When It Rains, It Pours

This past week has been one of the hardest weeks of my life. We have had trial after trial. Cody went to play basketball with some of his friends on Thursday, July 9. Around the time he usually comes home, my father-in-law comes down the stairs and said, "Kaycen just called me." I immediately knew something was wrong. I asked what happened to Cody and he said, "They are pretty sure he broke his leg." I kept it together the best I could but after he walked upstairs I fell apart. Todd went to go take Cody to the hospital and I decided to go as well with Titus. Unfortunately, the only car I had available was his Jeep, which I don't know how to drive because it's stick shift. Last time Cody had to go to the ER, the only car I had was that dumb Jeep too. My mom and Tacy came and picked me up and took me to meet Cody at Riverton hospital. I was a mess the whole way there. I couldn't figure out what we were going to do because Cody had worked at this new job for less than a month, we just had a baby, and I just quit my job to stay home with the kids.

When I got there, Cody told me the story. He went for a lay up and someone was head to head with him and when he came down, he landed on the guy's foot and it just popped his leg out the wrong way. Cody felt two pops and instantly jumped up onto the stage in the gym and told them his leg was broken. Cody got everything x-rayed and they confirmed that his fibula was broken in two places and would need surgery. He got some pain medication and we went home late that night. We had to wait until Monday to get a consultation with the surgeon and surgery was the next day.

Around 2:00 Saturday morning, I woke up to feed Titus and had bled through everything. So I went to the restroom and changed and told Cody something might be wrong. I called labor and delivery and they said if I bled through a pad in an hour than I needed to go to the ER. Ten minutes later, I bled through everything again. I grabbed a diaper and used that as a pad and Cody and I woke up my father-in-law and went to the ER at Lone Peak hospital. I walked up to the desk and told them what was going on and I look down and I was leaving a puddle of blood on the floor. I felt so bad because I was making a mess as I walked down the hallway to the room. They did an ultrasound and an exam and told me I had retained placenta and I would need suction D&C surgery to get it removed and it needed to happen soon. So I went in to surgery later that morning. I remember going into the operating room and being a little disappointed it looked nothing like the OR in Grey's Anatomy. Then I moved to the bed they needed me to be on. The anesthesiologist told me he was going to give me some medicine to help me relax and that's the last thing I remember. When I woke up, I kept asking where my husband and baby were. They had to decide where to send me for recovery. I asked if I could have my baby with me and the nurse told me no, not on the fourth floor. I starting to bawl and was so upset. The fourth floor is usually where people recover from surgery, but they were packed. They pulled some strings and checked me back into labor and delivery. I was really excited because I loved my nurses, and I was able to have my new baby with me on that floor.

They had to keep me overnight because I lost an extreme amount of blood and they wanted to monitor me and make sure I wouldn't need a blood transfusion. I had some of my same nurses and I love them! They really are the best. Some of the best ones were Sarah, Becky, and Hafsa. Some of them were nurses for my first delivery so that was pretty cool.

Yesterday (Monday), we took Cody to the consultation with the surgeon and today was surgery. It was so hard seeing him in so much pain the whole weekend, but they needed the swelling to go down before they would operate. They put in a plate to stabilize the bone and they needed to make sure the syndesmosis ligament wasn't torn. Luckily, it wasn't so we didn't need extra screws to fix that. The surgery took longer than expected because the bone the broke was completely floating and wasn't connected to any other bone at all. Then Cody took a bit to wake up from anesthesia and when he did wake up, he was in a lot of pain so they had to get that under control before we got to go back and see him. We got to go home 20 minutes later. The plate will stay in his leg unless it starts causing him pain. It's so hard to see him go through this because he is such a happy and positive person. He hasn't complained much at all but I know when he is really hurting. He cannot bear any weight on his leg for 6 weeks and then it will be slowly adding weight after that. The total recovery time is going to be about 3 months.

I have a hard time not being angry because it feels like right when we start to get back on our feet and have a good handle on life, we get completely knocked down and I am sure we will be swamped with medical bills. I am still trying to figure out what God wanted us to learn from the last big trial we had to go through. I guess we didn't learn it or we have something else we need to learn from this. I just have to stay close to my family and to the Gospel and things will work out in the end. I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for me and my family and that this is just a trial we have to endure. I am so extremely blessed that Cody and I both came out of surgery okay and that we have two beautiful, healthy boys. Thank you to all those that have included us in your prayers. We really appreciate all of the love and support.

