Saturday, November 7, 2009

Welcome Baby Eastwood!



We finally welcomed our son, Eastwood Frank Settles, into the world on October 23. He was 5 days late, but worth waiting for!

Labor was graciously short, considering. Joey and I arrived at Ephraim McDowell Hospital at 6 am on Friday Oct. 23. I was scheduled to be induced. They used a gel to induce me around 8:20-ish. It took effect within 30 minutes. I had made up my mind to NOT have an epidural. Mid morning I agreed to the IV pain meds. When Dr. Turcea told me at noon that he would not be born until 4 or 5 pm, I threw my previous decision out the window and begged for an epidural. I was only 6 cm dialated, had another 4 or 5 hours to go, and there was NO WAY I was going to survive that long! The IV med was very little help. Any mom who has had a natural, med-free birth will bound to smile and chuckle when I say, I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO DIE!!!! I had had an epidural with Helana and never felt anything beyond the initial mild cramping. I'm still not sure how women have done it for thousands of years.
Anyway, they gave me the epidural around 12:30 and it did not take. I now think that was God's doing. He knew how important it was to me to have a natural birth, and while the epidural took the "edge off", I was still able to feel everything and have that memory. Eastwood was born at 1:10 pm. I went from being 6 cm dialated to delivery in an hour. No one was expecting that. Joey even almost missed it! After the doc said we had till 4 or 5, he went to the cafe for some lunch. When he returned I was ready to push.

Eastwood gave us all a bit of a scare at first. He was born with the cord around his neck AND he swallowed some maconium. The nurses had to "clean it out" before they would let him begin breathing, which meant they ultimately had to do CPR to get him to breathe. I don't think Joey or I breathed that entire time either. How precious a sound is that first cry! As soon as he began breathing, they held him up in front of my face then whisked him away. He was put on oxygen for the next 4 hours. It wasn't until well after 5 pm that I even got to hold him, but by then, he was fine. I consider it the grace of God and His goodness that Eastwood pulled through so quickly and that he had excellent nurses. The pediatrician told Joey that it was the nurses that saved Eastwood. They said he was a very sick little fellow at first, but now he is doing really well. Praise God.

He continues to do well. He's had a couple of episodes of wanting to spit up and get choked, but all in all, he's great! By the way, he weighed 6 pounds and 6 ounces and was 19 inches long. Helana was 6 even and 18 inches. Dakota was 6.7 and 21 inches. Joey and I were both in the 6 pound range, so he fits right in.

We are very happy to have him here and so thankful for God's protection and blessings!

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