Robbie and Jessie and Rocky

So here's the story...
It was late Saturday, Robbie and I spent a lazy night at home watching 24. I was laying on the couch practically asleep, and Rob had been rubbing my feet for an hour. When all of the sudden I was woken up by what felt like a pitcher of water being poured down my pants! I immediately sat up and said "I'm pretty sure my water just broke!" It was 12:55am (Sept 20). We were both so excited that it was finally happening; we were going to have our baby within the next 24 hours! I had had my bags packed for a weeks, so we just grabbed our things and headed for the hospital. We called my parents in Denver and they jumped in the car, drove through the night and made it just in time!
I had been planning to have a natural delivery throughout my whole pregnancy. Crazy I know. But my mom did it with all 4 us, as well as a billion other women throughout history, I figured if they could do it, so could I. I didn't have my first contraction until 1:15am. I had been dilated to 3cm for the past week, and when we got to the hospital I was still at a 3. My contractions didn't waste anytime, they were coming a minute apart and lasting 90 seconds. I was laying on the bed with my knees up and Rob's job was to push on my knees during the contractions applying counter pressure, but no matter what he did, he couldn't push hard enough to keep my mind off the pain! I was loosing patience very quickly. We'd brought our ipod speakers to play music to help me relax, but then a song would come on that I didn't like and I will tell Rob to go change it, but then a contraction would start and I yell at him to get back over and push on my knees! He was so sweet Needless to say, we turned off the music. After nearly 4 hours of contractions a minute apart I had only dilated to 4cm! Rob couldn't push hard enough on my knees to counter the pain. I kept saying, "Use your muscles! Push harder!" But poor guy, after 4 hours, he was burning out. He had a charlie horse throughout his whole upper body. They told me typically you dilate a centimeter an hour, with 6 more centimeters and at least 6 more hours of this pain I kept thinking, "There has got to be another way!" Then it hit me, there IS another way! Why was I putting myself through that torture?! It wasn't worth trying to go natural anymore. I wanted an epidural. I think Rob was more relieved than I was! I don't know what I was thinking wanting to go natural. My doctor said its like wanting to go natural at the dentist! That's just ridiculous!
After I got the epidural I fell asleep for 3 hours! What a difference! By the time I woke up, I was at 9cm. Thank heaven for epidurals! Then came time to push. I actually really liked this part, because I knew every push brought me that much closer to holding my baby boy :) But that silly little boy was in posterior position (face up) so they had to use the vacuum to help pull him out. With one final push, he was born at 9:57am Sunday September 20. As any mommy knows, the happiest moment is when the Dr pulls out your newborn baby, the same baby that has been living and growing inside of you for the past 10 months, and places him on your chest, and for the first time you touch skin to skin. There was no greater feeling! It was, and still is, amazing to me how you can instantly love someone so much! We finally had our son!
However, that good feeling was shortly over shadowed with some frightening news; there was a problem. The Dr noticed he had a nickel sized hole just below his belly button. By hole I mean the skin did not come together and you could actually see his bladder and prostate. Obviously not a good thing, and so they told us he needed to be taken up to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake immediately and have surgery. Quickly, Rob and my dad gave him a blessing, and within an hour of delivery, poor little Rocky was in an ambulance on his way up to Salt Lake. Rob and my dad went with him. But I had to stay back at the hospital without my husband or my baby (luckily my mom was there with me. I don't know what I would have done without her).
When they made it to Children's hospital, they met with more doctors and what we feared was confirmed. They told them his bladder was not completely formed, his pelvis bones were not connected, his abs did not grow together and neither did the skin, thus the hole. He would have to be scheduled for a surgery early that week and then again in 2 weeks, 6 weeks, 6 months, and would need several more surgeries until he started kindergarten, and throughout his life. We would not be able to take him home for at least 2 weeks. We were devastated, but we tried to prepare ourselves for the rough road ahead. Rob's face in this picture says it all.

This is his little home while in the NICU.

The next morning I was released from the hospital and Rob came to pick me up. We had made arrangements to stay with a family friend who lives closer to the hospital up there so we wouldn't have to drive back and forth everyday. So we stopped home to pack our bags for 2 weeks to stay up there. The worst moment for me was coming home without my baby. I just curled up on the couch and bawled because that was not how it was supposed to be. He was supposed to be there with us, not in some cold hospital room all by himself.

When he was first born, the only time I got to hold him was when he was delivered. After that they took him away and he was gone; we hadn't even got a picture yet :( When we finally got up to the hospital all I wanted to do was wrap him in my arms. Even though he had cords coming out of him, sitting there with him in my arms, I was in heaven! While I was sitting there holding him, the Dr came in to talk to us. Bracing ourselves for the worst he looked us in the eye and said, "It's not as bad as we originally thought." He proceeded to tell us that his bladder actually was formed completely, his pelvis bones were connected, his abs were fine, but the only thing was that the skin below his belly button didn't come together, for whatever reason. He would have to have surgery when he is 6 months old to bring that skin together, but no other surgeries besides that. The hole is there but it doesn't take any special care. It doesn't need to be bandaged up, we can give him a bath, we could take him swimming if we wanted to (we aren't going to) it is fine. We said "Wait, you mean we can take him home?" Dr said, "NO, not today, but probably tomorrow!" Our jaws were dragging on the floor! Just 12 hours earlier we were living in a nightmare of surgeries, horrible long term effects, and weeks in the NICU, and within 60 seconds we woke up from that nightmare and were living a life of ultimate bliss. We stayed that night with him in the hospital and the next day started getting things ready to take him home!

This is the last test Rocky had to have done before we got to leave. Compare Rob's face in this picture to the one right before they got in the ambulance. We were thrilled!

Me and my sweet baby boy in the car on our way home. I cried the whole way!

FINALLY home!

Rocky's first bath at home.

We love his little feet!

We love his cute little ears!

We love his long skinny legs!

We love everything about him! We cannot be more grateful for the amazing blessing it is to have a child. You always hear of those incredible medical stories, where after a Priesthood blessing and countless prayers, a person is miraculously healed; this is definitely one of those stories. It is no coincidence or chance that Rockwell is healthy. I know that it is only through the power of the Priesthood that he was able to come home with us so soon. I don't know why some people have to go through certain trials, but I know that God loves us and all His children and he has a plan for everyone of us. I am overwhelmingly grateful for all of the blessings he has given our little family. We will never take it for granted. We are so excited to spend everyday with our little Rock.