Andrew Stephen

Yes we have FINALLY had our fourth child and third son. :) His name is Andrew Stephen and he is a beautiful perfect little boy. Almost two weeks ago now, I went in for my weekly appt with my OB and my BP was up and I had gained 7 lbs of mostly fluid among other things. She looked at me and said, "Go downstairs. You are NOT going home. We'll have a baby tomorrow!" I was in shock for a few moments because although I desperately wanted to hear those words I never thought I would hear them right then! I had NOTHING done! He wasn't due till Feb. 11th and I never go into labor on my own. EVER. So the jokes on me I guess. I had had some contractions that morning but my thinking was, "They aren't doing me any good...probably just some of those lame practice contractions... boy am I miserable." LOL! I'm so dumb. All of my others had been inductions so I had no idea what it was to go into labor on my own. Safe to say I don't EVER want to do that again. ;) Anyway, headed downstairs and got checked in and put in a room. It was by God's grace that my mom had insisted on driving me to my appt that day and at least I wasn't alone. By the time I got settled into my room I started having contractions again and needless to say my "scheduled" induction did NOT have to be implemented. My labor was really slow though. When my water finally broke it was tinted dark red and the nurses all freaked out and started prepping me for a C-section. Keep in mind I have a totally irrational fear of C-sections... its bad. Anywho, they gave me a MEGA dose of epidural which made me numb to my ears practically. LOL! My doc arrived just in time (Love her!) and said, "Let's wait on that. Let's see what happens. Baby is doing fine." She hung out the rest of the night and at a long awaited 6:06 am on Wednesday morning, weighing in at 8'15 and stretching out at 21 1/4 inches long, Andrew made his appearance with much pomp and circumstance and much pain on his mother's part. LOL! Yeah they had to let the mega epidural wear off some before they could give me more and by the time they did that it did NOT work....yeah I never want to do that again either. Its TOTALLY overrated! LOL! :) I admire women who will do that over and over again. I am not that Amazon of a woman. :) Anyway his respirations were fast and his blood sugar was really slow so they whisked him off to the NICU for "a few hours of observation". Yeah right... few hours turned into 8 days! We went from low sugar, fast respirations to high levels of bilirubin to a heart that went biszerk and was racing at a lofty 300. That was the worst emotional roller coaster I have ever been on. I never want to do that again either. LOL! God has really drug us through a few knotholes with this baby! We started out panicked and ended up panicked! Lots of panic in between! But! God is so good to us and has given us a beautiful little guy that we love more than we ever thought we could. I can't imagine what would had happened if I had brought him home on Saturday night when I had the opportunity and his heart rate had skyrocketed like it did...he turned blue... I don't like to think about it but I like to think about how God protected him and us from that. We did not like seeing our baby on a little soundless webcam for the first 8 days of his life...nor did we like having to schedule our visits to him around feedings so we might have the chance to hold him. I did not like having to talk to the doctors about what MIGHT be wrong or what MIGHT be right. We did not like having to answer the question, "Mommy when are you bringing Andrew home? We miss him..." and having the question end in tears. We don't know WHY God brought us through this but we do know that He was faithful to us and never left us and even though I cried a ton (to the point one morning I looked like I'd been in a brawl somewhere) it was such a comfort to know Jesus was standing there by our little baby and loving him and taking care of him better than we ever could. We knew Andrew was better off in God's hands than in our's. Every time I would talk to the doctor or the nurses I would listen for those little answers to prayers that I had prayed and I was never disappointed. I know that all the other little babies in there were probably worse (okay definitely worse) off than Andrew but our problems seemed just as big as their's at the time. The last few times I went to see him the nurse would ask me if I wanted to change his diaper and I was like, "Are you KIDDING me!? I would LOVE to change his diaper!" I never thought changing a diaper would be so important to me. I do feel as though we missed the first whole week of his life but every time I was there I took a picture and I'm so glad I did. He's changed so much in his two weeks here with us and though we haven't had him a week yet at home with us, it feels as though he's been in our family forever. We came home with a heart monitor and the cardiologist sees nothing wrong with his heart but its a precaution I guess. He's on a medication to keep his heart rate under control and we would appreciate if all of you would pray he could be off of that and the monitor as soon as possible. We want to thank everyone who did pray for us and for Andrew and we know that prayers were answered! So without further adieu let us introduce you to the 6th and newest member of our family, Andrew Stephen Snyder