Here Comes Baby..... Welcome Andrew Rawson Cardon

January 24, 2010
*** WARNING: Contains Images Not Suitable For Those With Weak Stomachs***
At around 1:30 this morning the baby’s heart rate dropped to the 60’s. Michelle had just fallen asleep a few minutes earlier when the nurse opened the door and flipped on the lights. They told her to lie on her side, gave her an oxygen mask, and administered IV fluids. When Michelle realized what was going on, she wanted to scream out loud. She now just wanted the baby to come out. From that moment on there wasn’t any sleep at all. His heart rate went down several other times during the night. After one episode the nurse had us sign a consent form just in case they needed to do a c-section, and when we asked the nurse when would they decided that they were doing a c-section she said that his heart rate would have to get a little lower and decrease more frequently. Since our doctor was off this weekend one of her partners would take care of Michelle. She came in to visit us and assured us that this was the right thing to do. Michelle's placenta was at its end and he wouldn't grow any more inside of her. We had hit the point where we could do more for the baby outside of the womb than inside. I think after the night's events Michelle was more than happy to let him come out. At around 10 am they removed the cervix softener and allowed Michelle to take a shower. She loved it so much. The nurse had originally told her she could have a short shower, but she took advantage of the opportunity and took her time. Before she got out of the bathroom she was sure to put on a little makeup. It made her feel so good. Around 11 am they started per Pitocin. The doctor had ordered a higher dose, but the nurse decided to start her on a smaller dose and see how the baby reacted. The nurse also suggested Michelle get her epidural early in case they had to do a c-section. That way I would be able to go in with her. Not to long after that the anesthesiologist came in and gave her the epidural. Michelle didn't think it was bad at all.



Within the first hour of administering the Pitocin, the baby wasn't handling it well. His heart rate dropped several times within a short amount of time so the doctor decided to get Michelle ready for a c-section. They cathed Michelle and I got into the hospital jump suit, cap, and mask. Before we left for the OR I asked about taking in a camera. They said it was OK to take still shots, but that I couldn't take any video of the procedure. Luckily for us our friends Matt and Vicki lent us their good camera.


At about a quarter to 1 PM we got to the OR. During the whole procedure I was taking pictures.

After a few cuts through the various layers of tissue the doctors were well on their way getting to our son. With just a little more time he would be here.

At 1:01 PM baby Drew was pulled out of his mother and I took his first picture. He gave a little cry as the doctor held him in the air. Although Michelle couldn't see him she had a sense of relief when she heard his voice. The moment didn't last long. Before I knew it they had passed Drew through a window right into the NICU.

They saw how interested I was at getting some shots that they made sure that I got a good one of Michelle's uterus.

Michelle looked tired, but not in pain. She said she could only feel the tugging, but it wasn't painful. I guess the Meds worked. We wheeled Michelle back to her room to recover for a moment.

I was then taken to see Drew (short for Andrew, we don't have a middle name yet) along with Michelle's mom Carol. They had him in an incubator with a variety of tubes and monitors coming out of him. He had a hard time breathing so they put him on CPAP, luckily the week before they were able to give Michelle steroid shots to help in Drew's lung development. We couldn't see his face because the CPAP covered it and then he had a hat on to help hold the CPAP in place. He was so small and skinny. He was born at 1:01pm, he weighed 3 lbs. 15 oz, and he was 17.25 inches long.

After about an hour Michelle was wheeled into his room before she was moved to the maternity floor. Michelle was able to put her hand through the little incubator doors to touch his little body. After all she had been through the last few days, weeks, and months, it was worth it to be able to see him.

He has a lot of hair for being so young. I hope he will be like his father and keep it as long as he can.

Michelle was then taken up to her new room and we visited with a few of her family members. Later in the afternoon I took my sister Rachael down to see Drew and the nurse wanted to talk to me privately. Some of Drew's labs showed signs of a possible infection and his gastric fluid had a pink tint to it which could be caused by ingestion of Michelle's blood during birth or he could have a bleed of some sort. To add to all of that, he was having a harder time breathing and if he didn't improve they would have to intubate him for a short time and give him a treatment of surfactant. I returned to Michelle and told her what was going on. Having medical backgrounds can be both a good and bad thing. It is nice to understand what the doctors are saying and what the labs mean, but sometimes your mind can go straight to the worst possible outcome. Later in the night Michelle was tired so I went down to the NICU by myself once again to visit little Drew. I just sat there with my hand firmly on his body through the incubator door looking at him while talking to his nurse. It is hard to believe that we are parents. I will now try and get some sleep. The couch is Michelle's room isn't the comfiest and having people come in and out throughout the night doesn't help.

