Greetings! Layton James Hopkins finally made his appearance Friday, January 23rd at 10:19 am. He weighted 7 lbs 15 oz and was 21 1/2 inches.
The story of his arrival was a journey, much like our entire pregnancy. We first started having contractions Tuesday night (sleepless night #1), but only every 10 minutes or so; Wednesday night the contractions went to every 5 minutes and we headed to the hospital. We were admitted about 7:30 pm Wednesday night (sleepless night #2) and the plot thickens. Thursday morning not much had changed and the Dr's decided at 9:50 am to break my water, after walking the halls most of the day, having contractions, and only getting clear liquids not much was happening. Thursday night (almost sleepliess night #3) 7:30 pm I broke down and asked for pain meds via IV - heavenly relief!! The medication had to be pushed about every 30 min though. Around 10pm the CRNA was on-site for an emergency c section and I recieved an epidural, talk about relief!! The next 3-4 hours passed with no action noticed as we were sleeping, first time in 3 nights. Bless Evan's heart for 2 limited sleep nights in the hospital recliner, he is such a trooper. Around 4 am we tried pushing as the pain was increasing, after 2 hours I was begging for the baby to be sucked out or use forceps anything to help - we were spent, emotionally and physically. The decision was made to transfer me to Scott City for an emergency C-Section as their CRNA on staff could perform a spinal. Thus we set off on our first ever ambulance ride, Cori our driver, Evan, Dr Liu and Tonya the nurse; Cori humored me and we ran lights and sirens the entire 45 miles and even got a police escort in Scott City. After what seemed forever, we (Evan and I) plus the OR team, 3 Drs, and my best friend at the time the CRNA, made it to the operating room for the spinal and arrival of our son. The best news in 38 hours, "get ready he's about to come out" then his cry...it brought tears to my eyes, our son was finally here! We were all safe and sound. Layton was such a strong baby, through the entire labor, pain meds, and everything he never showed signs of distress.
It was a journey but so well worth it. Evan has been the world's best husband and father, he went through so much with me and we are so much closer now. The meanest thing I said to him the entire time was "get over your scrubs being too small and deal with it".
After three 3 days in the hospital, our families and best friends visiting we got to come home. We are learning more and more each day. Layton has his ups and crankies and sleeps fairly well at night all things considered. He has been quite an eater and came out sucking on the nurses finger even. Evan has been amazing with Baby Layton and housework, we are at a 50 / 50 split on the diaper and dressing duties I think.
We are thankful for God, each other, our families, our guardian angels, wonderful medical staff both in Tribune and Scott City, and our son Layton James. We are very blessed.
