Timothy's Birth Story

Hannah was 11 days late. So, naturally, I assumed that Timmy would be late. Much to our surprise, my water broke at about 8pm on January 11th and I wasn't due until the 28th! Caleb was sledding on the driveway with Hannah and I opened the front door to tell him the shocking news. He laughed and continued playing. It took me a few minutes to convince him, but once he realized I wasn't kidding he went into crazy packing mode. Me, on the other hand, I just stood there in shock. I couldn't function. I had packing lists but couldn't follow them. I just couldn't believe it.

My due date was January 28th. We went back and forth on whether or not I should try a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean). Hannah's delivery was not so fun and ended up in an emergency c-section situation after 24 hours of labor and I did not want that same experience with Timmy. I wanted to enjoy the experience and marvel in the miracle. After much debate and praying over and over again about it, we decided that we would schedule a c-section for the 25th of January (since Hannah was so BIG and Timmy was already measuring 2 weeks ahead of schedule) and if I went in to labor early then it must be a sign from God that I should try a VBAC. I don't like to make "deals" or "bargains" with God, but we just didn't know what the best decision was.

So, I had just cleaned up the basement and I stood up to get the vacuum and couldn't believe what I was feeling. I was not ready. Normally, I'm the kind of person that has everything ready way ahead of time. This wasn't supposed to be happening yet. My mom wasn't here to watch Hannah. My bags weren't packed. I was supposed to have a c-section on the 25th!

I gave my friend, Hilary, a call and asked her if she would take Hannah for a day or two. She was so happy to do so and Hannah was thrilled to spend the night at her friend Carleigh's house. She was running around the house like it was the night before Christmas. It was so comforting to know that she would be treated like family and I didn't worry one bit about her while I was in the hospital.

Next, I called my mom and prefaced the news with, "This is not a joke." She couldn't believe it either. She was having a huge luncheon at her house the next day so she could not come up right away. Thankfully, she was able to drive up to Michigan after the luncheon the next day and take Hannah off of the Botts' hands.

So, once Hannah was on her way we loaded up the car and headed to the hospital. The roads were very snowy and it was a slow drive, but my contractions hadn't kicked in yet so we weren't worried.

I was taken to triage and the contractions started up on their own at about 10pm. The doctor obviously decided to admit me since my water had broken, but all of the rooms were taken so we had to wait in triage for several hours. 

We finally got our room at 2:15am and settled in for a long night. My contractions were getting much stronger and a little closer together.  Unfortunately, I was still only dilated to 1 cm so the doctor gave me a Foley bulb.  It worked quite well because by about 6am I was dilated to 4 cm.  I really did NOT like my nurse at this point because I was in a lot of pain and she asked me if I'd like her to take me down the hall to see someone who was actually having labor pains.  Not a nice thing to say to someone!  I was in labor and I was having major contractions.  You see, they had inserted an internal contraction measurer thingy because they had to monitor my contractions much more closely since I had the c-section with Hannah and was at a higher risk for uterine rupture.  Turns out that it was inserted incorrectly and when the doctor from my practice came in to check me he said it had been done incorrectly and had pretty much fallen out.  He said my contractions were much stronger than what was appearing on the monitor. 

I was so extremely grateful when the next nurse came on duty at 7am.  She was wonderful!  By 8am, Dr. Deenadaylu from my office had checked on me.  I was up to 5 cm and 90% effaced.  I had made a lot of progress since the evening before, but it was slow going and reminded me so much of what I went through with Hannah.  I was trying to stick it out as long as possible without the epidural this time because I felt that that might have stalled me with Hannah even though the doctors and nurses assured me that wouldn't have been the case.

By 9:15am I was desperately wanting the epidural and my new nurse, Julie, was so supportive and could tell how much pain I was in.  She told me there was absolutely no reason to wait any longer and I got the epidural as soon as possible and felt immediate relief!

Dr. D checked me again at 12:20 and I had not progressed one bit.  I was so disappointed because I was feeling a lot of pressure and thought for sure that I must have been at least 7 or 8 cm.  They couldn't up my pitocin anymore since I had the prior c-section so I was pretty much just stalled.

I told him I was ready for the c-section and he was extremely supportive.  We decided to give it another hour to see what would happen and I still had not progressed.

So, at 2:13pm we welcomed our little boy into this world via c-section.  When Dr. D. got me open he said I had an abnormally large amount of scar tissue from the first c-section.  I also had complicated issues with my bladder being in a different location or something and my uterus had scarred to my abdominal wall as well as my bladder.  He said he was so thankful that we called the c-section when we did because he wouldn't want to do the surgery in an emergency situation.  He was glad to have plenty of time to work around my issues.  He even had to run formula (different color than urine or blood) through my bladder before I was stitched back up to make sure he hadn't accidentally cut it because it was so entangled with my uterus.