Pre Baby Drama

January 14, 2010
Yesterday we had Michelle's first doctor's appointment of the year. It has been three weeks since the last one. She was 32 weeks along and other than the weight and the edema, she was feeling great. Since her last check-up, she had continued to get more edematous (something she thought was just a Martin trait), but like I said before she felt fine. When we got to the appointment, Michelle's blood pressure was slightly elevated from the last appointment, about 130/84, and she had some protein in her urine. This was enough for the doctor to suggest running a few liver and kidney function tests including a 24 hour urine protein (you collect all of your urine for a 24 hour period) to see if she might be developing preeclampsia. Michelle got the labs drawn and was instructed to rest and return the next day to turn in her 24 hour urine sample and have her blood pressure taken again. This morning all of her labs looked normal, her 24 hour protein was slightly above the normal range, but her blood pressure was 150/98. She called me balling, at first I wasn't sure if she was crying, but then I could hear it in her voice. I got scared and thought that something was wrong with the baby or we had lost him or something, but when I asked her what was wrong she said they had put her on bed rest. Not an easy thing for my wife. When the doctor originally told her she was on bed rest Michelle got emotional and the doctor told her not to cry because that would just increase her blood pressure. She was told she couldn't go to work any more and she would have to have non stress tests performed twice a week along with a normal OB/GYN appointment each week. They also set up an appointment for a growth ultrasound for next Friday to check the size of the baby. My coworkers were nice enough to let me go home for a longer break to console Michelle. When I arrived home she was putting away dishes and doing a few other things. I had to ask her what the doctor meant by bed rest because she wasn't doing much resting. Dy came by to be with Michelle and I had one of our home teachers come over to give her a blessing. I returned to work while Michelle and Dy visited their mother in Orem. When she got home we had a discussion to clarify what bed rest meant. The doctor said she couldn't go to work; she needed to be lying down or in a reclined position all the time, unless she was getting food or going to the bathroom. They wouldn't even let her go to church because they don’t want her putting pressure on her cervix for long periods of time. The goal was to keep her blood pressure down and to get her to at least 37 weeks and then they would induce her. Although Michelle seemed like she was OK, she had her moments of tears. When most people would love to be able to sit around doing nothing and not have to go to work, Michelle would be miserable because she isn't one to just rest and relax. She likes to do things. We will see how it turns out. The only good thing we could think of that came of this was knowing she wouldn't have to go past 37 weeks. She could handle that.

January 18, 2010
This is Michelle….. Well, it has been almost a week since I was put on bed rest and I am surviving thanks to the love and support of my family and friends. I am so grateful for Andrew. He is such an amazing person. He does not complain about anything and has been such an amazing help. I am also grateful for my family. They have been calling and visiting with me frequently to help the time pass. My mom came and cleaned my house from top to bottom and my dad brought 2 delicious meals. I am also grateful for my friends. The phone calls and visits mean so much to me. I really appreciate everyone’s love and support.

January 19, 2010
Michelle had her OB/GYN appointment this morning. I have enjoyed being able to be at all of her appointments except for the bed rest one. I guess it helps to work at the same hospital as her doctor. Her blood pressure was 148/82 and she still had protein in her urine. The doctor thought that the baby might be measuring smaller than he should, but we have the ultrasound on Friday to tell us his actual size. The good news was that Michelle lost 8lbs. It was all water, but she enjoyed seeing the numbers get lower each time she stepped on the scale. Michelle had another NST after her appointment and the baby wasn't very active. We figure this is either an indication of how he will be, calm and very easy going, or he is just going to wreak havoc when he gets out. I would prefer the first option, but will love him either way. He has never been an active baby and I have only felt him once, but her placenta is attached anteriorly and the doctor said that creates a large cushion. Michelle is doing better with her bed rest, but it is still hard for her if she thinks about it too much. I told her she can't look at the clock every five minutes. We are both anxious about the ultrasound on Friday and hope everything is OK.

January 22, 2010
Michelle and I went to her NST this morning and Drew didn’t pass even though he did much better than the previous two times.

After the NST we had a normal ultrasound to check the growth of the baby. They found that his head and femur measured at 33 weeks, but that his stomach was about 3 weeks behind. When they measured the blood flow through the placenta and umbilical cord they also found that the pressure was high meaning it was struggling to do its job. After having the doctor come in and doing her own evaluation it was decided to admit Michelle to the hospital for further evaluation and continuous monitoring. Michelle was devastated, but admitted that she had a feeling this morning that something would be wrong.

After about five hours of monitoring the doctor didn’t feel there was an immediate concern for having to deliver so we were sent up to the Maternity floor. I took a quick trip home to gather some things for Michelle and promptly returned. The rest of the evening we just sat in her room and watched TV, a movie, and watched as nurses and CNAs came in to take her vital signs every two hours or so. Her blood pressure was still elevated, but not too bad. At about 11pm I ended up going home to sleep.

