Look who's 18 months...

...and has started nursery (Yeah!)I have some pretty fun pictures and a birth story for this one that I want to share (I did not have a blog at the time of his birth, but these items are very blog-worthy!)
First off...here's a picture of my poor feet a couple of weeks before delivery. Can you say Fred Flintstone? At least my toenails looked pretty!
So here's the rest of the story...
Dylan was due on July 28th and we were scheduled to move to Utah on the 15th of August. Only 2 weeks? No problem, both Jesse and Grace's deliveries were relatively easy (hey, with Grace I left the hospital and went straight to the Beach House!) and they were both early. I was counting on both of these facts. Boy was I wrong! His due date came and went. And to make matters worse, on July 29th (Saturday), it was 119 degrees in the San Fernando Valley. Ugh! I was fat, I was hot, I wanted that baby out and I had a schedule to keep! No luck! On Monday, I went to see the Dr. I begged, I pleaded to be induced, but to no avail! (I was on an HMO that would not induce until I was a week overdue.) This is getting longer than I had wanted...I will try to hurry now.
I was scheduled to be induced Friday AM...Thursday night I went into labor. There must have been a full moon because there were several other deliveries happening at the same time. They took forever to get me an epidural and then they messed up when they gave it to me. It took about an hour and 3 pokes to get the job done. In the process I got a wet tap that resulted in a week of horrific spinal headaches.
My water broke while I was getting the epidural and soon after the baby went into distress. They determined that the uterus was pinching the umbilical cord, so they stuck a tube in me to fill me back up with fluid (yeah, I'd never heard of that before either!) Then I felt like it was time to push.
The Doc (who I am sure this was his first night on the job) came in to check me and discovered that Dyl was coming out face first (as opposed to back of the head first) and decided to transfer me to the operating room where he would have me push a few times and then see what would happen. I was wheeled to the OR amid a flurry of papers to sign (like I had time to peruse their contents, I could have been signing away my life for all I knew...and probably did!) Apparently the anesthesiologist did not get the memo that I was to push because as soon as I got in the OR he had me so pumped full of drugs that I couldn't feel anything from the neck down. The Dr. yelled "incision" and they began to hack away. Dyl was already in the birth canal, so they had to push him back up and in the process tore my bladder in two places.
And this is what you look like if you are stuck in a birth canal face-first! Just in case you were wondering!















Look at those poor lips and nose.
While Danny went out to be with Dyl when they took him to the NICU (they were worried he wouldn't be able to eat with those lips!) I lay on the table for what seemed like hours (and it was!) until the urologist could be roused from bed at 2:00am to come fix the little bladder problem. The worst part is that no one told me what was going on...and I'd never seen any of this on A Baby Story! Meanwhile, Danny sat outside and was locked out of the OR and no one told him what was going on for 3 hours.
To make a long story even longer...Several stitches and a blood transfusion later (yeah, still unclear on that one!) I was in the recovery room. Whew!
A few hours later I was finally able to see my new baby boy.














To my joy, his lips had deflated...and mine had inflated (I feel pretty, oh so pretty!) And despite a little bruising he was as perfect as he could be. So what if I had to get all beat up (literally) in the process and have to leave the hospital with a catheter for two weeks and endure a week of the worst headaches. It was worth every minute (except maybe for that minute that I had to stand up for the first time!!!)
One thing that I learned about anatomy...every part of your body is connected to the abdominal region. Yeah...even blinking hurt!
Danny ended up moving to Utah without us and we joined him a couple of weeks later. Better late...
Life is what happens when you're making other plans!
And here he is today on his 18 month b-day:Just look at that sweet face...Yep, I'd do it all again, I'm just glad I don't have to!