When I heard my baby boy cry for the first time tears of joy just streamed down my face.  It had been such an incredible journey for us and at one point we weren't sure if we would even be able to have a second child.  It was such an amazing feeling to go from a family of three to a family of four and we are so thankful to God for blessing us with our new addition!
              

Timothy Caleb Coddington
January 12, 2011
2:13pm
7 lbs 12 oz
20 inches

December Update

We kicked off the month of December with "Movie Night" at preschool. Hannah had a blast eating hot dogs and watching "Santa Paws" with her friends.













The next day we went to a local farm to pick out and cut down our Christmas tree. This was a special treat because normally we are traveling for Christmas and don't even bother putting up a tree. It was a fun experience with Hannah. She loved marching around the "forest" in search of the perfect tree.













The finished product!

















Hannah even got to decorate a tree for her bedroom with ornaments that she has been given as well as our annual family-made ornament and some that I've picked up along the way with her name on them.

















One very cold and icy morning we headed to the mall for our annual picture with Santa with all of our close friends from church. They did surprisingly well this year and Santa was so sweet. Hannah was excited to share with him that she wanted a purple butterfly for Christmas.

















Playing in the snow with daddy is so much fun!



























Daddy taught Hannah how to sled at a local school. They had the place to themselves and the hill was the perfect size for Hannah.

I managed to waddle around the Toledo Zoo for the Christmas Lights display mid-December. I think this is the last picture we had taken as a family of three!













We went with our friends, the Kerns, and Hannah had so much fun with her "boy" friends.













Grandma and Grandpa Deibel came with Aunt Lauren to celebrate Christmas with us this year. There was no way I was going to travel 10 hours in a car with a 3-yr-old at 8 months pregnant. We were thankful that we could still spend time with family and Hannah ate up ever morsel of attention!

















Making a gingerbread house with Aunt Lauren!













Playing dress-ups with Grandpa Pete.













Thank you for the princess clothes, Aunt Lauren. I wear them all the time!













Last, but not least, we spent New Year's Eve at the Kerns celebrating kid-style.

November Update

November was a busy month. Hannah did lots of playing, singing, swimming, and visiting with JuJu and PaPa.





























Hannah loved her swim lessons at the Hartland Pool with daddy. The kids got to play in all of the fountains on the last day of class.

















JuJu and PaPa came for a visit this month, too. On Saturday, the 20th, we went downtown to the Brighton Holiday Glow. We sang Christmas carols, watched the lights turn on, and even saw Santa Clause and his reindeer.































At preschool, we celebrated Thanksgiving with a feast. Hannah's class participated as Indians and the other class as Pilgrims. She did a good job singing her song with all of the motions.



























On the 26th, we went to Huckleberry Railroad to see the lights and ride the train with JuJu and PaPa. Hannah had so much fun on the train, and especially loved riding over the lake. She wasn't too keen on the loud fireworks, though.

The Iceman Cometh

Caleb, Hannah, and I traveled up to Traverse City, Michigan, again this year for the Iceman Cometh mountain biking race. This is Caleb's 2nd year entering the race and I'm sure there will be a 3rd.

Here are the guys at the starting line. Aren't they handsome?














Hannah is wishing daddy luck. She loved riding the buses to the different areas.


















He did it! Caleb was able to shave about 2 minutes off of his time from last year and the trail was a bit longer.


















Having fun in the hotel pool. What a fun weekend!

Apple Picking

At the end of September, Hannah's preschool class visited Erwin's apple orchard. It was fun to see her interacting with her new buddies and I enjoyed getting to know the other moms. Three out of 8 of us are expecting babies between November and January!

Little Red Riding Hood

Our friends, the Houtmans, invited us to a play in Northville at the Historic Theatre downtown. We couldn't resist the invite and had so much fun watching Little Red Riding Hood. I thought Hannah might be afraid of the wolf but they made it very comical and she squealed with delight every time he entered the stage.































We topped off the afternoon with a scoop of ice cream. Thank you Nan and Ashlyn! We had so much fun!

Fall Camping

Our family looks forward to camping each fall. The temperatures are a little cooler, the leaves start changing colors, and the campgrounds are generally less busy. Unfortunately, both weekends we chose to camp this year resulted in pouring rain 90% of the time.

Don't be fooled by the picture below. This was taken at Hoffmaster State Park, about 2 hours before we had to leave on Sunday. It rained ALL day on Saturday. We were so bummed because this is one of our favorite campgrounds.

















We did, however, explore Muskegon a bit and ended up touring a LST ship that was almost identical to the one Caleb's grandpa served on. We also enjoyed excellent burgers at a local restaurant.

Our next fall camping trip was planned for the first weekend in October at Sleeper State Park. Again...rain, rain, and more rain. Thankfully, it cleared up for a few hours on Saturday night for the kids to go trick-or treating. Hannah didn't mind the wet, cold weather. She was all bundled up in this cozy monkey costume!

















She also got to take a pony ride which she loved! A few of the other campers really went all out on decorations this year. We thought it was a bit over the top and also very scary for the kids!