Weston Lee Clark

Well, it has been a long time since i've posted...so here's the rundown of what's happened to us the past few weeks:

After going in for my appointment on Monday April 6th, (before the squirt was born) the doc scheduled me to come in Tuesday night to start the induction process. Well, Tuesday morning around 2:30 I woke up having slight contractions. I was able to fall back asleep in between contractions until 4am. At 4, the pain in my back was pretty terrible and the contractions were 10 minutes apart. After about 4 of them...being painful enough to make me think they weren't braxton hicks. I woke chad up and he immediatley woke up and started rubbing my back. Around 4:30, the contractions jumped to 2-3 minutes apart and they were completely in my back. At that point, I decided to get in the shower and let the hot water run down my back. Chad rubbed my back the entire time. Unfortuneatly the hot water only lasted about 15 minutes and then it was gone :(. I wanted to cry.

At that point, i started walking laps around the house and squatting each time I had a contraction.

I called my mom at 6am to see what she thought. At one point, i had to lean over the sink b/c i thought i was going to vomit. My mom started laughing and said, "that my dear, is a contraction". Funny mom.

We decided to wait it out a little bit more and then finally at 8am after taking a walk around the block, we decided to head to the hospital. When we got there, they checked me and i was 90% effaced and still only 2 cm if that, dilated. My doc came in and broke my water around 8:30-commencing the long and tedious birth process. The contractions didn't get too horrible until around noon. I was trying to avoid pain meds unless i needed them, and boy did i need them.

I was having all back labor which was horrible and my contractions weren't even giving me a break. After contractions one on top of the other-literally no break from the pain-I decided to get an epidural. They gave me Nubaine to tide me over until i could get the epidural...well, it did NOTHING aside from make me loopy :) Chad said he would ask me questions and i wouldn't be able to answer them. I would just kind of stare and mumble.

I was finally at 4 cm and we were hoping the epidural would help me to relax and dilate a little faster. So at 2 pm, i finally got my epidural-how amazing it was...while it lasted.

Both sets of grandparents were at the hospital by 4pm on Tuesday. The Clarks arrived around noon and the Snyder's arrived at 4. Everybody hung out in my room as we talked, laughed, and watched TV...until around midnight when the pain was getting bad again.

The parents got kicked out of the room when the pain got more intense. When i finally asked if they could redo or up the epidural, the nurse said it was too late b/c i was 8 cm. What horrible news to hear!

So chad helped me breath through the contractions until it was time to push...and that didn't come until 3am. that was a VERY long time.

The nurse had me start pushing at 3am Wednesday morning-almost 25 hours after my labor started. This was without pain relief! I wanted to try without pain relief...but that was before i was in labor and i wanted something.

When i first started pushing, the squirts heart rate would drop, so the nurse called the dr in...however, when the doc got there, his heart rate was fine.

After 2 hours of pushing, the doc came in and said the we would need some intervention. They figured out that the squirt was coming out sunny-side up...which means he was facing up instead of down...hence the back labor and terrible pain. If he would have been facing the correct way, he probably would have come out a bit easier, but the doc seemed skeptical. So, my doc said that he could either use the forceps, but i would have 4th degree tearing that would be very painful, or we could do a c-section. At this point, my doctor didn't know that I didn't have any pain relief. As I winced and moaned through each contraction he asked me if I was feeling everything, and boy was I, especially when they tried to manually turn the little guy...that did not feel very good at all!

So when the dr figured out that I had no pain relief, he recommended a c-section. They were a bit concerned at this point b/c I had developed a fever-probably b/c of my being in labor and having my water broke for so long. I really didn't want a c-section from the beginning, but at this point, i wanted the pain to end. I had my mom come in to give me her suggestion and she told me that if it was her she would go for the c-section. So that's what happened...we went in for an emergency c-section.

They gave me some drugs to stop the contractions and they gave chad scrubs to change into. All of this happened at around 5:15am Wednesday. They wheeled me out of my room at about 6am. The anesthesiologist (sp?) came into the OR, took out the epidural and gave me a spinal...WONDERFUL!!!!! That was the best pain relief in the world. I couldn't feel a thing from my armpits down.

I was a bit upset that we had to resort to this, but it was the best option at this time. The whole c-section took only 25 minutes. As i was laying there, chad was by my shoulder and i could hear the doctor talking to chad but i wasn't sure what was going on. i was a bit out of it. I heard them talk about our little guy as they were pulling him out and I started crying b/c i couldn't see him and I didn't hear him cry. That was horrible. after a while they brought him to my head as they were stitching me up and they let me kiss his cheek and then they took him away. he still wasn't crying at this point and he was very limp.

i started crying even more and chad was also crying. Chad followed the little guy out to his recovery room and then they rolled me out to my recovery room. Since our little guy wasn't doing very well, i couldn't see him or hold him. Apparently, he wasn't responding very well and his color wasn't very good either. they had to keep putting a tube down into his lungs to suck out all the fluid. He couldn't cry very well and his oxygen levels were very low.

Fortunately, there was a video camera in my recovery room that allowed me to see my little guy as they were working on him. I pretty much was crying the entire time.

The pediatrition came in and told me that if he didn't start improving faster, then they would send him to Toledo...which really made me cry. At this point, the nurses fetched chad so i could have some support. After about 2 hours, my nurse snuck my little guy in so i could see him and hold him for the first time. I got to hold him for about a minute and then she had to take him back to put him back under the oxygen hood.

