Welcome to the World - Pruitt Eli McCoy

My Dad graciously had come up the Friday before Easter and was staying at a hotel/our house to be on call for when it was go time.  Which relieved so much stress for me because I didn't have to worry about where Brayden would need to go - my Dad would come to him and he'd be in good hands while we were at the hospital.  

What a whirlwind this pregnancy had been, so when I woke up the morning of April 8th just not feeling 'right' and having lower back pain and uncomfortable - I was ready.  Ready to have this baby and ready to meet our sweet boy.  I was having contractions about every 12-15 minutes for most of the day and as the day progressed they got more intense and then around noon I lost some of my mucus plug, so when Brayden woke up from his nap, we took him to the soccer field and me and Bella walked and walked!  I was determined.  While walking I got my contractions down to about every 6-7 minutes.  We came home, ate some dinner and I showered and I was still hovering at that 6-7 minute mark and they say not to call until you're having contractions every 5 minutes, 1 minute long for an hour...I was so close, but contractions were getting more intense, almost impossible to talk through.  So after we put Brayden to bed, I was talking to my Mom and her and Geoff (ha!) decided it was time for me to call and go in, with the uncertainty of the pregnancy I think we all felt better if baby was monitored.  So Geoff called the Dr and she agreed that we should head in, so my Dad came over (yay!) and we got to Littleton Hospital around 9pm and I was at about 3cm.  And my contractions came to a screeching halt!!  NO!!  However shortly after that the baby's heart rate wouldn't stabilize so we were officially admitted at 9:30pm and I immediately asked if I could start walking the halls...and that did the trick.  We walked for about 30-45 minutes and my contractions were getting so intense I decided to head back to the room so I could work through the contractions in the room.  We were finally in business and contractions were coming on HARD, QUICK AND FAST.  I really wasn't getting any breaks in between and decided that it was time for that epidural.  I felt like it took that very nice anesthesiologist a VERY LONG TIME before he was able to get the epidural in.  Once he did he said I shouldn't feel anymore contractions...not a minute later I was trying to breathe through a contraction so he told the nurses there was no way I was still at only a 5cm (at this point).  They said once everything settled down they would check me.  Well, as soon as he left the room, my blood pressure started doing silly things so he had to come back and give me some meds and the nurses kept making me switch from side to side to try and get things to normalize.  The nurses then checked me and said you're at a 9cm!  WHAT?  And it wasn't but a few minutes later that my water broke so they had to call in the 'on-call delivery doctor' to come lend some support until my Dr arrived.  I reached that 10cm a very short time later and the delivery doctor was pretty much there to catch the baby if he fell out but she wasn't encouraging any pushing, I felt the urge a couple times and pushed, but nothing.  Finally, Dr. Van Scriver arrived and she was like 'let's do this' - so that's what we did and at 1:26am our sweet Pruitt Eli McCoy was born weighing in at 6lbs 11oz and 19.75in long.  Our little man was here and we couldn't feel more blessed.

Pruitt seemed healthy and strong, he didn't let out that big wailing cry when he was born and I remember feeling a little concerned as to why he didn't do that, but they kept reassuring me that he was fine.  Finally they put my sweet boy on my chest and it was bliss.  Finally, my baby was in my arms and I started to try and get him to nurse and that's when I noticed that Pruitt had those sweet almond shaped eyes.  I remember looking up at Geoff immediately and asking him...'Do you think he has Down Syndrome?'  (Let me back up...when I had polyhyramanos - that can be a sign of down syndrome - the specialist told us that he really didn't think it was DS, twice he told us that at 2 different appointments, but that his long bones (another sign of DS) were measuring short and that he'd probably just be a short baby)  After that golden hour and the nurse, Pam (I'll never forget her) took Pruitt to start measuring, weighing, etc Geoff asked her, do you think he has DS.  And I'll never forget the look on her face and she said, 'I'm not a doctor so I can't make any diagnosis, however based on a few things that I'm seeing...almond shaped eyes, lower muscle tone and sandal toe, I would guess yes.'  I would be a complete liar if I told you I was jumping for joy at this point...I was deflated and a little angry, angry because I'm a planner and I wish someone would have told me so I could have better prepared because I had known that there were health issues we needed to be aware of and if the staff is better prepared, the better.  Geoff and I weren't shocked...because DS had been tossed around so much during the pregnancy that we weren't surprised, however we were surprised if that makes sense.

We got transferred over to Women and Children and again we were greeted with the most amazing group of nurses ever.  Our delivery team was amazing and the after care was through the roof.  Everyone took amazing care of us and they were amazing with Pruitt as well, always reassuring us that Pruitt was the sweetest baby and gently letting us know what we should expect with a baby with DS.  However, so many nurses and even the neonatal nurse that came in to check on him were on the fence because he wasn't showing a lot of the DS markers.  The neonatal nurse encouraged us to do the blood work so we could get a definite answer, so we took our less than 24hr old baby to the NICU to get blood drawn.  Can I tell you again how amazing the staff at Littleton Hospital is again?  The NICU nurse spent a good 10 minutes looking for the right vein and in one swift try she got everything she needed.  Pruitt was a sleepy baby and nursing wasn't going as well as I had hoped and that's when the amazing Mary, the lactation consultant walked in to guide us.  She was amazing!  Not only did she encourage me to never give up, because of Pruitt's diagnosis, but she reassured me that it was okay to pump and bottle feed - to do whatever I had to to feed Pruitt.  She was also the most open about talking about Pruitt's DS and really encouraged us to make sure we reached out to a list of resources she passed on.  I'll never forget her - that's for sure.

We cannot explain in words how thankful we are for the staff at Littleton Hospital - they were top notch.  We had heard amazing things about them, but they surpassed our wildest dreams.

We got discharged on Tuesday afternoon and during dinner on Tuesday evening our pediatrician called us to let us know that indeed Pruitt's blood work came back and it was showing a third chromosome which meant Trisomy 21 or Down Syndrome.  That was it - the moment and as much as Geoff and I were pretty certain, there is something else that happens when someone makes it official.  Of course I cried, I questioned, I guessed, I was angry, but most of all I'm still left with this feeling of uncertainty.  The feeling of the unknown, I know with any child you don't know what their future is going to bring, but I feel like with a child with a special need that unknown is even more unknown.  But for right now, I've been told a million times, just to love on my baby because before you know it he'll be 3 and then 6 and then 9 and I'll look back saying - where has the time gone.  So where can you find me...snuggling my sweet babies!!   

Pruitt has been nothing short of amazing!  He's the sweetest boy, melts your heart and just started smiling which makes my hear explode into pieces.  This was by no means what 'we had planned' but sometimes God laughs and says, 'but this was what I had planned'.  So we're trusting him and asking for strength when times might get though, but for now we're feeling extremely blessed with two happy, healthy boys.