A Baby Story

Another baby, another scheduled induction. I went back and forth, kind of wanting the full experience of waking up in the night with contractions, or having my water break, and having the convenience of scheduling the birth of our child. Believe me, I tried my best to go into labor on my own--hauling mulch, planting the garden, doing squats--but in the end, we induced.

We got to the hospital at 7:30am, and got things started right away. Joel and I both predicted that the baby would be born by mid afternoon. 12 hours later we were still waiting. Our nurse checked me right before the shift change at 7pm, and I hadn't progressed at all. Nothing. Nada. I wanted to cry. Seriously! Who takes this long to deliver a 5th baby. Only me apparently. Luckily, things went fast after that and 45 minutes later we were in business. We had to wait a while for our doctor, but we finally got to meet our new baby boy. Luke Carter Mattingley was born Tuesday, May 11th just after 8:00pm. Weighing in at 10lbs, 4 oz. and 22 inches long. At first, things seemed routine, but just after cleaning him up, the doctors realized that something was wrong with our baby. You can see in this picture, the dents in his chest--this is called a retraction. Luke had aspirated during delivery, and was unable to fill his lungs with air. He was breathing 100 times per minute--basically panting. They let me hold him for just a minute, and then whisked him off to the NICU to try and regulate his breathing. I was still feeling the high of giving birth, and didn't realize how rough he looked. I remember holding him, and thinking he was the most beautiful baby in the world. When the nurses took him away, we didn't realize it would be almost a full day before we were allowed to see him again.

Once Luke got to the NICU, they began running tests. An x-ray showed something that looked like the beginning of an infection in his lungs. They hooked him up to all the monitors, and put an IV directly into his umbilical cord to start antibiotics. This picture is from the first time we got to visit him in the NICU. We were still not allowed to pick him up, but we could touch him and sit with him. That day, Joel and our home teacher were able to give him a special priesthood blessing. During all this time, the NICU doctors were busy ruling out a lot of scary things. We were still not sure what was going on. We were sleep deprived, and emotional, and it was a lot of information to take in. In addition to the breathing issue, and infection, the doctor had heard a heart murmur, and was concerned that Luke had a hole in his heart. Later, an echo cardiogram would rule that out. I was so thankful for the blessing that Luke had received, and the confirmation that everything would be OK.

Joel's mom brought the kids to visit the next day. Jackson and Lauren were able to scrub in and come into the NICU. They got such a kick out of wearing all the extra gear. Dallin and Claire were too little, so I took them down to the regular nursery, and they chose a baby from the window to claim as ours. :) Everybody got a chocolate milk, and had a great time "riding" my bed, and repeatedly calling the nursing station. oops!

At 4 am the second day, we were finally allowed to hold Luke. Even though I had held him for a minute after delivery, this was Joel's first time. It was very emotional for us to finally get our hands on him. It felt like we had been waiting forever to hold him, feed him and cuddle him. It was such a sweet moment for me, watching Joel hold Luke for the first time.

It was so funny to see Luke in the NICU next to all the little 2 and 3 lb. babies. The other parents would just stare into Luke's crib as they walked past. Our babies usually look big next to the others in the regular nursery, but compared to the NICU babies, Luke was ginormous!

Each day, Luke's appearance and health continued to improve. After 2 days, another x-ray confirmed the infection, and the doctor let us know that he would need to stay in the hospital for a full 7-days. This was Thursday, the day I was scheduled to be discharged. Joel and I were both dreading leaving the hospital without Luke. Luckily the NICU Dr. intervened. He made arrangements for me to stay unofficially in my same room until Luke could be transferred over to Pediatrics. We were so thankful for yet another blessing.

Saturday morning the nurses were finally able to get an IV into his hand, instead of his belly, and we were transferred over to Pediatrics for the rest of our stay. The IV was a little freaky, but it was much easier to move him around without all the wires and gadgets he had been hooked up to in the NICU.

Sunday after church, Joel and the kids came to visit, and they were finally able to hold Luke. It was a little crazy, but very sweet to see them hold and pat and kiss their new baby brother

Lauren, who has been most excited about Luke's arrival, was in baby heaven. She did not want to let him go, and stayed close by, even when someone else was holding him, just to supervise. Her face was priceless!

Even Dallin and Claire, who are not know for being gentle, were very careful as they held him.

All the nurses came in to witness the chaos. None of them could believe that we actually had 5 kids. We were quite the talk of the unit during our stay. One of our night nurses was so in love with Luke, she brought a group of nurses to see how cute he was. Of course, we had to agree.

Although Luke's birth was nothing like we expected, it is full of sweet memories. Through it all we truly felt the love of our Heavenly Father, as day after day our prayers were answered. We are so thankful for all of our children, and the blessing it is to have each of them in our family. We couldn't imagine life without them.