little thing.

Mike's first meal

getting checked out by the nurses after his first couple hours

very first picture

All the kiddos

He's now 3 months old and adored by everyone, especially Pete and Nora.  The fact Pete is so enamored by him was quite the surprise.  They are both amazed by each milestone and smile.