Rachel went to her checkups for baby and hung out with L. There was no change in the pregnancy besides the baby growing. Thee were several false alarms, and she was being monitored regularly by her doctor.Taylor was working and progressing considerably well with physical therapy.
One extremely exciting thing that happened was Rachel's best friend Lindy threw her a baby shower where she found out if she was having a boy or a girl. She had a wonderful time with her friends, and is very grateful to everyone that came. It was a blast!
Turns out.......
brace yourselves everyone,........
IT'S A BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Then hurricane Irene showed up.
All the surrounding counties had mandatory evacuations however ours was voluntary. Taylor decided that it would be best to head up north to Maryland to visit with family. So that Friday with everything packed we headed up the road the morning it was supposed to hit us. The destination to Rachel's parents house was reached with little to no problems. The next day the fun began, with the worst of the storm over our area and the tail winds hitting all over Virginia Beach where Taylor's family happens to live. With no power, bridges out and tress falling through homes and cars, Taylor;s grandparents found themselves stuck for a few days. Taylor and his father got right to planning on how to get to them and get them to Maryland safely, only to find it was not possible. Luckily all turned out to be fine.
With all the stress, the long drive and the extremely low pressure from the hurricane Rachel started feeling a bit of discomfort when she woke on Saturday morning. As the day progressed it only continued to get worse, by Saturday night Rachel was in some awful pain. When Sunday morning finally came Rachel, Taylor and L dressed for church and went on there way with Rachel in a bit more pain than the previous night. Throughout the service Rachel started having contractions. By the end of service it was time to go to the hospital.
Rachel's mom Maya, Taylor and Rachel got to the hospital at noon and Rachel was admitted to labor and delivery. She was dilated 3cm and making steady progress for a few hours. Rachel walked with Taylor and her mom, sat on a ball, walked, laid in bed and restarted the cycle for several hours. Eventually her doctor decided to break her water and with that the contractions came on rather quickly and quite strong. By eleven pm Rachel only wanted to push but she wasn't relaxed enough to dilate fully, so the epidural was ordered and by eleven-thirty it was administered and Taylor was finally allowed back in the room with her. Once Taylor was back with Rachel it was time to push.
At eleven fifty-eight Connor was welcomed into the world. He was 6lbs 8oz and 20 and 1/4 inches long. Taylor, Rachel and L were overjoyed to have C here at last.
Unfortunately he had a bit if a lung problem so he was sent to the NICU. After several days and x-rays it was determined that he had air outside his lung. (Doesn't that sound familiar? I think there is an echo here. Like father like son!) With oxygen and lots of love from us C was out of the NICU and 'home' after a week! Now he is healthy and well! He even had his first outing to the FSK Mall!
The next step was to make the LONG drive back home to NC!
We are truly blessed and have so much to be thankful for. All in all the Jewell's will never have just a quite relaxed day, never mind a month! But we are never bored, it's always exciting with us! Stay tuned to see how the big homecoming goes!
