It's a crazy (good) life...: September 2012

Aidan is FIVE years old!!!

Aidan Alexandru - 5 lb. 6 oz. 20.5 inches long

It is hard to believe that it has been 5 whole years since Aidan came into the world and blessed us with all of his cuteness. He is an amazing little boy and we are so thankful to have him.

I have never actually written Aidan's birth story before but I figured it's only fair that I do it now since I have written Colin's down already. So here is a (very) condensed version of the days leading up to his entrance to the world.....

Aidan was a surprise baby and I have to say he is the best surprise I've ever been given. My pregnancy with him was fairly easy in the beginning and I was able to keep up with working part time and full time nursing school through most of it.

When I was 29weeks pregnant, my nursing instructor noticed that I was pausing to breathe about every 5 minutes or so while helping care for one of my patients and encouraged me to call my doctor. I told her that I was sure that it was just braxton hicks contractions but she felt otherwise.

The contractions continued and I was sent to the hospital for monitoring the same day my instructor said something. While I was there, I dilated from 0-2 centimeters within an hour and everyone sprang into action.

I was given magnesium sulfate (awful stuff by the way) and turbutaline shots to try to stop labor and thankfully, a lot of medication and 3 days later things slowed down and stopped progressing.

My doctor sent me home on strict bedrest and told me I had to lay on my left side for the remainder of my pregnancy and could only leave the house for appointments. That is how I spent the last 8 weeks of my pregnancy....

Between 36-38 weeks along my I became very very swollen and my blood pressure started to creep up. My feet were so swollen that if you pressed your hand into them, your handprint would be left behind. Thinking about it now I kinda wish I had a picture but it was pretty gross so it is probably good that I don't... :)

Soon before I was 38 weeks I was sent back to the hospital to have blood work for pre-eclampsia run because my blood pressure was too high and my swelling was continuing to get worse.

My mom came to pick me up because Alex needed to be at a class and we were sure that they would check me out and send me home. At this point I was DONE with the hospital. They had already kept me there on three seperate occasions and I was sure that I was just going to be pregnant for the rest of my life.

Within 5 minutes of sitting in the hospital bed, my room was swarming with about 10 different people and they were saying something about the baby's heartrate dropping during my contractions. They tried flipping me around different ways and his heartrate was still way too low so my doctor came in and told me it was baby time.

I was being rushed into an operating room, one of the nurses was starting an iv in my arm on the way there and another one was making me sign a consent form for the surgery and all I could think at that point was that Alex was going to miss the whole thing.

My mom called Alex and told him to come right NOW because Aidan was coming via c-section and thankfully he was running late to school and made it to the hospital right after they started the surgery. I was so relieved! It's a good thing for him too that he made it because I remember very vividly that I was actually mad at him for not being there. It wasn't his fault but I was still mad (and very scared!). :)

Once Aidan was out they cleaned him up and checked him out to see if there was any obvious reason his HR was dropping and they never did find anything. He was perfect and healthy and pink as can be. We were surprised at his size though because they estimated 4 weeks before that he weighed almost 6 pounds and he came out weighing only 5.6 pounds. He was small for a full term baby!

I'd like to be able to say that it was love at first sight but unfortunately that isn't how it was with Aidan. I think it had something to do with the whole chaos of an unexpected emergency c-section but it definitely took a little bit of time before I was able to feel connected to him. By day two though I was fully in love :) It just took that much time to feel real!

Aidan is such an amazing little guy and has always been too smart for his own good. I wish I had a video of all of the crazy things he says and does. He loves to dance, and be silly, he takes things apart just so he can put them back together (he got his daddy's engineering brain), he's sarcastic, funny, sweet, caring, and so many other things. I don't think anyone has made me laugh as much as Aidan has in the time he has been here. So thankful for him!

So there you have it Aidan, this is the story of the day you were born. There are a lot of other details that I didn't add in here but just know that it is a day I will never forget and even though it was a little crazy, I wouldn't change any of it because it gave me YOU. You are an amazing little boy and you bring so many smiles to my face and the faces of everyone else. Mommy and daddy love you little guy. I can't believe you are FIVE years old! Stop growing so fast!!!!

Happy Birthday little man.... You're pretty awesome :)