Harold Christian Robinson

I want to get his story down before it all goes out of my head!

Our due date was April 23rd, but since we had all our family in town for Amy's Homecoming on the 19th, we decided to have the C-section on the 21st.

We had the C-section scheduled at 7:30 am. Christian was very excited, but I had some severe anxiety. I was very afraid about the surgery and the recovery afterward. I was content to wait another month or so! (Really, I was.) I knew deep down that would never happen, so on Tuesday morning, we woke up around 4:00 am to get ready. We arrived at the hospital right at 6:00. I changed into my hot gown. Then we waited a bit before our nurse, Kim came in to do the history and my i.v. She did awesome! I had no bruising at all, and it never bothered me. Anyway, then the Dr. Meyers, the anesthesiologist, came to talk to me as well. He is a funny guy. Then Dr. Curtis, my ob came in. It was quite the full house. It was a very good distraction though.



Finally at about 7:30, we walked down to the O.R. where I laid down on the table. Dr. Meyers started to tell a story about a mommy duck who had a nest in his backyard and she got scared away and his traumatized his kids to think that she left all her eggs, so he had to put them in his oven to try to hatch them. hahahaha

Then he turned me on my side and started feeling the bones in back. I jerked away and started laughing. "I am so ticklish in my back!" I explained. He thought that was hilarious. Then an assisting nurse came in and asked if she could take a picture of my uterus. WTH?? She is making a quilt out of pictures of uteruses (uteri?) for her Doctor who works at the same clinic as my Doctor. She just needed a picture of a pregnant uterus. I said sure - but I wanted to look at it after. Hey, how many people can say they've seen their own uterus?

So on we went. We started the spinal block. Ouch Ouch and freaking Ouch. I don't remember the epidural hurting like this at all! It was like hitting your funny bone all up and down your back. I could feel it along all my vertebrae. I was crying by the time it was over, which probably only lasted a minute, but it felt like 10. Almost immediately, my toes started to tingle. It was so weird how quickly it takes effect. Before I knew it, I was numb from my chest down. Dr. Meyers asked if I felt anything. I said no, and he said good because they already had done the incision. I remember having a hard time breathing, but I've had that the entire pregnancy, it is so annoying!!

Then Christian and I heard Dr. Curtis say, "We've got the head out.....Well, hello there, sweetheart." Not knowing what the sex was, both Christian and I thought, GIRL? Then we could hear the baby kind of cry. Then he said, "We've got a BOY!!" Christian and I looked at each other and started crying. Our little boy!! We were both so happy. They brought him around the side of me and he was completely covered in vernix. It looked like he had been rubbed down with Crisco! Love at first sight!

His first photo


Christian went over to take pictures and see our little boy, while they finished putting everything back in. It's a strange feeling, knowing your guts are laying around. They got the picture of my uterus and they showed it to me. Weird! I've decided to ask the nurse to email it to me. I want to see it again. I know - I'm morbid. Then I heard the nurse say "9 pounds 9 ounces!" Excuse me? 9 pounds!?!?

I am so glad I didn't try to deliver that! If Nathan's 8 pound 5 ounce body couldn't make it through, there's no way our little tank was going to! That made me feel even better about doing an elective c-section this time.

When he was all cleaned up, Christian brought him back over so I could give him kisses and get a better look. He really looked just like Nathan, but oh wow did he have chubby cheeks!


Then they took us all back to my room while we waited until they could take us upstairs to our regular room.

It starts to get a little hazy for a little while, because they gave me some anti-itching and anti-nauseous medicines, which cause drowsiness. My nurse wheeled me up to my room, where my family almost immediately came in and we told him it was a boy. I was nodding off the whole time. I could also tell my speech was slurred, but I was fighting so hard to stay awake.


The bath - I kept falling asleep. Dangit!

We still hadn't finalized the name. We thought Harold something or Lucas something, but we couldn't get the name down just right. Finally we started thinking Lucas Harold and I even told Heather that's what we picked. A couple of hours later, we still weren't sure about the name. Then Harold Christian popped in my head. We both loved it. We call him Harry.

The first and second day, his little blood sugar kept dropping drastically. They kept in the nursery quite a bit, so they could monitor it. I was a little worried about diabetes, but my Pediatrician said some babies take a bit getting used to eating instead of the normal constant flow of food. (If you saw me pregnant, there was a pretty constant flow of food!!) So Harry got that sorted out. ....

From the beginning, he would make little grunting noises. Of course we thought they were cute. Come to find out, that's him trying to breathe! We weren't too worried because it happens with C-section babies and they usually get the breathing worked out. On Wednesday night, Christian had gone home to get a decent night's sleep and the nurse came in to do Harry's assessment. She didn't like his respiratory numbers. So she took him back to the nursery to have the nurse monitor him there. She said she would come back and let me know how he was doing. About midnight, (I had finally fallen asleep around 11) she peeked in and said they still wanted to keep him. Then I couldn't fall back asleep. Around 1, I finally got myself out of bed (no easy task) and was about to walk down to the nursery to check on him. Just then the Nursery Nurse and my nurse walked in. She told me that she was really worried because his resp. is extremely erratic and won't stabilize. Normal numbers are between like 20 and 100, but they start to get concerned when they stay above 60. Harry's numbers were staying near 100. So she had him sent down the NICU. (Newborn Intensive Care Unit) I lost it at this point - this was too much for my frail little emotional state. Both nurses were so kind and comforted me. I tried to call Christian's cell phone, but he didn't hear it, so I called the house and when my parents answered, I couldn't get any words out. Finally I think I was able to get out "Harry in the NICU" and "Send Christian back" my Mom put Christian back on the phone and I couldn't say it all again. I just said "You have to come back."
I sat in my room waiting for Christian, finally my parents came in and asked where he was. He had left way before them! Turns out, he had literally ran to the NICU when he arrived at the hospital. We went down and saw our little guy with all these different monitors on him. Dr. Cannon was the pediatrician on call and explained what could be the problem. They had taken an x-ray of Harry's lungs and you could see the fluid or infection in the left lung. They were having a radiologist coming in to Primary's to see for sure. The whole experience was so overwhelming and surreal. I was so sad for my little baby. My Dad and Christian gave him a very tender blessing and I know that has helped not only Harry, but the rest of us as well.



The next 2 days were filled with going down the NICU to help feed Harry, hold him and then go back to my room to rest for a couple of hours and then go back down. He did really well. He was able to get off oxygen rather quickly and just kept improving more and more. They determined it was infant pneumonia and he would have to have i.v. treatments for 7 days. (including the 2 he was already in the NICU.)

On Friday, he was able to leave the NICU and come back up the regular nursery. He would stay here until he could go home. I also went home that day. I could have stayed another day, but I always thought I was going home on Friday, and I couldn't take my baby with my anyway. It was one of the hardest things to leave my baby and I cried or was on the verge of crying for the next 2 days.

Overall, this experience with Harry in the NICU could have been so much worse. We are so grateful that Harry will be able to come home with us soon. I know Heavenly Father has watched out for our little boy and our family. We are so grateful to family and friends who have been so kind and have given us so much. We are so grateful.

Love you all!!




Christian and I love the back of his head. He has "Grandpa Skousen" hair (Cleon Skousen - nothing in front, and all in the back.) It's so cute!!


Harry looks like he's wise to what big brothers are!


Mommy Robinson with Baby Robinson


Daddy Robinson and Big Brother Robinson



Nathan is such a good big brother!


One week old!