Judson's Birth Story

Here we are on a Thursday morning at 11 getting ready to head to the hospital.  We weren't quite sure if it was really time to go in, but after talking to the nurses they told us to come on in so they could check Kait.  That morning after getting out of bed around 6 Kait started to notice contractions happening more frequent than her normal braxton hicks contractions.  Kait told Matt before he left for work that she had a feeling this could be the day to meet our little baby.  Matt left for work and Kait downloaded a app on her phone that timed her contractions.  All morning they were consistently 5-6 minutes apart and growing a little more in intensity.  Kait called the hospital and that is when they told her to come on in.  Matt came home from work and dad Hoerr snapped these pictures before we headed to the hospital.

Kait at 40 weeks and 1 day.

Once at the hospital they monitored Kait's contractions for about and hour and said that they believed she was in labor.  She hadn't dilated very much, so at the point we decided to head home and work through the labor there instead of the hospital.  The contractions continued pretty consistently and even grew closer together here and there, but still around 5:00 that afternoon They had still not grown closer than 4 1/2 minutes and some times still over 6 minutes apart.  We ran over the clinic so that Dr. Longabaugh could check to see how much progress Kait had made in dilating.  He said that there was a tiny bit of progress but Kait still was only dilated under 1 centimeter.  We went home and spend the evening relaxing and waiting and finally around 11 went to bed.  Kait couldn't sleep because at this point the contractions were every 4-5 minutes and had grown intense enough to keep her awake.  Around 2am we called into the hospital and told them we were coming in.  We got settled in there and while Matt seemed to sleep sound Kait had a hard time.  Around 4am Kait noticed and unusually long contraction and felt that something didn't seem right.  Kait sat up and looked at the heart rate monitor and noticed that baby's heart rate had plunged from 140-150-40 and dropping more each moment.  Kait woke Matt up and told him to go get the nurse.  The nurse came in and gave Kait oxygen and laid her on her side which helped baby's heart rate stabilize.  She then looked at Kait's contraction and said she had just had a contraction last for 5 minutes straight.  Later that morning Dr. Kennally came in to check Kait and said that she still hadn't dilated much more from where she was.  At this point he offered that we either go home and wait for more progress, stay in the hospital and see if Kait progressed, or take pitocin to speed along the labor.  He also stated that the monitor that had been monitoring Kait's contractions showed that the baby was and had been in quite a bit of distress and that was a concern.  Matt and Kait talked through what to do and felt that it was too risky to go home with baby in such distress.  We decided to go ahead with the pitocin.  Kait's labor quickly progressed and her contractions became very intense.  Around 11 she was at a point where she was ready for her epidural.  Finally around 12:20 she got her epidural.  After that Dr. Kennally broke her water and it showed that the baby had passed meconium (stool) in the womb.  He checked Kait which at this point had dilated to a 6.  He then recommended that we move forward due to baby's stress and the meconium with an emergency c-section.  That was the last thing that we wanted to happen, but at this stage in the process (over 30 hours of labor) and some scary moments with baby's heart rate we decided to move forward with the c-section.

At 2:41 in the afternoon on October 4th Judson Mathew entered the world!  

Here is Kait toward the beginning of our time in the hospital.

Matt getting some sleep while Kait jealously watches.  =)

30 hours of labor later here we are getting ready to go in the operating room for the c-section.

Judson's first seconds in the world.

This is the first moment Kait got to see him.

All sticked up and finally reunited with baby.

Our visitors:

Papa Scott

Grandpa and Grandma Kaeb

Jason and Maggi

Dan and Tami

Duane and Amanda

Matt sure looks like a proud daddy.

Matt dressing Judson in his first outfit.

The next morning (Saturday) Dr. Kennally and the nurses were concerned about Judson because he was not eating and really had no interest in eating.  Dr. Kennally decided to have some labs done on Judson, and the results came back showing Judson had a low red blood cell count.  Dr. Kennally was not sure why this was, but some of the concerns that could be causing the red blood cell count to be low were internal bleeding and even the need of a blood transfusion.  At this point Dr. Kennally recommended we transfer Judson the the NIC unit at Stormont-Vail hospital in Topeka.  With mixed emotions of not wanting to separate from our baby but also wanting him to get help if needed we made the decision to transfer him.  Before we knew it the nurse came in and told us the helicopter was 16 minutes out.  

The flight nurse the was going to be with Judson on his trip.

Matt said a prayer over Judson's flight.  At this point the reality of the situation really set in for us, and it was a moment that we needed to turn to God and just trust His control of the situation.

The pilot and Dr. Kennally

Preparing Judson for flight.

At this point Matt and his dad left for Topeka so they could meet the helicopter when it landed.  Kait had to stay in Sabetha longer in order to get discharged from the hospital and then Joan (mother-in-law) and Maggi (sister-in-law) drove her to Topeka.

Dr. Kennally explaining to Kait a little more of the situation.

Judson got to wear some sweet headphones to block out the noise from the helicopter.

Kait saying goodbye to Judson.

Loaded up and ready to roll.

It is a strange feeling watching your 1 day old baby fly away from you in a helicopter.

Finally reunited with our little guy.

Judson's room for most of his stay at the NIC-U.

Snuggling and diaper changes were a little tricky with all the cords they had on him.

After a few days Judson graduated from his incubator to a crib.

Papa and nana Hoerr came to visit.

It appears Judson is really enjoying being with nana.

After 8 days in the NIC-U we get to go home!

Judson is such a blessing to us, and we thank God for the little guy.  We are so glad to have him home with us and are enjoying our time with him already.