Posted in Family on October 30, 2010| 7 Comments »
We have some strange neighbors. To demonstrate this point let me tell you what Robyn said to me:
“Umm, the port-o-potty neighbors have a pony in their backyard.”
Now she just came back to me and said, “two ponies.”
A couple thoughts:
1. No we don’t live out in the country.
2. Yes they really have a port-o-potty in their backyard. I guess when you gotta go you don’t always have time to walk 25 feet back to the house.
Posted in Caroline on October 25, 2010| 7 Comments »
Posted in Taylor on October 19, 2010| 4 Comments »
Nick (after reading a story about thanksgiving): what are you thankful for?
Taylor: I’m thankful for when you come home from work.
Posted in Caroline, Pregnancy on October 12, 2010| 7 Comments »
We went to bed last Sunday night thinking that it would be just like every other Sunday night. Robyn had some contractions earlier that day, but nothing to get excited about, and since she wasn’t even 1 cm dilated at her Dr. appt two days prior we never would have guessed what was about to happen.
At about 3:00 am Robyn woke me up asking “where’s your sports watch?” I knew where my watch was and I also knew that there was only one reason why she’d ask me that in the middle of the night–so she could time her contractions. I told her that the watch was on my desk and since I was so tired I pretty much immediately went back to sleep. About an hour later Robyn, who hadn’t gone back to sleep, tells me that she thinks that we need to call her dr. to see if we need to go to the hospital. She tells me that her contractions are about 6-8 minutes but that her water hadn’t broken yet (but “other” things, that won’t be mentioned here, had happened). She calls the doctor who tells us that we should head to the hospital. Robyn’s mom and step dad said that we could call them any time of the day or night when we needed to go to the hospital, so we called them around 4:30 am and they came right over. In the mean time we start to pack our bags since we hadn’t done this yet. We’d thought about it, but never did it. So we throw some things in a suitcase, but since it was 5:00 am we missed some minor things, but all in all did pretty good for packing on such short notice. By the time Martha and Neil got here we were almost done packing and eventually left while Taylor was still asleep.
We left for the hospital around 5:15 and once we got there they were very quick to get us checked in and moved to our room. The next few hours were pretty slow, but Robyn was 3-4 cm dilated by the first time they checked her. They told us that if she wanted the epidural that she’d need to get it around 5 cm. Over the next couple of hours the contractions got more intense and closer together. The nurse checked her again and she was about 6 cm and her water had just broken. By this time the contractions were very tough to handle so she asked for the epidural. The nurse left the room to call the anesthesiologist and came back in a few minutes later. It was obvious that Robyn was in a lot of pain, so she said, “Robyn, I have to tell you something. The anesthesiologist had an emergency and won’t be here for 20 minutes.” It was a long 20 (or so) minutes until he got there, and she was 8 cm dilated by the time he gave her the epidural. She was in major pain. They actually made me leave the room while they gave it to her, so by the time I came back in Robyn was feeling much better.
The epidural probably worked a little too good because Robyn was numb up to her chest and pretty much couldn’t keep her eyes open. It was past noon by this point and for the next couple hours Robyn just laid on the best and slept on and off. I just sat there and quitely texted updates to family and friends.
Around 3:00 or so (we weren’t really watching the clock) the anesthesiologist came back to the room and was surprised that we hadn’t had a baby yet. The nurse came in and said that based on Caroline’s high position in the birth canal she wasn’t sure that we wouldn’t have to have a c-section. A little while after that the Dr. checked in and said that Robyn should start to push. After a few pushes it was clear to them that the baby was ready to come out. Robyn pushed for a little while even though she was already exhausted. It was a combination of a long day already, no food and an epidural that was a little too effective. But Robyn pushed with everything she had. It got a little tricky because the anesthesiolgist was scheduled to get off at 5:00 and the one who would start working at 5:00 would make her have a c-section because he didn’t want to be responsible for the epidural of someone who was trying a vbac (apparently that’s his prerogative). So the nurses say that if she wanted to push the baby out that we’d need to get the show on the road.
At that point they moved us to an operating room just in case things went wrong theycould do a c-section right away. It was probably close to 5:00 by the time the OR was set up and staffed and the anesthesiologist said that he’d stay because he knew how bad Robyn wanted to do a vbac. Once everything was set up Robyn pushed and pushed as hard as she could. It was pretty intense. It was super hard for her because she was so tired and had so little energy. She pushed as hard as she could but it just seemed like Caroline wasn’t going to come out. They tried the vacuum 3 times but it kept slipping off. They tried the vacuum one last time and Robyn gave it all she had and then Caroline’s head came out! The Dr. began to suction Caroline’s mouth and nose and at the next contraction she came the rest of the way out! It took just a second for her to cry and that was probably the best thing that we heard all day. They let me cut the cord and then they laid Caroline on Robyn’s chest. Such a great moment. After a minute or two they took Caroline away from Robyn so that they could check her out. The nurse said that she looked really good and she got a 9.9 on her apgar test to prove it. When they finished with her they gave her to me and I held her for a good 10 minutes while they finished up with Robyn. It was great to hold her at the end of such a long day. We both thought she looked so pretty and we loved herhead full of long, dark hair.
Robyn’s dad and stepmom were waiting in the cafeteria so we called them into the room once we were moved out of the OR. They hadn’t gotten any updates for a couple hours so they were glad to see that everything was fine. I called Robyn’s mom and stepdad who had just sat down to dinner with Taylor. Once they finished eating they came to the hospital. We had a nice little family time and introduced Taylor to her little sister for the first time. She was so sweet and so happy to see her. I got it on video and will post it some other time.
Over the next couple of hours they moved us into a bigger room, the nurses bathed Caroline and gave her a shot or two and Robyn finally got to eat dinner. It was such an amazing day and it’s so funny to think that when we went to bed the night before that we had no idea that we were about to meet our new little girl. God was so gracious to give us a healthy little girl without having a c-section. We are so thankful for her and look forward to life as a family of four.
Posted in Caroline, Photography on October 7, 2010| 10 Comments »
Caroline was laying down on the floor in the sun and she looked so cute so I had to grab my camera. This was the first of many photo shoots that we’ll have, I’m sure.
We were released to come back home last night and left the hospital around 8:00. It was a very long night (about 2 hours of sleep for all of us), so we’re pretty tired today. Some time in the next day or two we’ll post the details from Monday for those of you who don’t know them yet, but for now this is about all I can type!
Posted in Caroline, Pregnancy on October 5, 2010| 13 Comments »
Caroline Ashland Villacampa was born at 5:49 last night
7 lbs, 20 inches
It was a long day, and long delivery, but Robyn and Caroline are both doing great.
Posted in Caroline, Pregnancy on October 4, 2010| 2 Comments »
Posted in Caroline, Pregnancy on October 4, 2010| 3 Comments »
Well, we’re at the hospital! Robyn woke up around 3:00 this morning with contractions. By 4:30 it was time to call the doctor who told us that we should go to the hospital. Since it was so early there weren’t many people on the road so we made good time. After we got checked in they brought us up to our room and the contractions were about 5 minutes apart. It’s now about 8:15 and the doctor has come in to check on us and so has the anestheologist. Thankfully this anestheologist will give an epidural to vbac patients (some won’t), so that is an answer to prayer. The contractions are painful now but robyn will wait a little while before getting the epidural. So for now we’ll wait for things to keep progressing.
We’re both very excited to meet Caroline!
The Four of Us 