January 23, 2010

When I arrived this morning Michelle was just finishing an NST. Teri, her nurse, had worked in Labor and Delivery and knew how it all worked. Again he didn’t do as well as they liked so the doctor decided to order another NST for the evening. Michelle and I just sat around all day trying to pass the time. Michelle wanted to crochet some hats for the baby so she attempted to teach me how. We both were making the same hat and were at the same point in making the hat, but neither of the hats looked right. Mine looked like it was for a cone head baby and it had tight stitching, while Michelle's looked like it was for a toddler. Her stitching was too loose. If we did something in between the two of ours it would look great. Later in the evening we had the second NST. Once again he didn't pass so the resident performed a biophysical profile. The profile is scored on a 10 point scale, 2 points for each of five categories. The first category is the NST. Since he didn’t' pass he lost 2 points. The second was the amount of amniotic fluid. He only measured at a 6, the normal range is 10-25, and so he lost another 2 points. The last three categories are based on the baby's body movements. 2 points for whole body movement, 2 for small body movements like hands and feet, and then 2 points for chest movements (like he's practicing breathing). He had 30 minutes to perform these movements and he only got 2 points. We still aren't sure where the two points came from, but are sure the resident thought two sounded better than zero. The resident suggested Michelle be induced and would discuss it with the attending and unless the attending had a good argument against inducing, it would start that night.

Within a half an hour Michelle was moved to labor and delivery. After hooking her up to the fetal heart monitor and contraction monitor they started her on a cervix softener around 10 PM. They would leave it in for 12 hours before starting her on Pitocin. They also told Michelle to get as much sleep as possible tonight before the real fun begins. The baby's heart rate looked great and Michelle wondered if we were doing the right thing, but I assured her that the doctors probably knew what they were talking about. The baby wouldn't be able to stay inside her till 37 weeks and although 34 weeks was just a few days away at this point it didn't look like it would do any good. He might be ready to come out.

Chelsea and Darren's Winter Wedding

We had an amazing but busy Christmas vacation. My youngest sister Chelsea got married just a few days after Christmas. Darren’s parents arrived several days early and stayed a few days at my parent’s house. On the day before they got married Darren’s mother surprised us girls with pearls.

Chelsea and Darren decided to separate the wedding festivities by having the wedding dinner the night before. We spent most of the day setting up the church and preparing the food. My parents are rock stars and like most of our family weddings made an awesome meal of Mexican fajitas, Spanish rice, and chips with guacamole and queso. The weather was horrible making traffic a nightmare for those attending the dinner. Needless to say the dinner started an hour late but the turn out of friends and family was amazing (so good that we had to set up more tables and chairs). While the family cleaned up, Chelsea and Darren returned to my parents and made their own wedding cake. Impressive, I know.

The next morning was cold and snowy. Chelsea and Darren chose to be sealed for time and all eternity in the Draper, Utah temple. This sealing would be the first time that my whole family would be together in the temple (all 8 kids, their spouses, and my parents). Tina and Ben were suppose to fly in from Missouri the night before, but none of us had heard from them and wondered if they would make it to the temple on time. They also had the assignment of picking up the flowers. Luckily their flight arrived the night before and they slipped inside of the sealing room with time to spare. My mom and dad’s faces glowed with pride (the righteous kind of pride). It must have been an amazing feeling for them to look out and see each of their kids in the house of the Lord. I look forward to this day in my own family. The sealing was amazing. I still can’t believe that Chelsea is married! It was definitely cold, wet, and snowy outside, so the wedding pictures couldn’t go faster. Chelsea and Darren were champs and stayed a little longer to take some couple pictures around the temple.

After a few good shots, we all got in our cars and headed toward American Fork. Since the whole family was in town and no one knew when the next time we would all be together would be, it was decided we would get family pictures out there. One of my Dad’s elementary school photographers took them for us. After that we went home to attend to the last minute details for the reception. The reception was amazing and beautiful. The refreshments were divine. Who doesn’t love a variety of freshly baked, hot cinnamon rolls, hot cider and hot chocolate, and fruit. All of which are my favorites. Everything turned out picture perfect. I love these kinds of events because I get to see so many people that I normally would not see including the Cramers, a family I use to baby sit for. The best part was knowing that Chelsea and Darren were so happy.

At the end of the night when everything was cleaned up we returned to my parent’s house, everyone but Chelsea and Darren, and did our sibling exchange of presents since we had all been gone for Christmas. Jill and Brian had us and gave us a book of some of our wedding pictures and our engagement/wedding story. I love it. My favorite part of the gifts was how sad Ethan was that he didn’t have a gift to open. Tina luckily had something for him. It was a lump of coal. He definitely wasn’t crying any more, but he wasn’t sure what to make of it. This holiday season has been fun, but I am ready for a rest. Thanks family for the great time.

