Introducing Russell Thomas Busath

To start at the beginning:
On Friday, May 9th, I came home from work feeling really sick. I slept on the couch with bad stomach pain most of the day while Charlie played on the iPad. :o( By Sunday, I was feeling better, so Chad made a living room picnic (it was cold and windy) for Mother's Day. Which I promptly threw up. I stayed home again on Monday, not feeling much better. I went to the doctor who told me he thought I was having early contractions. They hooked me up to a monitor which failed to show contractions at the times I was feeling pain. We thought maybe the baby was coming soon, so we tried to get everything ready. I finally sucked it up and wrote some lesson plans. But a week went by with no baby.

I got sick again a few days later, and thought maybe it was milk-related. I would be feeling better, so I would have a big glass of milk before bedtime (to help with the heartburn) and then I would be in a world of pain by about 2:00am. So, I cut out milk and started drinking soy milk, and my life was a thousand times better. Luckily the baby didn't wait too much longer to make his debut, because I like milk!

On Friday, May 23rd, I went to work. We had our end-of-year assembly where I received the Gem State Rookie Teacher of the Year award. (The first one ever awarded!) It was nice to feel noticed and appreciated. I went home and took Charlie to Wendy's for dinner. I got Charlie in bed and called Chad as I usually did. (He was in Twin Falls) We talked for a while. While I was on the phone with him for about an hour, I felt cramps in my belly two different times. I told him we might be having a baby soon, but not to get his hopes up. (The baby wasn't due for another week!) This was literally the one night I would not have Chad, or my mom, or my doctor available to help me. What were the chances I was going to actually have a baby? We checked Chad's phone to make sure my phone calls would go through his "Do Not Disturb" setting. It worked. I hung up and we went to bed.

I did not sleep at all. By 2:00 I was feeling a lot of contractions and they were strong and close together. With Charlie, I walked the circuit through the bedrooms of the house, but this time the doors were blocked, so I walked back and forth from the front door to the kitchen. That got old. I called Chad and told him to come home. I took a shower, knowing that if I really was having a baby, it would be a while before I got another one. It finally got bad enough that I called Mrs. Blackburn. She had told me repeatedly that I should call her if I needed someone in the middle of the night. So I did. She didn't answer. I called the home teacher. I got his wife. She was clearly confused (she later told me she thought something had happened to Chad and forgot all about the baby), but she came over right away. She took me to the hospital at about 2:30. Her husband came over to be with Lady and Charlie.

I walked in to the maternity ward and told them I thought I was having a baby. They looked at me incredulously. I guess because I walked myself in and I was fully dressed and showered. I felt pretty good for about an hour before things kicked up again. They admitted me (thank goodness!). Chad got there at about 4:00am, which was about when I had had more than I could handle. The anesthesiologist was called, but was at home, and was taking a while to get there. He finally came in at about 4:30 and life was good. I slept in blissful numbness for about 3 hours. (Chad slept on the pull out couch thing.) The doctor came in (not my doctor - he was on a scout campout) and broke my water at 7:30 and told me we'd have a baby soon. He went to go check on a patient at the other hospital. I called mom to tell her. I got Erin. (They were sharing a room for Adam's wedding in Arizona. Mom was down in the exercise room and had left her phone in the room.)

The picture I sent Erin and Mollie to tell them I was having a baby.

Shortly thereafter, I was in a lot of discomfort (dare we say, pain?) even with the epidural. With Charlie, I was 120% numb. I didn't feel anything. This was not that. I told the nurse. She told me to push the button but it would take 5-10 minutes for the medicine to kick in. She left. I called her less than 5 minutes later. She checked me and apparently I was having a baby. She frantically turned me on my side and called for the doctor, who must have just gotten back, because he came right in. She put me on oxygen, and literally 30 seconds later, I had a baby in my arms. It was crazy. He didn't cry right away, because apparently the umbilical cord was around his neck, which is why they put me on oxygen. I was just glad he was here and safe, and his dad got to be there to meet him. Mom called at about 8:00 to ask me how everything was going. She was shocked to hear that the baby was already here!

They moved me to a recovery room before the epidural had completely worn off, so I got to ride in this double wide wheel chair.

Of course, they decided that he needed his glucose levels checked before every feeding because he was losing too much weight. He stayed in my room pretty much the whole time I was there. Mrs. Blackburn came to visit Saturday evening and commented that I should have called her. (awkward...)

Meeting Mrs. Blackburn

Chad brought Charlie over to meet his new brother and we enjoyed a special dinner from the hospital.

Steak dinner!

The next morning, Chad took Charlie to church and came to get me once he was in nursery. We still hadn't decided on a name. We made a list and went through it, looking at our new little guy. We wanted to leave the hospital to pick up Charlie, but they wouldn't let us leave until we named him, so we literally rock-paper-scissor-ed it to choose his name. We had it down to two names and had to decide which would be his first name and which would be his middle name.

Russell with Dr. Baker Sunday morning.

Jammin'. (Hearing test)

He is named after our good neighbor who passed away suddenly about a month ago. 

We drove to church, picked up Charlie, and took our new family of 4 home.

Ready to go home in his brand new carseat! (Chad bought it Saturday afternoon)

Inspecting the new guy

Later that day we picked mom up from the airport and went to Chuck-A-Rama for dinner. (YUM!)

Memorial Day was supposed to be our last hurrah before the new baby came, but instead we spent it getting to know him.

(Russell had to go back to the hospital for a bilirubin check.)