A mom of 3!!

Before I inundate you with a whole slew of pictures of our latest addition, I wanted to share, with those that care, the entire birth story of Hays Robert Rutland. It's pretty cool!

April 15th is Pappy's (my dad) birthday. Jake and his gang decided to "surprise" dad and showed up for 10 days to celebrate the ol' man! It was a fun surprise and loved that my dad had NO idea! So we had a house full of small (and tall!) people and I was very largely pregnant! I had asked Jake if they thought they could come to Austin with us when we delivered baby Hays which was supposed to be April 29th. It turned out that they couldn't stick around because he was to preach that following Sunday. I was totally bummed but completely understood. My favorite part was that Paige was telling me just to have him. You know, go jump on the trampoline and get this party started. So they arrived that friday and on sunday, Chris and I took our final trip to Austin for our last doctor's appointment before our c-section. We had dinner with some of our best buddies and got up monday morning to see Hays's face one last time on the sonogram machine before we got to see it live! I asked Dr. Seeker to make sure that I wasn't leaking amniotic fluid and he assured me that the cervix was super hard, closed and no where near ready for delivery (which is good for a c-section!!) I was only 37 weeks and he assured me that Hays needed to "bake" a little longer. I was kinda bummed because I was really feeling like I was done. So we left with a little picture of Hays and his fat cheeks and made our way back to Dallas.

Tuesday morning, the 19th, I woke up kinda early not feeling very good. I thought that maybe I was just hungry but I was pretty nauseous. Chris grabbed me a banana and some water. That helped and so I went to lay back down to see if I couldn't fall back asleep. Chris headed out the door for work and I rolled over only to get that feeling. I've only had it once before but it is absolutely unmistakable......my water broke. I could just feel it. It was different with Harrison as that one felt like popping bubble gum in your mouth and there was TONS of water.

I chuckled to myself, hopped out of bed and ran to the bathroom. I grabbed my phone on the way and called Chris like 1,000 times. I wanted to catch him before he got too far from the house. I texted. I called again. I texted my mom (who by the way, had sweet Laci sleeping in bed with her and Pappy). I tried everything but no one was "available". Then I finally got Chris, I told him my water broke and to come home.......all I heard was his tires screeching as he turned around to come get me!!! He called my mom on the house phone and in his most professional military clipped voice told my mom to get upstairs because my water broke! The next sight was my sweet mama's face, smiling so big and full of excitement! She proceeded to ask what she could do for me and I had no idea what to tell her!! At least I still had my bag backed from Austin so all my toiletries were packed! We also had Hays's bag packed because I knew he was gonna come early.

So after I wrapped myself in 3 beach towels (to keep me semi-dry) we made our way to the hospital in early morning traffic. Thank goodness it wasn't too bad as I was starting to have contractions and I was NOT gonna have this baby naturally. I wanted my c-section!!

We arrived to my "back up" doctor, Dr. Garner laughing at me and thrilled to be delivering this little guy! He had been seeing me once a week since I was 32 weeks and was "on call" for us incase something crazy happened like my water broke! I love this man as he is absolutely hysterical and there is NEVER a dull moment with him. He was game ready and I barely had time to blink....those amazing nurses had me prepped and ready for surgery in no time flat!! The epidural/spinal block didn't go so good as they tapped into my spinal fluid which caused all kinds of problems......which will be another post for another time.

I was laying in the operating room with my crazy doctor, Chris and my mom. I could only look to my left because of some of the issues from my epidural and that's where the bassinet was that they would put my brand new baby boy in! The crazy thing was that in the reflection i could see the whole surgery taking place!! i kept telling Chris to move his head to block my view because i wasn't ready to see all that!! Within seconds, I was asked by Dr. Garner if I was ready to see "tank" (as he started to refer to our newest addition) and at 8:58am sweet baby Hays screamed his way into the world. I cried and laughed and then gracefully puked (I did eat that banana before we left). He came into the world 3 weeks early weighing 9 lbs and was 19 3/4 inches long. I watched as the not so nice neonatal nurse cleaned him up. I had asked her if he was tongue tied (as Harrison was and we had serious issues nursing) and her curt reply was (and I quote) "I don't know. I'm too busy trying to make sure he's breathing." I mean seriously. I know he's breathing because he's screaming at you lady!!! Just look to see if he's tongue tied so the doc can clip it for peet's sake!!!

I was still having issues from the epidural in recover so they had it removed. Once that sucker got out, I felt like a new woman!! We were able to nurse right away and I was just in awe of what had just happened. Even though he was early and he wasn't delivered in Austin, I am beyond thankful for this new life and that God blessed us beyond belief with him. Harrison and Haddie can hardly stand it they are so in love. He's is a most treasured and wanted addition to our family!!