Dallas' Birth Story

Dallas Matthew Barnhart

January 8, 2010

7 lbs 9.5 oz

19 inches

Well, here I am 39 weeks and 3 days pregnant with Dallas. This picture was taken in our hospital room just before he was born. Here is the story of his birth. Since I found out I was pregnant with Dallas, I intended to have a scheduled C-section. I had a C-section with Ty, and it didn't seem all that bad to me so I decided it would be best just to have a repeat. So we picked the date of Friday, January 8, 2010. We picked this date because a Friday was the most convenient day for everyone to take off work for his birth. This was particularly important because Ty wasn't allowed to visit at the hospital due to the H1N1 scare. So we had to have grandparents available to keep him for the weekend.

I worked up until Jan 5 when I started having some contractions, or at least what I thought were contractions. I left work early that day and went home to relax. That made the "contractions" go away, so it must have just been a false alarm. You can never be sure, though, so I didn't go to work the next day like I had intended. It was for the best, though, because it gave me an extra day to get some chores done before the birth. And it gave me another day with just Ty and me at home. I went for my last prenatal appointment on Thursday and we scheduled the surgery for 2:30 the next day. It snowed about 6 inches on Thursday, so I was a little nervous that people would have trouble getting down to us the next day. Luckily, though, by the next morning the roads were pretty clear. Mom, Jim, Trista and Elisha came to our house in the morning around 11:00. We had to be at the hospital at 12:30 so they all took Ty and got some lunch when Justin and I left for the hospital. Christy came to our house and stayed with Ty during my surgery so that Mom and Trista could be there.

When we arrived at the hospital they immediately started getting me prepped for surgery. It was a strange sensation going in with no labor whatsoever and knowing the baby would be born in just a matter of a couple of hours. We had a bit of a scare that they were going to delay the surgery because I had eaten breakfast that morning. The day before the doctor told me that I couldn't eat for 6 hours before the surgery, but when I got there they said it should have been 8 hours. So the nurse wasn't sure if they would proceed with the surgery, but when she talked to the doctors they said I would just have to drink some medicine to make me digest it faster and everything would be fine. It was some NASTY stuff, but worth not having to wait another 2 hours to meet my baby.

I went back to the OR at about 2:30 and got my spinal. This is the part I was most nervous about, but it went fine. After they got started they brought Justin in and went to work in earnest getting Dallas out. It was a much more relaxed pace this time than it was with Ty, presumably since I had such issues with preeclampsia before. I remember feeling a lot of tugging and pressure as Dallas was delivered at 3:09 pm. I remember hearing his first gurgly cries, which made me cry too. Justin kept saying how much he looked like Ty as they were cleaning him.

I got to see Dallas and give him kisses before they took him to the nursery. He was so beautiful! The first things I noticed about him were his chubby cheeks, cute lips and his strawberry on his left eyelid; exactly opposite of his big brother's strawberry on his right eyelid.

Justin did such a good job of reproducing Ty's nursery pictures with Dallas. He took about all the same shots this time as last time.

I vaguely remember them bringing Dallas into the room after he was cleaned and I remember getting to nurse him for the first time. Here's his first picture with Mommy.

First picture with Mommy and Daddy

What an angel.

We spent the next 2 days in the hospital recouperating and introducing Dallas to his new family. We had many visitors including Mammaw Risch and Jim, Aunt Trista and Uncle Elisha, Mammaw and Pappaw Ogden, Mammaw Christy and Aunt Kaygan, Great Grandma and Grandpa Farr, Grandma and Grandpa Barnhart, Pappaw Taylor and Nana, Pastor Ray, Stacie and Sharon, and Shalon and Amy (Mommy's friends from work). Everyone was so happy to meet Dallas.

While I prefer the recouperation from a C-section to labor, don't let anyone fool you. It's no cakewalk. The worst parts are the itching from the morphine (and from laying in a bed on itchy padding) and the gas pains I would get in my shoulders. It's worth it, though. No doubt about it.

We went home on Sunday at about 6pm. Here is Dallas in his carrier all ready to go home.

Here is his nursery.

I missed Ty so much while I was in the hospital. On Friday night Mom and Jim stayed at our house overnight with Ty. They also kept him at our house on Saturday during the day. Saturday night Justin spent the night at home with Ty so he would know we didn't abandon him and so Mom and Jim could get home. He went to Mammaw Christy's house on Sunday during the day and she brought him home to meet his brother that night. Here are some pictures of Ty and Dallas meeting for the first time.

I was so happy with Ty's reaction to Dallas. I figured he'd look at him for a second and then lose interest and go play with his toys. But he was really interested in Dallas and was so happy to meet hime and wanted to hold him right off the bat. A little while later Ty went into his room for a few minutes. When he came back to the living room, he had a small toy horse that he tried to get Dallas to hold. He brought it out just for him to play with. How sweet!


Our first picture as a family of four

Mommy and her boys

Daddy and his boys