The Ultimate Surprise

I'm a natural planner. I love the thrill of planning out my day and checking things off my to - do list. It makes me feel super accomplished! But sometimes life shows us no matter how much you plan, it will throw you an unexpected curve ball. That is exactly what happened to my husband and I on Saturday, March 4. We received the ULTIMATE (LIFE CHANGING) SURPRISE!

Since I naturally plan, I knew that one week after having my baby shower I was going to put things in full gear as we quickly approached the arrival of our son Grayson set for April 14. I planned on setting up his nursery, packing our hospital bags, picking his pediatrician and much more the next 6 weeks until his arrival. I know most babies don't normally come on their due date. I actually had a feeling throughout most of my pregnancy that Grayson would come early. However, I didn't know he would make his debut more than a month ahead of schedule.

During the wee hours of Saturday, March 4 I woke up for one of my routine potty breaks around 3AM. When I went to return to lay down on the couch I felt a huge gush of liquid. I was a bit in shock but then realized my water had broken. I calmly walked into our bedroom and informed my sleeping husband that I thought my water had broke. We threw on some clothes and headed straight to the birthing center, no bags or anything else. Honestly, we thought they would say we were at the beginning stages of labor and would send us home until we progressed to more active labor status. To our surprise when the nurse checked me she said I was 4cm dilated and that they were going to admit me. My husband and I were stunned that not only was it 41 days before our due date but I was already in active labor without feeling contractions. 

The next 9 hours went by in a flash. Within 8 hours I had dilated from 4cm to 10cm. At 12:21PM after pushing for maybe 45 minutes we welcomed our handsome son Grayson Derrek Anderson at 34 weeks old. My initial plan was to do skin to skin with him when he first came out and try my first attempt to breast feed. But remember when I said that sometimes plans change. Well, this was a first hand example of that statement. Instead of being able to do skin to skin for the first couple of hours with my son, he was rushed to the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) because he was overcompensating to breathe. His breaths were very cumbersome. The nurses assured us that it was normal for preemies to experience breathing problems because they don't fully develop their lungs until beyond 35 weeks. 

The next 7 days my son was on oxygen, only fed sugar water through a feeding tube, was given an IV to pump fluids from keeping him dehydrated, experienced jaundice and had to do several rounds of treatment, had blood drawn countless times along with much more. For new time parents this was a hard pill to swallow. I'm not going to lie, it was an emotional roller coaster. We weren't allowed to hold him the first couple of days as he was hooked up to numerous cords and machines. Just seeing your child helpless laying on a bed and you being able to do nothing about it is very tough. But luckily for Grayson (and us) he has a village of prayer warriors. People from near and far called and texted to let us know they were praying for our munchkin. All the love and support allowed us to stay in a positive mind frame and realize that all of the things happening to our son were for his well being and overall improvement of his health. While there were a few minor setbacks within the week, Grayson was cleared to come home exactly one week after he was born. 

Since being home 2 full days it's been nothing but amazing. While sleep has been touch and go, to see something (or in our case someone) you prayed for for the last 9 months right before your eyes is absolutely awesome. To know that my husband and I had a direct hand in creating such a perfect being is mind blowing. We are so excited to go on the journey of parenthood with our incredible rainbow baby! While I know every day won't be filled with bliss I am excited to share my journey of mommyhood with you on the blog. 

-Ali