This is a Good Story

On Thursday October 7, 2010 Owen Matthew Flores Snow arrived into our lives. Here’s the story . . .

At 7:30 a.m. Matt and I woke up and got ready to go to the hospital. I got in the shower and reflected on how much our lives were going to change in a couple of hours. So many emotions came over me . . . excitement, fear, gratefulness, and the list goes on. Luckily, I had packed everything the night before so basically we just had to shower, get ready, and go. We didn’t want to leave Nala all alone in the apartment, so we decided to drop her off at Matt’s parents. Before we left, we said a prayer and thanked Heavenly Father for blessing us and allowing us to be parents to a son we were about to have.

It seemed like we were running a little late, but after dropping Nala off, we arrived at Riverton hospital in perfect time. I had so many things that I wanted to bring up to the hospital. I packed my main bag (of course), my laptop, my camera bag, pillows, and purse, but decided to just bring up my main bag. After walking into the hospital and riding the elevators up, Matt told me he was so excited to use the blue phone to let them know we were here. Matt picked up the phone and calmly said, “We’re here to have a baby”. The doors opened and we walked to the front desk. The lady at the desk was a little shocked that we weren’t in a hurry. I had to explain that I was having a scheduled C-Section.

They walked me into the pre-op room where I had to get into a hospital gown, give them a urine sample and have an IV put in me. The nurse stuck it in the back of my hand. It hurt so bad. They took my temperature, blood pressure, and asked me a ton of questions. I looked at the clock and it seemed like time was racing by. The anesthesiologist and my Dr. came in to prepare me for what was to come. They handed Matt some scrubs (which he looked so cute in). I could tell by the look on his face that he was getting nervous. I kept saying mini prayers in my mind to help comfort the both of us. If anyone knows me, I get super paranoid about things that most likely wouldn’t happen, for example, I was nervous that I wouldn’t make it out alive.

I could hear my family waiting outside. 12:05 pm came and it was time to walk into the operating room. As soon as I entered the room, I could feel the hairs on my arms and neck stand straight up because it was freezing cold! In order for them to put the spinal block in I had to sit on the table, bend over and hold Matt’s hands. I could sense Matt’s nervousness because he was squeezing my hands way too hard. I had to tell him to soften up just a bit. Once the spinal block was in, a warm feeling rushed into my legs. It was like having a heating blanket put on my legs. It felt amazing. About 3-4 minutes after that my legs and stomach were completely numb.

They began cutting me open. It seemed like it took about 5 minutes until they told me they could see and pull the baby’s little butt out. Matt told me he had a cute butt. He started taking a bunch of pictures, and I must say the pictures that he took were pretty good! He got all the pictures that I asked for. His head came out a couple seconds after. The Dr. told me that he’s glad I didn’t deliver vaginally because there was no way that I could push that head out. The Dr. showed him to me for a quick second and at that moment I fell in love. This was my child that I had carried for 9 months, the child that I was so scared of losing throughout my whole pregnancy. Here he was, screaming away. Matt watched the nurses clean him off and weigh and measure him. He weighed 8 lbs and measured 20 inches long.

After sewing me back up, they wheeled me back into the pre-op room for me to breastfeed him and spend time with him before family could come in. It seemed like I had only 5 minutes with him before my family came to meet him. I’m so grateful that Owen is healthy. Matt and I thank Heavenly Father everyday for trusting in us to raise one of his children. We love him so much and don’t know why we didn’t bring him into our lives sooner.

Here are some pictures from that morning.

Can you tell I'm a little nervous?

I love him . . .

Sorry this picture is so graphic, but I think his little butt is so cute.

He was Frank Breech. That's why he has little frogger legs.

The septum that divides my uterus in half was pushed up against his face.

His nose is a little smooshed here. Don't worry, it has straightened out.

Our first family photo

Me and Baby

My Mateo and little Mateo

I still have so many things that I want to write about the hospital stay.

Hopefully I will get to that this week.