The Long version

Listen,
Note: This is the long version... no pics, more details...

So, Sunday night just before midnight I say to Hana, "Well, I'm gonna go to bed... gotta get up early for work you know." to which she responds, "Yeah, do you have a stop watch?" "No, why?" I inquire. "I think I may be going into labor, my contractions seem really evenly spaced every couple of minutes," she says. To which I respond, "What contractions?"

So, she starts having contractions every 2 minutes +/- 10 seconds. We sit and monitor them for about an hour and I say, "Have you packed a bag yet?" "Uh, no, he's not due til Saturday." So I say, "You go pack and I'll go find the car seat." About a 30 minutes later we are dropping Brady of at my Parents (at 2:30 in the freaking morning" and we're on our way to the hospital.

To be honest, I thought there was no way Hana was in labor, from what I learned from the TV labor is supposed to hurt and she just didn't seem like she was in enough pain. She never went into labor with Brady because he was breach and she delivered him C=section... so this labor thing is new to us.

We get to IMC (aka the Death Star) and they check us in. A nurse comes in at about 3 to assess Hana and she says, "Yep, we're having a baby tonight!" W O W... She told us that she was all the way thinned out and dilated to about a 4.

The pain from the contractions kept getting worse and she got an epidural (much to my appreciation) at about 4:30 and we both fell asleep until about 7:30 when my mom calls to see what is going on. Shortly after the phone call a nurse comes in and checks Hana and says that we are getting closer; at this point she's about an 8 (she'll always be a 10 in my book). At about 9:30 the nurse comes in and says that it's time to start pushing and the doctor will come down soon to check out the situation.

(Funny side story: Brady was delivered by Dr. Brown, one of Dr. Gravelle's (Hana's regular doctor) partners who was on call that night since it took place at like 9pm. So Monday was Dr. Gravelle's day off and guess who was on call...Dr. Brown. She is really cool too, so we were happy it was her.)

So after a long 2 hours of hard work by Hana, the baby was born at 11:26. We named him Evan Robert Sokol. He was born 8 pounds even and 21 inches long. In case you were wondering, Brady was 7 pounds 15 ounces and 19.5 inches long. He has lots of really dark brown hair and is a sweet as sweet can be.

Now for the sad part... right after the delivery he was found to have an elevated tempurature (right around 101). This caused a bit of concearn so they drew a CBC and found that his white count was slightly elevated, so they were monitoring him closely watching for any more spikes in temp or other signes of infection. They also drew a C-reactive protein level which is a general indicator of inflammation in the body. This level was slightly elevated too, but not overwhelmingly high, so they just watched and waited. Well, Wednesday morning at 4 am his temp spiked to around 101 again so they measured the C-reactive protien and it had elevated slightly too, so the decision was made to start him on IV antibiotics for at least 48 hours and to put him under the lights because he had an elevated bilirubin level too causing him to be jaundice. So, little Evan gets to stay at the hospital for a couple more days for evaluation while Hana got/had to come home. It really has kind of thrown a wrench into the day and all the anticipation of bringing home the new baby. I know he is where he needs to be to get the treatment that he needs, it's just a rough start...

I just wanted to thank those of you out there who have gone so far out of your way to accomodate our family during this emotional time. From Parents, family members, friends, nurses, and everyone else, I just want to say thank you. What you have done for me and my family will not soon be forgotten. I truly feel undeserving of the love and support that has been shown to me and my family. You are all wonderful people.