SAWYER MATTHEW SHELBY

Sawyer Matthew Shelby made his entrance into the world on June 7, 2011 at 7:35 a.m.! Being new to the labor game, little did I know that when I woke up at around 2:30, thinking I just couldn't sleep I was in labor and having contractions. I felt them in the front and the back and they were so erratic I just did not think they were true contractions. We decided to head to the hospital just to see if labor was a possibility. I warned Matt that they would probably send us home. On the way there I begin experiencing pain every few minutes. We started to wonder if these pains were indeed contractions. :) We checked in at the emergency room, where my dear friend Kristin was actually working one of her last shifts as a Labor and Delivery Nurse, and I was soon told that yes, I was dilated and in labor! Everything seemed to shift into high gear after that. My water broke (sorry for too much information) and I begin to have contractions every minute and a half. My blood pressure was also high. They transferred me from Triage into a Delivery Room and soon (not soon enough :)) I received the epidural. Side note-I know that because of what happened in the garden that women are to experience pain in childbirth but I also know that God gives us all talents and gifts and someone out there used their talents to invent the epidural and for that I am thankful! Sawyer's heart rate was dropping a bit and so they had me shift from one side, then to another and back to see if it would regulate. It would not. It continued to drop. Although calm, I could sense the urgency in Kristin's voice as she determined the next course of action. It was soon decided that a C-Section was necessary. It all happened so fast! Soon, little Sawyer made his debut! Matt headed over with the nurses to check him out. Our little one was not doing so well. After working on him for a little while in the OR, they transported him upstairs to the NICU. The Doctor brought him over to me on the way out. That was a moment I will never forget, seeing my baby's face for the first time. We soon found out that we had a sick little boy on our hands and that he would need to stay in the NICU. It was later determined that Sawyer had aspirated a good amount of meconium and had an infection in his lungs. He stayed in the NICU for 11 days. Those days were both the hardest and the sweetest of my life (I would venture to say they were for Matt as well). It was so hard to see our sweet boy connected to all these wires and tubes. I had always dreamed of holding my baby in the delivery room, people we love coming to see him. In the NICU only parents and grandparents were allowed (of which we were very thankful). However, it was all the more sweet when we were able to hold him on the third day. Definitely, one of the sweetest moments of my life. It was also such an incredible time with Lord. We HAD to lean on HIM for our strength and it was a lesson I will not soon forget. Today, he is seven weeks old! He is truly a great baby and we are just loving life as a family of three.