Our Sweet Nettie Grows Up

Nettie celebrates her birthday on December 28th. Each year we always hear how her birthday is too close to Christmas. This year, I felt like Nettie had a fantastic birthday, or at least I enjoyed all of the festivities. It was a time of family togetherness. On her birthday, the siblings all went out to dinner at Brick Oven in Provo, while my parents watched the grandkids at home. There is nothing I love more than spending time with my family. We always have such a great time together. People are amazed that we all get along and would choose to be together whenever possible.

Nettie thanks for being the best sister anyone could ever want. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!!

Arizona and Utah Baby Showers for Michelle

While we were in Arizona, Andrew’s mom threw me a baby shower. We had so much fun playing games and eating lots of yummy food. A large portion of Andrew’s extended family was able to make it and we missed all those who were out of town or sick. We ate some good food that Andrew helped prepare, and taste, as you can see, along with playing a few fun games.

One of the games was a matching game. If you found the match, you got a candy bar that represented the match. For example, if you got the match for girl’s name, you got a Baby Ruth candy bar. I wish I could remember them all. We also played the classic guess the type of baby food in the jar game. We all had a lot of fun. It was fun getting to know Andrew’s extended family members better and know I will make good use of all the gifts. Thanks Liz and everyone else for making it so special.

I have also been spoiled with a few other baby showers in Utah. Unfortunately I have no pictures of them, but believe me they were great. I loved seeing so many of my friends and family members get together and have time to enjoy their company. Thanks to everyone for all of your love and support. Drew and I have been showered with so many wonderful gifts. We are so excited to use everything. Thanks!!!!

Christmas in Gilbert, AZ

It was time to get out of the cold and test out our new CR-V with a road trip down to Arizona for Christmas. As mentioned in the Thanksgiving post, we hope to be able to rotate as much as possible the holidays between mine and Michelle's families while we still can. We headed down after I got off of work Tuesday afternoon. The weather wasn't looking very good and we hoped to get off as soon as we could finish getting things together. My sister's friend Steve was traveling with us so as soon as he got to our house we were off. Michelle hates to drive in the snow so I took the first shift. The weather got slightly better as we got out of Salt Lake and Provo, but had its moments on and off as we headed toward Beaver. We saw several accidents off the side of the road and that made Michelle nervous. There are two main routes to get home and just under 200 miles into the trip you have to decide which way to take. Because of the weather we decided that through Vegas was probably the safer way. I think we made the right choice. We made a dinner break in St. George and decided that rather than staying the night in a hotel we would just push on through and get into Gilbert in the early morning. Michelle took over driving for a few hours so I could rest a while, Michelle is nice like that, and then I finished the trip and took us into Gilbert around three in the morning.

Early afternoon on Wednesday my sister Rachael received her endowment in the Mesa, Arizona temple. She had been thinking about doing it for a while and finally decided she was ready. Everyone in my family was able to attend except for my sister Becky who had just had a baby a few days earlier. It had been a while since I had been to the Mesa temple and it was even better sharing it with Rachael for her first time. Afterwards we all went out to Joe's Real BBQ. I loved it.

On Christmas Eve we spent time at the park with my nieces and nephews and at night we had our traditional get together with my Father's side of the family at my cousin Nicole's house. We always have ham, which my Dad usually provides, along with an assortment of foods and soups. After the food we have the kids dress up and act out the Nativity Story. My sister Emily was put in charge of the show and asked if I would sing a verse of Oh Holy Night to set the mood and then Michelle and I could play Mary and Joseph at the beginning because Michelle was with child. After our minute of fame the little one took over the part. In fact there were two other Mary's during the production. It is always a picture moment and reminds me of when I was younger and Papa, my father's father now passed away, would read the story while we all acted it out. At the end of the evening the kids always get a paper bag full of little treats and toys. Mita, my Dad's mother, still alive at age 96, would give us paper sacks when we were little and they would always have money, a bar of soap, and a little pack of tissue in them. It seems a little odd to me know, but as a kid it was something I always looked forward too. Before we left we made sure to get a family picture with Mita.

Christmas morning has changed a little since I was a kid, but it basically is the same. We got up and opened our stockings. The contents are usually candy and then little wrapped presents. When I was a kid I would always get batteries, a roll of film for my camera, and pens or pencils. This year both Michelle and I got shaving gel and razors. Don't worry Michelle's were for her legs not her face. Once some of my other family members came over we opened presents and then had our traditional butterscotch pull-aparts, scrambled eggs, bacon, and orange juice breakfast. Later on in the day my sister Christin and her family came over and we watched them open up their presents and then we hung out the rest of the afternoon and evening.

On Saturday my Mom helped put together a baby shower for Michelle, details on that in the next post, and then the rest of the day we just relaxed and spent more time with family before leaving bright and early Sunday morning. We had a great time with my family and we wish we had more time, but both Michelle and I had to work the next day. The weather on the way back was much better and we ended up taking our usual route home.