Owen James Franke

Owen joined our family Monday April 9th 2012 at 9:37am. He weighed 7lbs 3oz and was 19 & 3/8 inches long. I woke up on Easter, the 8th, which was my due date and decided to enjoy the day and not be upset that I had gone over my due date. I went down stairs and hid eggs in the yard for Leah to find when she woke up. When she woke up we all went down stairs and Leah opened her Easter basket and hunted for the eggs in the back yard. We hung out for a little while and then went over to my parents house for an Easter brunch. I was having some occasional contractions throughout the day, but I didn't think much of it. I went to bed that night thinking about the errands that I was going to run the next day. I woke up around 3 to use the bathroom and was having contractions about every 15 mins or so. I went back to sleep and woke up again around 4 with stronger contractions so I woke Nick up and we started to time them. Between about 4:45 and 5:30 they started coming about every 7 or 8 mins so we called the doctor and they told us to come in. I started getting ready and Nick called my parents to come over and stay at the house with Leah. Before we left, Nick and my dad gave me a blessing. My dad stayed at the house and waited for Leah to wake up an my mom Nick and I went over to the hospital. I got checked in and they brought me back to a triage room to get check. I was already at 6.5cm and my water was "leaking" but not fully broken. Since I was so far dilated and considering how quickly Leah was born, they took me back to the delivery room. I labored for a little while and then the doctor came in to check me. She told me that my water not being fully broken was preventing his head from pushing on my cervix and that if she broke it for me that he would settle in and move labor along faster. So I decided to have her break it. She checked my dilation again and I was at 8cm and having pretty bad back labor. While she was breaking my water she looked at the nurse and said "I don't think that's a head". I asked her what that meant and she had the nurse bring in an ultrasound machine to check if he was breached. And sure enough he was. They started talking about calling in the anesthesiologist and getting the OR ready. At this point my contractions were coming really strong and close together and I was in a lot more pain then I remember being in with Leah. I could see the looks on my mom and Nick's faces and asked the doctor if I needed a C-section. She said yes and all of a sudden I felt very peaceful. I knew that Owen and I were being watched over and that everything was going to be okay. Despite the severe amount of pain that I was in my strongest feeling was an intense amount of gratitude that the doctor had discovered he was breached before things had progressed any further. Once I knew what was happening I wanted to get started right away. I wanted the pain to stop an my son to be here. I asked if my mom and Nick could both be in the operating room, because I knew that my having major surgery would be really hard on Nick. They said that we would need to ask the anesthesiologist if that was ok. So they got my mom and Nick in scrubs and made them wait out in the hall while they gave me the spinal and got me prepped for surgery. The nurse and anesthesiologist were so amazing, I had an amazing sense of calm with what was happening, even though an emergency C-section wasn't exactly what I had expected when we left the house that morning. Once the spinal started to set in and I was all prepped, they let my mon and Nick in. Poor Nick looked so pale and I kept asking if he was okay. The doctor started asking me if I could feel anything sharp on my stomach. I could feel pressure, but nothing painful. They started the surgery and it is such a weird state to be in, you're fully conscious and can feel something happening to you, but I just tried to not let myself think about what was actually happening to me. The whole time I kept asking Nick if he was okay, and telling him not to look. I was really worried about how he was doing. My state of calm stayed with me the whole time and I just wanted to make sure that Nick was doing okay. I heard the doctor say that they were done cutting and that they were pulling out his little butt. My mom asked if she could look and I said she could. They said that he was out and I heard him cry. They held him over the draping so I could see him and I was so happy that he was here and healthy. Nick went over with him while he was being checked out and my mom sat with me while I was being stitched up. Once Owen and I were all set they wheeled us back to our room and got settled in, and I honestly couldn't tell you what happened immediately after that. The days kind of all blend together during our stay. My parents were a big help with Leah. They took her out and spoiled her and she stayed the first night at their house. They watched her so Nick could come spend some time with me and Owen. Then the next two days Nick spent some quality daddy daughter time with Leah and he spent the next two nights at home with her so that things would stay somewhat normal for her. I have to say that Nick was truly amazing during this whole experience. He came to the hospital and took care of Owen so I could get some sleep. And pulled some major single dad duty with Leah. I couldn't ask for a better husband, and father for my children. We had a lot of visitors while we were there. Leah came and held her little brother a LOT she is completely enamored with him. During one of her visits nick asked her who she thought Owen looked like and she said, very matter of fact-ly, "he looks like Owen." Another favorite Leah moment that I want to remember; I hadn't been feeling up to getting out of the bed the first couple of times Leah came to visit and she was a little freaked out by all the tubes and things I was hooked up to. So the next time she came to visit I decided to make sure I was showered and got out of the bed. While she was there, I stood up to change Owen. When I stood up, I was holding my (still pregnant looking) belly because of the pain from the C-section. Leah saw how my belly looked, and noticed that I was holding it and said "mommy, are you having another baby?" I couldn't help but laugh, it was such an innocent comment. Anyways, I ended up staying 3 nights at the hospital, which was more then we were expecting. By the end I was SO ready to sleep in my own bed (even for just a few hours at a time). I was also really missing Leah and feeling guilty about being away from her for so long. Things have been going well at home so far. Owen is sleeping pretty well and Leah is loving her new roll as a big sister. I'm dreading when Nick goes back to work next week and I'll have to figure out how to manage two kids on my own.