Introducing Grayson Keith....

Grayson Keith Robins was born on May 20, 2010 at 11:48 am via an emergency c-section. He weighed 7 pounds 3 ounces and was 20 1/4 inches long. He had a full head of hair and beautiful color.

This is the first decent picture we got that night after his first bath and they styled his hair in a "mohawk"

The Birth Story:
As many of you know I was a week and a day over due on May 20th. I was set to go in for induction that day. The night before, I was given a blessing from my dad and Mike. It was a great comfort to me as I am not a fan of induction. I knew that whatever happened this lil man would arrive here safe and healthy.
That night (the 19th) I actually started having contractions that were about 6-7 minutes apart and were not super strong but made it so I was only able to get in a good 45 minutes of sleep before I had to wake up at 3:45 to get to my 5:00 am induction on time. I thought the contractions had stopped.
However, once I got to the hospital and was hooked up to the Fetal Monitor and Contraction monitor it showed that I was having contractions still just not as strong. They hooked my IV for my "Gatorade" and were getting ready to start a pitocin drip. (I was at 3.5 cm and 80% effaced so my cervix didn't need ripened at all.) At this point Grayson moved a whole bunch and his heart rate dropped. The heart rate should stay above 120 BPM and his dropped to the 90s. It took 2-3 minutes of me changing position and pushing on my uterus for it to come back up. About 15 minutes later it happened again. So the nurse called in the on-call doc from my OBs office. He said to wait on the pitocin until my OB arrived but he was not to concerned. 20 minutes later the heart rate dropped again but only for 1 minute this time. The nurse decided to get everything ready in case my OB came in and wanted to do a c-section from the get go. This was a blessing in disguise.
When my OB got there, the heart rate had stayed steady for a good hour. He went ahead and broke my water and noticed that there was meconium in the water. This meant that when baby came out he would automatically have to be suctioned because he passed his first bowel movement in the womb. Most likely from the stress of his heart rate dropping. We began the pitocin drip shortly after.
Around 8:30 I went to the bathroom and when I came back little man's heart rate was low again and it took a minute to come back up. Since this seemed to be happening every time he or I moved the nurse decided to place an internal monitor so we could see if it was really dropping or just moving farther off the monitor.
At 9:00 ish (sorry, I am a little foggy on some of the times since this was 4 days ago and I didn't get it all written down) I went to the rest room again. The internal monitor also showed a drop but it came right back up. The nurse decided that from then on I would use a bed pan if I had to use the bathroom.
The pitocin levels were now up pretty good. I could definitely feel the contractions and had to really focus and breath through them (and Mike would try and talk to me only during a contraction....UGH..LOL). I was having some back labor. The nurse said I was welcome to get an epidural at any time. I was not wanting to get one and was trying to just labor through. The nurse left the room to go do a few things and when she did I had a VERY strong impression that I needed to get the epidural even though I was doing pretty good with the contractions. I decided that because of the blessing I had been given there was no way I was going to ignore that strong of a prompting. I asked the nurse for the epidural.
I believe it was in place and working by around 10 am. I had them use a low dose because I still wanted to feel the contractions and know if I was progressing. They were kind enough to oblige.
Things were going really well. Grayson's heart rate was pretty steady. It would maybe drop to 117 during a contraction but be right back up where it needed to be right after.
With the epidural you have to rotate sides every so often so that it works on both sides equally. I was on my left side for the 2nd time and the nurse left and said she would be back within 15 minutes. When she came back I told her I was not laying far enough on my actual side but I didn't want to move without her there in case Grayson's heart rate dropped again. She said I didn't need to wait for her but go ahead and move now. She was telling me she was heading to lunch for a half hour or whatever. This was between 11:20 and 11:30 am
As soon as I moved, Grayson's heart rate dropped clear down to 33 beats per minute. I started moving as much as I could into different positions while she pushed on my uterus to try and get it up. She threw an oxygen mask on me. At this point, Mike who had been sleeping woke up to a bunch of nurses running in the room calling my OB and moving me and the mask on my face. He asked what was going on? Of course I couldn't tell him because of the mask. He goes 1 for baby time 2 for no. I didn't know. I just knew something was wrong. The nurse told him to change into the scrubs. (So much for her lunch.)
My OB rushed in. He looked at me and said the baby was giving him a heart attack today. I felt really calm at that moment and just said "I know what you need to do and I trust you to get him here safe." Right away I was wheeled into the OR. As they were wheeling me they were putting the meds into my epidural in order to completely numb me. I am so glad I had listened to the prompting. If that line had not been in me I would have had to been knocked out completely for the c-section.
The OB and the assisting OB came in all scrubbed up and as soon as I was numb they started cutting before Mike was even in the room. The meds were making me shake REALLY bad in my arms and it was a HUGE comfort when Mike came in. The NICU team was right there in the room to take care of Grayson when he came out.
As soon as they pulled Grayson out he started crying. The NICU nurses started suctioning his lungs, etc and Mike was able to be where he could see me but still be right by the baby. I was able to watch them clean up Grayson from the operating table. Even with all the trouble he scored a 9 on his APGAR.
As they were "putting back in my pieces" my doctor explained Grayson still hadn't dropped and it most likely would have ended in a c-section just much later in the day.
As soon as I was all together, Mike, Grayson and I were all taken to the recovery room together where he nursed for an hour straight. We were then taken up to our room.
So far my recovery has gone well. I am just starting to get some stinging in my incision on one side (which they said is normal) when I move. I had some problems with my intestines but they cleared up most of the way and now I am just watching what foods I eat.
We are home and Terrie and Alia are here from Texas until tomorrow afternoon. I am so grateful to have her here because she has gone through 5 c-section births and knows how it feels.
Grayson is such a blessing. Daddy has been very helpful and has changed almost all the diapers so I am not having to bend over and try and do it.
While I had hoped to go as natural as possible for this birth, I am so grateful for the Spirit being with me that day. I know that my doctor and nurses were guided by the spirit in the decisions they made and that Heavenly Father was really looking after our little man. The next few weeks will be a real struggle for me as I am very limited in what I can do but I am so grateful to have all the support I do. We will post more pictures soon.