HOSPITAL DAY 1: Sunday, April 15

For nine months you anticipate the birth of your child. On Sunday, April 15 in the wee hours of the morning, I went into labor. Five days before the expected due date.

Ready to meet our baby...

Overall, labor was not that horrible... just 12 hours and only a hour and a half of pushing. Having an epidural is amazing and I highly recommend it! Wyatt Scott Heinze entered the world at 10:45 in the morning.

Wyatt came into the world crying and pooping on our doctor. For a brief moment, Wyatt was placed on my chest as a nurse started to dry him off. At that point in time, Wyatt's coloring was not changing to a pink color and the nurse quickly took him off of me. More nurses came into the room and at that moment I knew something was not right.

It is crazy how much love and concern you have the minute your child is born. As the nurses were working on Wyatt, our doctor explained that Wyatt had a very short, thin umbilical cord that had been wrapped around his neck. Kevin and I were informed by a nurse that Wyatt was going to be taken to the NICU to help regulate his breathing. I was able to hold Wyatt for just a second and give him a kiss before they wheeled him out. Kevin was able to follow the team to the NICU to stay in the loop to what was going on.

While in the NICU, the nurses put a feeding tube down this throat, an oxygen tube in his nose, and an IV in his scalp. Wyatt was hooked up to lots of monitors to regulate his heart beat and breathing.

After about 3 hours, Kevin and I were escorted by a nurse to the NICU where we could see Wyatt for a few minutes before going to our new room. It was a great feeling being able to see Wyatt and so sad seeing him hooked up to so many machines and having lots of cords on him. At this point in time we were still not able to hold him.

Finally, about 10 hours after Wyatt was born Kevin and I were able to hold and love on our son for the first time. It was such an amazing feeling and so hard leaving him in the NICU at night.