Welcome Luke William!

Our second son is officially 24 hours and 8 minutes old... We've experienced a whirlwind over the last few days!

Around 10 PM Friday evening, the contractions started again... Considering I'd been checked that morning and wasn't dilated, I wasn't too concerned. I took a hot bath attempting to relax and after getting some relief, went to bed close to midnight. I awoke around 2 in the morning with painful, but manageable contractions and began timing them... They were consistently between 5 and 7 minutes apart and slowly became more painful, although I was able to breathe through them okay. By 3:30 I had started bleeding and decided to contact our planned delivery destination, the Special Delivery Unit at the Cleveland Clinic. The nurse transferred me to the doctor on call and after a short consultation, we decided that although my water hadn't broken, it was best to come to Cleveland to get checked as if I were to go to our local community hospital, it would likely have taken them 3 to 4 hours to get me transported via squad or life flight as the local doctors would have had to check me, make sure I was stable enough for transport, complete the paperwork and place the order for the transport, etc, etc.

We called Uncle Bob and Aunt Elaine to come stay with Matthew and also called our moms to let them know what was going on. Kyle came to get our dog Nelson and we were all set. Although I had planned to pack the night before, instead my mom came over and we sterilized bottles and continued to do more decorating at the new house. Dustin did put the pack and play together so baby has a place to sleep in our room when we get home, but as far as completing my goal of getting us packed and ready to leave... I didn't make much (or actually any) progress!

While we waited for family to arrive, Dustin and I got packed for the hospital... And it wasn't real fun completing the chore while I was having contractions! By the time we were finished, our reinforcements had arrived and we were on the road by 5:50 am. We'd had snow and freezing rain the night before and fortunately we had a short drive to get to 71. The back roads were less than ideal but the interstate was in good shape and we made it to Cleveland in about an hour... The easiest trip we've ever had getting up here... There was literally no traffic before sunup on a Saturday morning!  The only annoying part of the trip was that it seemed that during every contraction on the way up, we would drive over the bumpiest overpass on the highway in our truck that already rides a little rough, which made the contractions pretty awful!

On the drive up, we decided to valet the truck to save time, but the Clinic appeared to be running on a skeleton crew so early on a weekend morning and Dustin ended up parking it right in front of the main entrance and pushed me in a wheelchair to our destination. When we arrived at the SDU, they were ready for us and we were lucky to be the only patient in the unit. I was dilated 4 cm and was 100 percent effaced and by the time we settled in our room at 7:30, the doctor on call shared that we'd be having our baby shortly. He contacted our high risk doctor who asked us to wait for him to complete another c section he was getting ready to begin so that he could be there to deliver our baby. While we waited for him to arrive, we met with doctors from the NICU and pediatric cardiology as well as our anesthesiologist. The nurses in the SDU were awesome and they really helped me to feel comfortable and safe. After the doctor arrived, we had a short visit with him and I was able to walk to the operating room for my spinal. The spinal tap was really easy for the Anesthesiologist to administer and it was quick and basically painless. As compared to the epidural I had last time, I thought the spinal offered a better block and the surgery was much less uncomfortable than I remembered from the last time. The whole operation took about an hour.

When the nurse let me take a peek at Baby Luke, my first thought was that he looked a lot like Matthew (and Dustin, too) and I was struck that he had red hair! The nurse took him to another room and we were glad that we could hear him crying from a few rooms away! His apgar scores were an 8 and a 9 and he was stable enough that the nurse brought him back in the operating room so we could take some photos and see him again. Shortly afterwards, Dustin accompanied Luke and his entourage to the NICU where they weighed and measured him (he was 6 pounds 8 ounces, 18 3/4 inches long and had a head circumference of 12 inches) and also hooked him up to a 12 lead heart monitor.

Following my c section, I went back to my room in the SDU for a few hours to recover and before moving to the new unit where I will remain for the remainder of my admittance, the nurses snuck me into the NICU to hold the baby and make our first attempt at nursing.

I am still in shock that we have added another member to our family... Life is so incredibly amazing and the fact that two people can create another life is such a wonder. I am in love with baby Luke! I can't wait to get back over to the NICU and hold him again!