Luke and Laura

"Hi! It's Luke. Mom's tired, so I told her that I'd write this blog.

It's true, I do a lot of sleeping during the day, but I must be held at all times... If you put me down, I'll know. I'm also eating a lot so I can get to be big.

Last weekend Mom and Grandma took me to Las Vegas to meet all of her friends at work and church. They had been waiting a long time to meet me. I also got to go backstage at Cirque du Soleil's "LOVE" at the Mirage. I guess Mom forgot to take pictures.

Last week Mom, Grandma Aunt Cindy and I went to "Mountain Top Days" in Running Springs. There was a parade, games, booths and lots of food.

On Thursday we went to watch Aunt Cindy play softball.

It was the last game of the season and her team won!!

Uncle Andy and Cooper came too. We played on the playground after the game.

I must have been dreaming about something really serious or sad.

I can't remember what it was.

On Friday Cooper came over to play. Mom and Grandma took us on a walk. I'm not sure why Cooper looks so scared in this picture.

Today we went to church.

Every Sunday we have dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

I got to hang out with Grandpa for a while.

See you soon!"

Say hello to Luke Arlo Beesley, born July 7, 2011 at 10:00 pm (7-7-11). He weighed 6 lb. 7 oz., and was 19" long. He came as quite a surprise at 3 ½ weeks early. He was named after my Grandfather (my Mother’s Father), Arlo Hafen who passed away the day after he was born.

Here’s the story… It’s long, so feel free to skip to the pictures at any point.

My water broke at around 5am that morning. I didn’t really know what was happening only that I was leaking, and it was completely involuntary. I called Labor and Delivery at the hospital and they said to come on down. My mom and dad prepped the car and we drove down to the hospital. As it was 3 ½ weeks early, I had not yet packed a bag for the hospital. I was giving direction to my Mom and sisters as to what to pack.

When I arrived at the hospital I, of course took a ride in the wheelchair up to the second floor. They put me in a room and did a test to see what was going on. Turns out that my water had indeed ruptured and that baby was on his way! They called my doctor who was equally surprised to hear the news because I was at her office the afternoon before! She told me “fluid looks good, baby has not dropped yet, see you in a week.” At this point, I was not dilated at all and the baby had not started to move down yet. I was not at all ready for this to happen!

They started an IV for fluid and also because they were planning to give me pitocin to get things going. After a few hours I started feeling some contractions. At this point I was dilated to a 3, however I was fully effaced. (I didn’t really know what that meant because I had not yet had the child birth classes. Mom and I were signed up to take them the following Sunday. I really had no idea what was going on). I went ahead and got the epidural, albeit a little early, but I had heard stories about getting it too late. It worked like a charm! I was totally numb from the waist down and couldn’t feel the contractions. By now my Mom and Dad, Cindy, Lisa and Sonali were there with me. After a few more hours I started to feel a little pain on one side, and then it started to get a little stronger and started on the other side too. Then it was coming and going along with the contractions on the monitor. The nurses asked “on a scale of 1-10, where is the pain?” It wasn’t too bad yet, but I kept stressing that it was getting worse. A little advice to anyone in this situation… the pain is ALWAYS A 10!!! The nurse had not called the anesthesiologist yet, and it got really bad. They checked me again and I was now dilated to a 7 ½!!! The nurse said “we will have you roll onto your left, and then onto your right, then we should be ready to go!” Now that the epidural had mostly worn off I was so scared that I would have to go through the birth and feel everything. I was probably more scared about that than anything. I kept asking where he was and they kept telling me that he was on his way. It was pretty awful and painful until the anesthesiologist finally got there. For whatever reason he said that he could only give me one dose of medication. I could have it now or I could have it later. I had no idea if this would continue for 5 hours or 1 hour, but I was in pain and I wanted it now. Thankfully right after I was numb again the doctor said it was time to push. I had to push for about an hour before he arrived. It was hard work, but worth it. Baby Luke was born at 10:00 pm; around 17 hours after my water broke.

He didn’t cry much and looked perfect, except for the cone head… a pretty good cone head. It was such a great feeling to finally get to hold him! We had several visitors over the next few days and so many people expressing their love for little Luke.