Lee and Haley: Andrew Charles DeLaGarza

Andrew Charles DeLaGarza was born Monday, November 26, 2012 at 3:32 P.M. He weighed 8 pounds, 13 ounces and was 21.5 inches long. He is healthy and we are so incredibly blessed to have him as our son. I do want to remember his birth story, so I'm writing it down! I also want to remember some other important/unique aspects of the pregnancy and his birth, so here they are. **please excuse the spelling and grammatical errors since I have a 6 week old little angel who actually doesn't sleep much during the day**

A Complete Surprise

Andrew was a complete surprise to us, our families, our friends, EVERYONE! I went to a movie with my friend Taylor {you'll hear more about her later} and then had to work that night. We went to The Movie Tavern and had food/watched a movie (can't remember which movie now). I sent her a text on my way to work asking if her tummy was upset, because I was doing everything in my power not to pull over and puke. She said it wasn't {and we had eaten the exact same thing} so I blew it off and did my job. That night I found out I got the position in the ICU at JPS. I was thrilled {that was at about 10:30} and super excited, as well as a little nauseated. I talked with one of my coworkers {Amanda, an amazing nurse, friend, and mentor} about feeling crummy and having a crampy tummy. She, without any hesitation, knowing that Lee and I were not trying to have kids and knowing we had been married for 4 years said, "you're pregnant!" I denied and reminded her of our 4 year marriage, etc... but she refused to believe it. She got a pregnancy test from the ER {we did blood tests in my unit, only the ER and L&D have the traditional ones} and I said I would be happy to take it to PROVE I wasn't pregnant. I went and provided the sample {keep in mind I have never taken one of these and did it COMPLETELY wrong; no wonder it was so hard to hit the tiny little dot on the plastic card!} while Amanda, Amy, Cory, and Liza waited. I was so confident that I wasn't pregnant. I continued to do my job while everyone waited the 2 minutes for the test to result. At 2 minutes there was NO LINE = NOT PREGNANT. The test remained next to Cory and everyone else dissipated. I was going to throw it away as soon as I finished charting on my patients. About 3 minutes later I hear Cory say, "Uh, Haley, this test says you're pregnant!" NO WAY! One of the other nurses, Liza, said that it was a false positive since it had been sitting there for more than the 2 minutes required. I immediately demanded someone go to the ER or L&D to get another test and to get SPECIFIC instructions on how to use it. They did, I did, and it was positive in about 6 seconds {amazing how fast you get results when you use things properly}! I was in complete shock. I couldn't believe it! I went home and took 3 more tests and contemplated how to tell Lee. I found out on a Friday morning (March 23) and wouldn't see Lee until Saturday morning since I worked Friday night as well.

Telling Lee

I built a slideshow on my computer using pictures of us in chronological order of our relationship. I told him that I had to build it for my new job so they could get to know me {ha! such a great story}. I don't know how to show it here, but the last two slides said that we had a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving because we were going to have a sweet sweet baby around November 28th and then a picture of the many pregnancy tests with positive results popped up. Lee was in shock! His first word was "seriously?" and then "how?" because he was in shock just as I was the day before! I was so relieved that he finally knew and that he was just as in shock as I was.

Telling Our Families

We made an appointment with my OB's office {long story there including him not seeing patients any longer, seeing another OB we didn't like in that office, and subsequently finding an excellent OB at an office 30 minutes away in SW Fort Worth} for Good Friday which would be at about 6 weeks. They wanted to see me early because I had been so sick {unable to keep ANYTHING down} and twins run in my family. We were able to see and hear Andrew's heart beat for the first time {the doctor said it had probably started beating in the last day or so because it was relatively slow} and see his tiny little 6 week baby body. We left for Victoria after the appointment with some picture frames for the sonogram and some very large Easter eggs. We hid the eggs around the yard at my house and had a little hunt. I gave my Mom the "golden egg" to open and they saw the sonogram. We have the whole thing on video, but I can't upload it until we get a {love technology} new computer. We didn't do a hunt at Lee's house, but we told them we had a present for them and gave them the "golden egg." We have the whole thing on video, I swear! They were all really excited {and shocked} to hear they would be having a grandbaby. Andrew is the first grandchild on both sides, and his is my grandma's second great-grandchild, the first boy.