Titus's Birth Story

Our precious little bundle is finally here! He came a bit early, but I am not complaining about that. I had been having contractions 15-20 minutes apart for about a week and I was in so much pain. I woke up on July 1, 2015 around 6:30 a.m. with extremely painful contractions. I starting timing them and they were only 10-15 seconds long but were happening every 2-3 minutes. Cody was at the gym so I texted him and let him know and he came home. I called labor and delivery and told them about my contractions and they said they didn't want me to come in until the contractions were lasting 60 seconds or more and were painful enough that I couldn't talk through them. So I continued to wait. It came time for Cody to go to work and since my contractions were consistent but not lasting any longer, he went to work and told me to call him when things changed. I got Boston up and ready and we went for a walk around the neighborhood. I was having contractions every 1.5-2 minutes apart at this point but they were still only about 30 seconds long but it was difficult to walk through them. I called Cody on my walk and he said he would head home. When I got home, I used the bathroom and lost my mucus plug. I called labor and delivery again and another nurse told me she was sure it was false labor and to lay down and see if the contractions go away. At this point it was about 11:00 a.m. and the contractions were getting more painful. I called labor and delivery again around noon and asked again if I should come in. The nurse again told me no. Cody told me to call my midwife and ask her since the contractions were getting so close together. I talked to the midwife's assistant and she told me to definitely go to labor and delivery and at least have them check me. So it was about 12:30 when we headed to the hospital.

When we got there, the nurses knew who I was. I told them I was instructed to come in and be checked. Sarah, the nurse manager, was a little bugged I was there I think but she took me to a triage room and I put on my gown. She started checking me and in a very surprised voice told me, "You are a very stretchy 5. Let's get you checked in!" My group B strep test came back positive and they were worried I wouldn't be able to make it another 4 hours to get my second dose of antibiotics. I just kept thinking, "If you told me to come in hours ago when I called you would have plenty of time!" An hour and a half to two hours later I got the epidural. I feel so bad because I had been telling people that epidurals don't hurt because I honestly did not remember it hurting with Boston. Let me be completely honest, it hurts! The anesthesiologist was so great, but that needle is painful and then they inject a ton of fluid into you and that burns like none other. I was grateful to have it though. I definitely don't feel it worked as well as it should have though.

My midwife, Eve, was away on a business trip and her flight was coming in at 7:30 that night so the other midwife in the hospital was with me for most part. At 4:30 I was checked again and I was dilated to 9 cm. The nurse told me it was up to me, but I could continue to wait and see if I made it until Eve's flight got in so she could deliver the baby or they could break my water and get the process moving along. I decided just to have my water broken. After that I went backwards and was dilated to 8 cm. I progressed extremely slowly from there on. I felt the need to start pushing around 7:40 and Eve showed up shortly after. She must have magic powers or something because my kids wait for her to deliver them! Titus was facing sideways in my pelvis and that's why I had progressed so slowly at the end. They gave my this big yellow, peanut shaped ball that I put between my legs and laid sideways. They had me go through 3 contractions like that and then she checked again and he was 3/4 of the way turned. So she had me do one more contraction on that side and he was turned enough that she could then move my cervix to get him the rest of the way. It was one of the most painful things in the world! I kept pushing my epidural button and it would beep at me and tell me I was maxed out on meds pretty much. I felt like I needed to push and I couldn't hold it back. I remember with Boston, I thought that it was silly women yelled during labor because I pushed so hard I couldn't make a sound. Well, I pushed as hard as I could for three contractions and I yelled through every one of them. It was the most painful thing and I even had the epidural. I remember telling my mom to push the baby back in so I didn't have to do this anymore. But after pushing through those three contractions, my sweet little boy was born at 8:52 p.m. They took him and I was so worried he wasn't okay. I asked Eve probably six times if he was okay. Of course, he was. They were just getting him taken care of. I tore a tiny bit, but only needed two stitches.

Titus Wyatt Caldwell weighed in at 7 lbs 6 oz, which is one ounce bigger than Boston was. Cody says they had their equipment on the scale when he was weighed though so we are positive that weight was wrong. He was 20 inches long. We had him weighed a few days later at the doctor's office and his weight then was 6 lbs 12 oz, and with his eating habits we know he didn't really lose that much weight. He is the most perfect baby and is so calm. They laid him on my chest for skin to skin and immediately he wanted to eat and latched on perfect the first time and ate great. He has continued to be a great eater and sleeper since! He looks so different from his brother, but just like his daddy. He is slightly jaundiced, but they aren't worried about that. This little baby is such a blessing in our lives and has made us feel a new love for each other and our children all over again.