Wow... talk about draining!

Wow... talk about draining! The past 36 hours or so have been: amazing, frustrating, exciting, exhausting, scary, relieving.... I think you get the point.
First off... Mom (Kate) is doing ok- I say OK, becaus she is so drugged up from the Magnesium she is on - she's basically been incoherant since delivery. Her levels of "Mag" were more than 2 times that of what they would normally want someone to be at under the same conditions. She is improving - and we are hoping to get her over to see Clayton for the first time since delivery.

Baby Clayton is improving as well - he is constantly improving his strength and energy (I slept in his NICU room last night and can confirm that he knows how to cry and be feisty with the nurses). There's so much to say about each of these two items alone that I could go on for a while - but I'll just start with an update on how the events unfolded since this is my firt post of many to come...

And by the way, its so much easier to do it this way than to try to re-tell the story a million times over email, voice mail, live on the phone, text messages, etc, even though I know I will continue to do so.

So the excitement all began on Monday at about 2:00 when Kate called me from her school nurses office and asked if I was close by. Luckily, I was at a hospital just down the road from her school, and was able to break away to pick her up. At Robin's request (her principal) we went straight to the doctors office had a check up, and was referred to go to the birthing center for some tests and observation. When her labs were taken and found to be very high for several things, they diagnosed her as being Preeclamsic and admitted her to be induced. We walked down into the delivery room area - and set up shop in the labor and delivery room that I'm still sitting in now.

Part of the process for Preeclamsia is to give an IV of magnesium - and it isn't fun (for mom, or others...) The good thing about Mag is that it protects you from the possibility of seizure - which is the main fear of Preeclamsia. However, that "Mag" is some nasty stuff. It makes you sick, tired, and just plain out of it. I've been told that everyone's body can handle it differently - and Kate did not take to it very well - so our experience was worse than some have with it, but I'd think that most people would agree with my observations.

It made for a fun night... Kate and I were up all night due to her nausiousness and just the effects of going into labor. Sleeplessness, and all the beeping and noise that comes with the electronics and nurse monitoring made it "fun" as well. I'd bet that we got no more than 3 hours of sleep. At about 5:00 am or so, Kate's water broke and thats when it all became really-real (you'll have to get used to "Neal vocabulary"). It was shortly after that, that they came in to administer the drug that really started the labor process, and it obviously worked, because by noon - she was fully dilated and nearly ready to start pushing. (Fast forward) After about 3hours of pushing - Baby Clayton was born at 5:21 pm. It was amazing. The best part for me was being a part of it all, and actually helping hold her leg, and basically being her devoted assistant through the process. I think I made literally 40 runs to the refreshment room to get ice and drinks for her! The NICU team was there due to the circumstances of the situation, and they went to work right after Clayton was out. Luckily I was able to hold him for a second, and take him over to Kate for a few moments to hold before they had to take him down to their unit for care.

So, as you can see, things have been far from normal, yet manageable and will all work out just fine. It wasn't want we expected this to be like - but it will all be worth it once we get Mom back to normal, and Clayton in our arms!