His Name

I have always known that if I had a boy I wanted to incorporate Charles into his name. My Dad's first name is Charles, and my grandpa's middle name is Charles {on my Mom's side}. Andrew has two very special people that share his name. Lee and I couldn't decide on a first name. We even thought about using Charles as his first name. We were really pretty stuck until I had a dream. My great aunt Margie {my grandma's sister} passed away in 2007. She and my great uncle George were like a second set of grandparents to my sisters and me. Well, I had a dream that was so incredibly real. I was talking to Margie! We talked about all sorts of things going on in my life; me being a nurse, TMOM {the volunteer event my Dad helped organize in Victoria}, me being pregnant with a little boy, etc... At the end of the dream she kind of turned her head, and with that signature sparkle in her bright blue eyes, and said "You know Haley, Andrew is a great name." Then I woke up. The dream was so real that I cried because I would really like to be able to talk with her. She was a pretty amazing person. Well, I called my Mom and told her about the dream. She started crying too. See the really amazing thing, the miracle of it all, is that I didn't know what my great uncle George's middle name was. His name was George ANDREW Glass. I called Lee and told him the entire story, and it was decided. Andrew Charles DeLaGarza.

Thanksgiving

Tuesday, November 20^th I had an appointment with my OB, Dr. Butler. I had worked the last few nights and my appointment was early in the morning so I went straight there from work. Thank goodness Lee was at the appointment. Andrew’s heart rate was much slower than usual, and in the low range of normal {he was running 108-118}. The nurse let Dr. Butler know and she came in pretty quickly. I got monitored for a while in the office and his heart rate was still the same, but they did not see good variability {normal accelerations in the heart rate over time} so they wanted me to drink some orange juice to stimulate Andrew. I was extremely nervous by now; I had a bottle of orange juice with me and had almost finished it in the waiting room. My blood sugar shouldn’t have been an issue. The only thing that was reassuring was the fact that Andrew continued to kick and squirm the entire time. After quite a bit of monitoring, Dr. Butler decided they would do a biophysical profile {an ultrasound that measures amniotic fluid, measures the baby, looks at activity, checks out the heart rate} to make sure Andrew was happy. This all checked out; Andrew was fine! Dr. Butler came in and talked with me about his size. The ultrasound suggested that Andrew was 8 lbs. 10 oz. and Dr. Butler offered to induce me Saturday. She said I was really favorable to have a smooth delivery since I was dilated to a 2-3 and 60% effaced. I really wanted to have Andrew as naturally as possible {no induction, no epidural, no episiotomy, no drugs} and Dr. Butler was completely on board with that. I would be 39 weeks the next day {Wednesday} so she asked me to come the following Monday to reassess where we stood. My Mom, Dad, Shelley, Adam, and Natalee all had Thanksgiving here in DFW. We went to La Duni Thanksgiving morning for brunch and I worked Thanksgiving night. I was trying desperately all day to go into labor. I felt huge and did not want to go to work that night. I especially didn’t want to work all night and then go into labor with no sleep. Well, I made it through working that night, made it through my Saturday on-call shift without getting called in, and had to work on Sunday. Andrew had other plans. Oh, and Saturday I INSISTED on decorating the house for Christmas and cooking a traditional Thanksgiving meal at my house since I didn’t really get to do that on Thanksgiving. I woke up in a SOUR mood Sunday. I did not feel well, I was HUGE, I hadn’t slept very much, and nothing made me happy. Adam went to the airport early Sunday morning, Natalee had to work, and the rest of us went to The Original Pancake House for breakfast. After that I was convinced to go see Pitch Perfect. I didn’t go to many movies while I was pregnant because my hips hurt like crazy when I sat in a chair too long. After that we walked around Southlake and shopped for an hour before my Dad drove me home. Shelley and my Mom stayed behind to shop some more. I had to go to work. I was DREADING this shift because I felt so horrible and hadn’t slept. Lee had gone home after breakfast to plant flowers in the back yard. He spelled Andrew in purple and white pansies! I went outside to see his masterpiece AND………. {to be continued with Andrew’s birth story}…