Picture Shoot!

Yesterday we went to Sears to get some pictures of our little boy before he gets to be too much bigger. He slept for the first part but then got a little fussy in the end. Here were some of our favorite shots!

Our first week at home!

Leaving the Hospital!

Sorry that we haven't put anything up in over a week but hopefully these new pictures of our cute boy will keep everyone happy. Our first week at home has gone pretty well. Last week I suffered from a migraine that my doctor thinks was a mix from my long delivery that included the failed induction, lack of sleep, and not taking care of myself (ie. I forgot that I too needed food and water and to not just worry about the baby getting his food). The headache officially disappeared over the weekend and life has been much easier. Eric went back to work on Monday and my mom returned to Red Wing so for the last few days Robert and I have been figuring out the way of life on our own. Today we ventured out of the house to the grocery store...not too bad but definitely more challenging than going on my own. Tomorrow we tackle visiting St. Kate's!

Snoozing with Daddy & Mommy!


Meeting some of his big sisters!

St. Kate's Swimmers Katie, Kelley, and Gina

The look of confusion upon returning from the grocery store.

This is the way we usually spend our days.

Hanging out in the living room with lots of naps!!

First 24 Hours were great...hours 25-26 not so peachy!

Robert survived his first 24 hours of life with very few complaints. He had lots of family around him to show him just how loved he was and took lots of naps to recover from his adjustment to life outside the womb. Unfortunately that comfort quickly changed around noon today. Our doctor arrived and in a matter of 2 hours Robert had a jaundice test, his circumcision, blood drawn, and a big shot. Everytime he would get comfortable another person would come in to torment him just a little bit longer.

Luckily he had some visitors this afternoon to keep his spirits up and remind him that he was still loved. Great Aunt Linda stopped in with a friend to bring him a beautiful hand made blankie and Auntie Mandie and Uncle Nick hung out with us for a few hours to bond with their nephew before heading to our house to play with Robert's canine brothers.

Robert Clayton Hempler Arrives!

Here is my birth story...if you don't want to read it all skip to the pictures at the bottom. Last night at about 8:30 my contractions started up and we decided to make the trip to the hospital around midnight. I was a little reluctant to go in because I really didn't want to be sent home again. Luckily the nurse said my dilation had gone up to a 4 and that we should walk the hospital floor for an hour to see if it increased. It did a little and since my blood pressure was a little high we were sent to a room and told to try and sleep and then begin with Pitosin in the morning. So we went to sleep at 3:00am but unfortunately I was woken up just 30 minutes later to a flood in my bed with my water breaking. The nurse helped clean me up and then I went back to bed just to be woken up a little while later to extremely bad contractions. I fought them for awhile and then decided the only way I'd be able to get a little more sleep is to get my epideral. So about an hour later I had been given my epideral but noticed I still had sharp pains on my left side. Around 7:30 a different doctor came in to look at my epideral, by this time I was in immense pain with contractions, and started telling me that there was a good chance my epideral was only going to take on the one side and that I'd probably need to take a narcotic to ease my pain or attempt the epideral again but there was a chance I would lose the whole thing. All the while he was telling me this I'm having contractions, almost crying, and trying to figure out what to do. I kept wanting to know the side affects for the baby if I used the narcotics and the best answer I got from him was that the baby wouldn't die but it would have to be stopped prior to delivery. So I decided the best option was to reattempt the epideral. He tried about 7 times, I had 2 tries with the first doctor, and decided it wouldn't work. So I took two doses of the narcotics and spent the next two hours crying to Eric as he calmed me down every contraction, which was almost constant, and made me breathe and not tighten up my muscles. At 9:30 I was told that I was 10 cm and to let them know if I wanted or felt like I needed to push. Pushing sounded like a great idea but had to wait a few minutes while everything was prepared for the delivery. After 2 hours of pushing, and feeling lots of tearing, cutting, vacuuming at the very end, our little guy arrived at 11:45am.

He was immediately evaluated by the NICU staff who was waiting for his arrival in our room. Scored a 7 on his first Apgar and 9 on the second and was diagnosed a very healthy, big baby. The ultrasound I had down last week said he'd be about 9 1/2 pounds and he weighed in 9lbs, 4oz and was 21 inches long. His head, which I was told would be about average size was in reality very big which caused his momma lots of pain. After NICU cleared him I spent a few minutes with him and then was brought to the OR to be stitched up, had a 4th degree tear, while daddy took him to the nursery for a bath and the doctor's evaluation.

We named him Robert Clayton after my dad and maiden name. Lots of people joked about his stubborness during the last few weeks and said that my dad was already impacting him. Although we had this name picked out for him before we knew he was a him I found comfort in knowing that the name we had chosen would be a perfect fit. The only thing I regret about the name is that our niece Lyric was the only one to figure out his name prior to birth and I had to lie to her that it wasn't it because we wanted to keep it a secret. We hope that her figuring out the name is just the start to their bond in years to come.

Here are some pics of the little guys first day of life. More to come!

First Bath by the nurses!



Hanging out with Daddy

Grandma Roberts

Grandma and Grandpa Hempler with Cousin Lyric

At home on bedrest

Well the decision was made last night to send me home. After 12 hours on drugs I hadn't changed at all. They could keep me in the hospital and continue to give me drugs but with no guarantee that anything would be accomplished. It was decided that I'd be much more comfortable at home in my own bed and being able to eat food, other than green jello, and wait for the baby to decide when he is ready. I go in for appointments next week but until then it is just more waiting.

At the hospital...but no baby

Hi Everyone,

We checked into the hospital on Tuesday night so that I could receive some medication to better prepare me for contractions and labor. The medicine really didn't do much, if anything, but they still started Pitocin at 6:30am on Wednesday hoping that labor would begin. There was some worry yesterday morning that when I was having contractions the babies heart rate was dipping too low and that started a lot of talk of a c-section. The baby started to do better and because of this they kept me on Pitocin. By the end of the day my dilation had only increased by 1cm (went to 3cm). They decided that it would be best to stop the drug for the night, let me eat some real food, and then gave me some good drugs to help me sleep. I slept great last night and the Pitocin was started up again at 6am. Almost 12 hours later I still haven't had any significant contractions to push me into labor so a baby arriving today isn't looking too great. The doctor should be here soon to examine me and determine a plan. We'll keep everyone posted on changes and hope to be able to bring you baby news soon.

Labor Day but no Labor...

I received a lot of complaints over the weekend from family, student workers (Sophia), some of my swimmers and co-workers about not updating our blog often enough. I do promise to do a better job of updating our blog once our little boy arrives and I actually have something of interest to put up. Because some of you (Sophia again) are as impatient for me to update my blog as I am to deliver I thought I'd put up a quick post.



What good is having the day off in honor of labor day if someone who is 9 months pregnant can't even go into labor? I am slowly having to accept that my little one will more than likely not be coming early and that I still have at least a week left before he arrives. I'm taking this in with the best spirit possible but I don't promise to be as understanding if he isn't here by the 10th.


I hope everyone has had a wonderful, long weekend and look forward to many posts as soon as our little guy arrives.