Miracle Baby

Quinnton Mel Parks was born on March 15, 2010 at 5:32 pm. He weighed 7 lbs. 9 oz. and was 20.5 inches long! BIG BABY!

So why the miracle baby?...

The night before I went into what seemed to be labor. We went to the hospital and went through the process of being checked in. Contractions slowed down and I wasn't dialating... at all. This is after 2 weeks of regular contractions every 5 to 10 minutes apart. The nurse noticed my blood pressure was a little high. She attributed it to all the walking and pain and sent me home.

The next morning I had a doctor's appointment. I told Dr. A. I had been checking my blood pressure last night after I was sent home and it had stayed high. He checked it again and it was 160/90. He felt a strong need to take the baby today instead of waiting for the scheduled C-Section on Thursday. He believed the baby was probably quite large for me and coupled with my high blood pressure he felt it was better to deliver today instead of wait. We set the time... 5:00 pm that evening. I went home to "rest".

When I arrived to the hosptial, I continued to have contractions and my blood pressure continued to rise. They called it toxemia. The C-section labs were drawn and the 2 hour wait began.

Labs came back. I had now moved into Pre-Ecclampsia... very quickly. My platelets were dropping and there was now a chance I would have to undergo general anesthesia instead of the routine spinal. The anesthesiologist had one shot to get the spinal in. After 10 minutes of prodding, it worked.

Quinn was out within 10 minutes after the spinal block was placed. Matt was with me at the head of the bed and only had to sit down twice. Hearing Quinn cry for the first time was the most spiritual and emotional moment of my life. Seeing his sweet face peek through the curtain was incredible. What a moment! He was beautiful... and big! Matt followed the baby and my mom who had been taking pictures, came in to join me for the last 40 minutes of stitching my insides back together.

In recovery, my body continued to get sicker. My blood pressure rose to a scary 205/105 and my liver was at risk of failing. Turns out, if Quinn wasn't as big as he was (which was weird being that Matt and I are so tiny)... I could easily have had a massive stroke and bled to death within minutes when pushing. They wouldn't have known my condition was as life threatening as it was because the C-section labs wouldn't have been drawn. My condition moved faster than any one the nurses had seen before. They did a great job, however, keeping me calm and taking quick action. The next few days were a blur though. The meds they had me on kept me pretty zonked. When I finally came out of the daze, the nurses sat me down and explained just how critical I was. I am thankful for God's hand in the miracle. Quinn was healthy and I lived.

The other miracle?... Matt got a job in Park City with Athletic Republic. They had called him the week before and told him they decided to go with someone else. However, after thinking about it more, they changed their minds and wanted him! YAY! It is a great opportunity and a great company to work for. So, off we go. We are moving to Heber in 3 weeks. Talk about a crazy month!