Luca Ray: Arrival of Baby #2

Finally! I have been wanting to type this out for awhile now, but my life has been rather crazy lately. I have a minute where both the kids are asleep, and the husband is studying--SO, let's do this!

The day before Luca was born (Monday) I went to work and had a feeling to get everything finalized before I left for the day. I made sure all of my sub plans were up to date, printed, and filed. I made sure grades were up to date. I cleaned out my desk. (I had been working on sub plans for about a month prior to this point; please don't think I just busted them out in one day ha ha). I was scheduled to be induced on the Thursday of that week, but a sense of urgency overcame me. I attributed this to the "nesting" urge that comes at the very end of pregnancy, and just went with it. I remember turning off the lights in my classroom and thinking that this could be the last time I taught--that today could be it. I mean really "it". I had already told my principal that I wouldn't be returning next year, and with the timing of baby boy I would finish off the current school year on maternity leave. I paused and reflected on how wonderful my time had been as a teacher. I loved teaching. I absolutely loved it.

I picked up Elsie, and we headed home. We enjoyed lunch together, and when she went down for a nap I decided I would nap too. I mean I was 9 months pregnant, and was exhausted. My phone woke me. I answered and the secretary at my OBGYN's office told me that Dr. Twede would no longer be able to induce me on Thursday, and was wondering if I could reschedule. My heart sank. NO! It is so weird, but when you are given a due date, or an induction date, and then you realize you will have to wait longer than that date to see your baby--well, you just go a little nuts! Before I could freak out any longer she said, "He is wondering if you can come in tomorrow?" Euphoria! I told her I wanted to call my husband real quick and check with him because he may not be able to get his shift covered on such short notice. She told me that Friday would also be an option if that was better. My heart sank again! NO! I didn't want it to be Friday, but figured it may end up being Friday because of Clint's work schedule.

I called Clint. He said there was no way he was making me wait till Friday. He said he would make it work and get everything arranged. Luckily, Clint had saved quite a bit of time off, but pre-approval was needed in order to use it. His boss was kind and made it work so that Clint could begin his time off earlier than we had originally asked for. I called my doctor back, and got on his schedule for the next day!

The rest of the day I packed, and re-packed, the hospital bag. I was so excited, but also really nervous! For me, I was much more nervous about baby #2. Elsie's delivery was a tough one. I think I was a little traumatized. I was also nervous to be induced. I had never done that before, obviously, and didn't know how I would respond to that.

I took Elsie over to my parents house around dinner time. She was going to eat with them and sleep over. I returned home, and waited for Clint to finish his shift. We ate dinner together, and talked about how good our life is. It really is so good. We day dreamed about our baby boy. We also enjoyed just being "us" for a minute. Those moments are rare these days. (Even more so, now that we have 2 kiddlebeans)

I slept terribly. I was anxious. I was excited. I was uncomfortable. That night felt like forever. My alarm sounded at 7:00am. I was supposed to call in at 7:30 to see what the status was looking like. Typically, they take priority to women who have gone into natural labor. This means if you are being induced you have to call and make sure there are enough beds to accommodate you, and if there are too many expectant mothers that have gone in with natural labor already started, they won't tell you to come in as well. They have to make sure there are enough beds and nurses, and so on. I called. They said I couldn't come in yet. They were too full! They also said it wasn't looking likely that today would work at all--that they were really really full! There was a giant rain storm the night before, and it was still "monsooning" when I called in. The nurse joked with me on the phone that storms always pack them in. I wasn't laughing. They told me to try back at 8:30. I hung up the phone and completely lost it. I was crying and felt sick to my stomach. Clint was a champ, and held me. He comforted me, and then cheered me up. We ate some breakfast and watched some Netflix in bed, and then dozed back off to sleep. My alarm sounded again, and I called in again. I was asked to call at 9! YIKES!

9am came. YES! "Come in right away", they said. We immediately jumped up and ran to the car. It was still raining, and the storm was causing there to be some delays on the freeway. There was nothing major, but enough for my pregnant self to freak out. I was worried we wouldn't get to the hospital fast enough, and someone else would beat me there, and they would turn me away, and...oh man. I was crazy! Clint held my hand and assured me that it was happening today. He took out his phone and filmed us for a bit to take my mind off of the slow moving cars. He is such a good husband.

We finally got to the hospital. *We live in Lehi, but delivered our babies at Altaview in Sandy. They welcomed me, and told me that they were glad they were able to fit me in. They took me to our room, and just like that, we began prepping for Luca's grand entrance!

They checked me and I was 1.5 cm dilated. The nurse was hoping for more I think. She kept hinting that when you are induced it is better to be farther along in the dilation process. This made me a bit nervous, but I decided to just ignore her. I was already freaked out to be going through labor and delivery again, and didn't want to stress about being induced as well. I wanted to be as calm as possible. ( Don't get me wrong--the first nurse was very kind to me. What she told me just made me very anxious that by not being farther along the whole process may not go well.)

My labor and delivery nurse was then assigned to me, and the pitocin was administered around 10:30 am, and man did I start crankin' out those contractions. My nurse told me not to worry about what the other nurse said, because it looked like my body was ready to have the baby. It was doing everything exactly as it should. I was progressing!

I got the epidural around 2pm. They checked me around 2:30 and were surprised to see that I was basically ready to go. They called the doctor and started prepping the room. My doctor came in about 10-15 minutes later. I took my time with the pushing, and had a bigger break between each push. Everything was calm, and slow. After a few pushes Luca Ray Morris was born at 3:01 pm.

My baby boy was finally here! He was healthy and beautiful! He weighed 7lbs 12oz and was 21 inches long. They immediately gave me Luca and as I held him I was flooded with an immediate and intense love for my sweet little one. We were so thankful that Luca arrived safely, and healthy as can be.

Many people have asked where we got Luca's name. When Clint was in high school he decided he wanted to name a baby boy Luca. Clint's middle name is Luke, and he liked the unique variation. He told me this, and I was totally on board. My mom's family is Italian, and in Italy their version of Luke is Luca. We even have Italian relatives named Luca! I was happy that we could combine both of our heritages, and have such a meaningful and special name for our son!

P.S. Check out that beautiful blanket my mom and sisters made for Luca. :)