We went in on Sunday night with contractions about every 30 seconds to a minute. After labor and deliver watched me for about five hours I was consistently contracting, but not dilating so they sent me home at about 3:00 am. I woke up Monday morning and was hurting so bad all day Monday. Finally that afternoon I told Zac we needed to go back up there. So we headed up to McKay AGAIN and I had dilated more so they admitted me. My contractions were hurting so bad. Thank goodness for epidurals.
They ended up admitting me about 4:oo and started my epidural about 6:30. Dr Seale was going to go to a movie with his family so he was going to wait and break my water after the movie, which I was okay with and actually felt bad for taking time away from his own family. After he left he came back about an hour later and told me the canceled the movie because the projector broke. Sad for his family, but lucky for me I guess. So, Dr. Seale broke my water about 8:00ish. I slowly progressed about one an hour and at about 10:30 she came in a checked me and I was at a seven. We did the hole turn sides and everything and she walked out of the room. Right then my lips started to chatter, I felt like I was freezing and I felt like I really needed to push. I called Andrea back in and she checked me again and sure enough, I went from a seven to a complete in about one minute. She hurried and called Dr. Seale while I tried so hard not to push him out. When Dr. Seale got there I pushed one little push and he was out. I couldn't believe it, it went so fast.
Beckem Jesse Mason was born at 11:07 p.m. He weighed 6 lbs 2 oz, 19.5 inches long. After I got to see him for just a second they took him to the transition nursery where he was really struggling to breath. We got to go sit with him and he was retracting, grunting and nasal flaring pretty bad. They were hoping he would pop out of it, but after about four hours the NICU doctor decided it would be best to admit him. So they admitted him the the NICU and placed a breathing tube in his throat. Even though it was hard to see him lying in the NICU intibated it was so much easier to see him not struggle so hard to breath. There is nothing harder than sitting there watching your new son struggle so hard to stay alive. You feel so helpless!!
The big thing around his mouth his is intibation tube.
Because he is struggling so hard to breath any kind of stimuli is hard on him because his whole body is trying to put all his energy into breathing so we couldn't hold him and could only touch with a firm hold and we tried not to bug him for too long.
They were finally about to take the breathing tube out and it wasn't until about 1:oo that afternoon that we finally got to hold him for the first time.
We went back to see him later that night and they told us that he took about an hour or two to recover from all the stimuli of us holding him so we weren't able to hold him again that night. It's so hard to watch your baby be sick and not be able to hold him or comfort him, but I know that he is getting the best care and the most important thing right now is getting him to not fight so hard to breath.
Once they took his breathing tube out they put him on high flow oxygen. It's like a c-pap machine that forces his lungs to stay open. They put him on five liters and will slowly turn it down if he tolerates is. They told us it's like sticking your head out the car window at 80 mph, so because of that he can't eat yet because he can't get that much force of air and drink at the same time.
We decided to go home that night because the other boys were missing us so much. That drive from the hospital to my mom's felt like a 10 hour drive. It was comforting to know that your son is in such good care, but it was so hard leaving the hospital without him.
Great Grandma Thomas holding Beckem for the first time
Beckem with Nana and Papa
My four favorite boys
The boys can't get enough of him
On our way home we stopped to have Beckem meet Great-Grandma Rogers for the first time. She hasn't been feeling really good lately but it's so cute to see her cheer up when she gets a newborn baby in her arms.
Day Nine...Today has been such a good day. Beckem ate so good last night for Zac at ten and he continued to do so good throughout the night and into today. He ate all of his bottle six times out of eight in the past 24 hours. We are so excited. If he keeps it up, he will be coming home on Friday hopefully. I get so excited thinking about it. I miss my little guy so much and it doesn't get any easier to leave him, I wish so bad I could stay up with him all day and night, but I also want to be home with Teg and Ky. 
This week has been pretty rough on the boys. They have been completely out of their routine and are so worn out from being passed around so much while we go up to the hospital. I was getting ready in the morning and Kyson came in to see me when he woke up, I finished getting ready and looked down and he fell back asleep by my feet and was snoring. They have been through a lot this past week. They still have been such good boys though, I can't wait until we can get back to our daily routine and all be together as a family. 
Kyson had the hardest time not being able to hold him, he just wanted to touch him so bad. 
We have the greatest neighboorhood ever!! My good friend Bre had a swim party at her house and the boys had so much fun jumping on her tramp and playing with all the kids. It's fun to see so many kids have fun together. There were at least 20 kids there all playing and having tons of fun. I am so grateful we have such great neighbors and friends.
We went up to see him in the morning and they were able to turn his flow from 5 liters to 4 liters. His IV went bad through the night so they tried a line in his umbilical cord that didn't work, they tried a PICC line and that didn't work, so they were finally able to get two more IV's in his little head. They said he just doesn't have any veins and is a really hard stick for IV's, but at least they were finally able to get those IV's for him. 
He is making progress, but still breathing about 100 times a minute and really working to breath. We went up about four times to see him and finally last night they let us hold him again. It was so good to sit and be able to love him. The did end up placing his feeding tube and gave him his first feeding but he threw it all up. With all that air he is getting it sometimes goes into his stomach so they are trying to keep the air off his tummy hoping that he will be able to tolerate his feedings.
I wish so bad I could just love him all the time, but that day will come. It will just be nice to see him get his breathing under control and not struggle so much to live. It's amazing how much love you can have for your children and how helpless you feel in this situation. Even though it's hard, it could definately be worse. I am just grateful he didn't come any earlier than he did. This whole pregnancy has been a battle but we made it as far as we could and let's hope in a couple of weeks Beckem will be strong enough to come home and play with his brothers. 
Beckem Jesse Mason was born at 11:07 p.m. He weighed 6 lbs 2 oz, 19.5 inches long. After I got to see him for just a second they took him to the transition nursery where he was really struggling to breath. We got to go sit with him and he was retracting, grunting and nasal flaring pretty bad. They were hoping he would pop out of it, but after about four hours the NICU doctor decided it would be best to admit him. So they admitted him the the NICU and placed a breathing tube in his throat. Even though it was hard to see him lying in the NICU intibated it was so much easier to see him not struggle so hard to breath. There is nothing harder than sitting there watching your new son struggle so hard to stay alive. You feel so helpless!!
The big thing around his mouth his is intibation tube.
Because he is struggling so hard to breath any kind of stimuli is hard on him because his whole body is trying to put all his energy into breathing so we couldn't hold him and could only touch with a firm hold and we tried not to bug him for too long.
They were finally about to take the breathing tube out and it wasn't until about 1:oo that afternoon that we finally got to hold him for the first time.
We went back to see him later that night and they told us that he took about an hour or two to recover from all the stimuli of us holding him so we weren't able to hold him again that night. It's so hard to watch your baby be sick and not be able to hold him or comfort him, but I know that he is getting the best care and the most important thing right now is getting him to not fight so hard to breath. 
This was the boys favorite. This slide is HUGE and they climbed up it and went down the slide probably at least 20 times. When they would slide to the bottom they would run over give me five and head right back up the latter. 
