I always wanted a blue-eyed baby. When I married an Ortega boy, I decided that it wasn't going to happen... which is why I was shocked when our little blue eyed boy was born on 11/1/11 at 7:40pm. Brody Sean Ortega was 7 lbs. 6 oz. and was 20.75 inches tall.
Sean and I both have blue eyes on either side of our family, but it was still a shock for us. Many people told us that his eye color could and probably would change. Well, his eye color has changed. His eyes are even more blue. :)
Birth Story:
On Halloween night, we were at a friend's house talking about having our babies as our due dates were quickly approaching. That night, Sean and I went home and ended up going to sleep late. I woke up at midnight with mild cramping. I didn't know if it was just mild contractions or if it was the beginning of labor. I decided to start timing them and they were becoming more regular. I decided to let Sean sleep because I knew that if we were having a baby, I wanted him to get some rest. I called my mom around 6am letting her know what was going on. She came over to help me make sure I was ready for everything. Sean was so excited all morning, he couldn't contain himself. We went to the hospital around 12:30pm (I couldn't take the contractions anymore) and I was almost 5 cm dilated. After being in triage for about an hour (and listening to a lady next to me violently vomiting while trying to concentrate on breathing), we finally got into a room and the epidural ordered. :) At this point, I was about 6 cm dilated. I still need to thank whoever invented the epidural because that allowed my sister to put makeup on me (HA!) and sleep for a few hours before it was time to push. The nurse came in around 6:55pm and I was ready to go. My epidural had worn off and I could feel everything. :( However, I only had to push for 45 minutes and he was here! I'm not going to go into details, but let's just say that the recovery was NOT fun and still isn't (3 months later).
Once he arrived, I instantly fell in love all over again. They immediately took him off of my chest and brought him over to clean him up. While over there, they noticed that his breathing was abnormal and had to take him out to the nursery over night. They brought me into my room and I only had pictures to look at of my little guy. I was so exhausted I didn't really think much about what was going on. My mom came in around 2:00am to tell me that they were bringing him to the NICU because he had been on oxygen and it wasn't helping. Still, very exhausted, I kept sleeping. Sean was able to go in and see him regularly and kept me updated as well. The next morning, I got to see my little boy. He was hooked up to many tubes, oxygen, IV, and everything imaginable. It was then that everything sunk in and I broke down in tears. That was the most emotional day ever. My dad and Sean gave Brody a blessing and he immediately started to turn around. They took x-rays of his lungs and found that they were hazy so they took a blood culture to see if there was an infection. He had to stay in the hospital for a few days to wait for the testing to come back. Luckily, it came back negative and he was able to be released 4 days later. I am so happy that my mom had connections at the hospital because Sean and I got a room to stay in while our little baby was in the NICU. I was able to go down and feed him and hold him when I wanted to. The only thing the doctors could come up with is that he swallowed fluid or something because there wasn't any reason why his breathing should have been abnormal.
After experiencing that, it made me appreciate our health and that he recovered very quickly. It was the hardest thing to see him like that. I thought of my mom who had my little sisters 3 months early and had to endure having them hooked up to everything imaginable and being in the NICU for over 2 months. There were times when they were told that they didn't know if my sisters would make it. Of course, they are healthy 18 year olds, but I couldn't even have imagined being in that situation.
Now, 3 months later, Brody is healthy and a happy baby. We are so blessed to have him as a part of our family. There was a time when we were told that having a baby on our own would be next to impossible. I have learned that motherhood is a privilege and I don't take having him for granted. After going through infertility for almost 4 years, I realize how truly blessed we are to have Brody. You aren't going to hear me complain about not having enough sleep and not being able to shower. I would take that ANYDAY to be able to have this precious little baby. He is a special boy and has brought so much joy to our lives.
More pictures and blogging to come!