Luckily, mr weston started improving, so he didn't have to go to Toledo. After 4 or 5 long tedious hours, i was taken back to my room and weston was brought to us. Hence ending the long process of our little guy coming into the world. We got a taste of both worlds-natural birth and c-section. I will never have to go through a natural birth again-which i am ok with. Everybody says you won't remember the pain that you went through having your child...well, i remember every minute of it, but let me tell you, it was completely worth every minute. I would do this all over again for my little man. He is such a blessing from God!

That is Weston Lee Clarks birth story. Our little guy-born April 8th, 2009 at 6:23am; 8 lbs 3 oz; 20.5 inches long. Blue eyes, brown hair, long fingers, skinny toes and long skinny feet just like his daddy.

I love my handsome boy-i love being a mommy. I wouldn't change it for anything!!

Weston Lee Clark

Chad and I crying when they brought Weston to me in the Recovery Room.

That is a thermometer on my forehead in case you were wondering :)

Eviction Notice

I am issuing 5 day notice for EVICTION. Tenant will have 5 days in which he can either gather his belongings and promptly vacate the premises, or wait until the final day. After which, he will be physically removed from the property.
He's being evicted due to breech of contract and destruction of property. Expansions only to the FRONT of the house, within reasonable limits, were discussed. Not only have these limits been exceeded, but additions to the back of the house were also made! Remodeling and gutting of the home was never approved, nor was changing the initial layout and base structure. And due to property damage, there are now leaks in both the upper AND lower levels of the home. On top of which, the landlord has received numerous complaints about nightly disturbances.
After 5 days from this day that he doesn’t comply with the notice will result in immediate and forceful removal at my discretion.

A New Direction

Today is my last day at work. When I woke up chad asked me if I was excited about my last day of work. Now don't get me wrong, i am very excited to meet our little guy...who is late by the way-no surprise, he's just following in his family's footsteps-I am excited to take the next step in our life, which has changed drastically in the last few days, but it is also a bittersweet day. I like to work...no, I love to work. I love having something to do everyday, something to keep my mind working, something to keep me from sitting on the couch and watching House/NCIS all day long :) Something to distract me from my worries. I am going to miss the friends I have made at Daavlin and I am going to miss the routine-yes, you read that right, I am going to miss the routine of getting up, going to work, coming home, so on and so forth.
However, I am so excited to be able to spend time with my little boy and my husband, time we've never had before and probably never will have again before retirement. Chad losing his job at this time in our lives is very stressful, but it is also a blessing. These are days that we will NEVER get back. If he would still be working, he wouldn't get to see his son for more than a few hours a day, Chad and I wouldn't get to spend time after the birth of our son getting to know the new "us". I am so excited for us to be able to do that. God has indeed blessed us.
My eyes were so clouded before with the scariness of the unknown that I refused to see the blessing that this time is. God is stretching us. He is making us rely on him and I know that our faith, our family, our love for eachother will be strengthened to a degree that we will have never been able to achieve without this type of intervention.
Thank you for your prayers, thank you for your loving words, thank you for your support. I'm not saying that there won't be any more tears and heartache in the days to come, but I know that we WILL make it through and we WILL come out on top. We may lose money on our house when it sells (and hopefully it will be soon after we put it on the market) we may not have jobs (hopefully we will) and we may have to learn to lean on others for help. BUT, we will NEVER lose our God, we will NEVER be with out Jesus Christ. That I can hold onto, that is my truth.

Unfortunately, we don't have internet at home, so email and blogging will be something that will be done when we can make it to the library or steal internet from our friends. I apologize now for the sporadic updates, but I will try as hard as I can to keep everybody updated on our lives and our son when he decides to come about :)

Today

Today I will spend more time trusting my God than crying in the bathroom.

Prayers Please

So we have some not so good news that is in no part an April Fool's joke. I hate having to write this on a day when we are supposed to have some much joy coming into our lives, but here it goes:
Chad was layed off yesterday from work. He came and picked me up from work around noon to let me know. As you all know, i was planning on staying at home with our son, but we don't know what the future holds now.
I turned in my resignation from work a while ago, but i have said something about possibly coming back after maternity leave if they would have work for me, but I haven't heard anything. Chad's employer has given the people they layed off a severance package that should hold us over for a couple months. The reason for the lay off is that they are slowly closing the bryan location.
in any case, this has come as a real shock and swift punch to the gut. We don't know what God has in store for us or why he chose to have this happen at this time, but we are trying really hard to know that he is in control and knows the plans he has for us.
We have been praying-not very consistently though-about moving closer to our parents for a while now. We are thinking maybe this is God saying that we need to start acting on that thought instead of just thinking about it.
Our thoughts right now are that we will probably be putting our house on the market soon. Chad is going to apply for some jobs in the Dayton/Columbus area in hopes that something is available and he will not be jobless for too long. If he gets a job down there in the near future before we sell our house, we will move down there while still trying to sell our house. Or if our house sells, we will move down there unless i am working up here.
I am due today, but there is no sign of the little guy coming. If he would come soon, we would really love that. We could use some joy in our lives right now. The good in this is that Chad will be able to spend more time with his son now.
i'm sorry you guys are finding out this way, but i dont think i could call everybody and go through this every time. it is hard enough writing this as i am crying the entire time hoping nobody at work notices.
please just keep us in your prayers.