Anson David Ropers-Huilman
Family Site

Born: 20:23 Tuesday, 5 September 2000 Stats: 22 inches, 8 lbs. 13.6 oz.

This site is for family members only (that's why you need the username and password). Here you will find a longer story of Anson's birth, more pictures, and hopefully soon, some movies. As with the main site, the pictures here are JPEG scanned to be small and will load "progressively," so Netscape users will need to wait a bit for them to clear as they load (Internet Explorer users have to wait the whole time with nothing until the image downlo ads) but they are still a little large, so please have patience.
P.S. The reason you needed to type another password is because I'm protecting the images as well. Now that you're in, you shouldn't need to use a password again... =8^)

Again, please note that the image names contain dates, so you know what happened when.

Cleaned up right after birth	With Gparents Ropers	With Mom
With Dad	Dad changing diapers	Anson and Mom first day home
Anson and Gpa Ropers	Anson and Gma Ropers	Anson and Dad sleeping
Anson and Dad playing	Anson and Dad changing diapers	Anson and Dad kissing

Mom and Dad found out they were pregnant with me on 27 December 1999, shortly after returning from their first trip to New Zealand.

During the pregnancy Mom and Dad took me into Dr. Kathy Guidry's office several times for ultrasound visits. All of them, except one, said I was due on 21 August 2000, the other one indicated I'd be here on the 18th. When I was a full week overdue, however, Mom and Dad had to decide what to do with me. Initially they decided to induce labor, but soon changed their minds. Dr. Guidry did schedule a final-call induction for Tuesday morning the 5th of September at 04:00 in case I didn't want to come on my own. I didn't.

That Monday night, the hospital called our house and said they were running a little behind because of all the other babies being born. They wanted Mom and Dad to call before they came. Fortunately, or unfortunately, they overslept until 06:00. Dad called in right away, but the nurse said they still weren't ready for us and that they would call us back when they were ready. That call came at 07:30 so we drove to Woman's Hospital in Baton Rouge, LA. Mom and Dad checked into the hospital and Mom was given an I.V. with Pitocin to help her start contactions. She was dialated to just over 1 cm at 09:30 when everything started.

The contractions were fairly easy at first, Mom and Dad were even playing cards. At noon Dr. Guidry came in to check on Mom and me. Mom had only dialated to around 3 cm so the Dr. decided to break Mom's water. After that, the contractions were quite a bit stronger and more intense. Mom and Dad had taken Lamaze classes so they practiced breathing and relaxation techniques to make things easier. Around 16:00, Mom was having a pretty rough time of it and really hadn't dialated much further so she decided to have an epidural. Shortly after the epidural was given, Mom was much more relaxed. By 17:30 Dad was getting hungry so he decided to run down to the cafeteria to eat. He was only gone for about 15 minutes, but when he came back, he heard some good news: Mom was ready. The nurse told Dad that as soon as he was done eating his cookies, Mom could start pushing!

The epidural Mom had was light, she could still move her legs and could even feel when the contractions were occuring. She pushed with the help of the nurse and Dad for about an hour. The nurse was checking Mom and me with each contraction. Soon, the nurse and Dad were able to see a little bit of my head crowning. But, the nurse wasn't pleased with my progress so she called Dr. Guidry in and she checked me out. She said that I was too high to use a forceps on and that, although I had dropped into the birth canal nicely, she was concerned as to whether I'd fit. Dad and Mom had already talked about this possibility, so it was a fairly quick decision to have me removed by a Cesarean section.

They gave Mom some anesthesia through her epidural that numbed her from the chest down. At precisely 20:00 they wheeled her down to the operating room, with Dad right at her side. Dad had to wait outside for a few minutes while they finished preparing Mom and getting the operating room set. But then he was allowed in and the operation started. Dad tells me he was able to see the whole procedure and even took pictures as I was removed from Mom. I was finally born at 20:23 on Tuesday, 5 September 2000.

It only took the nurses a few minutes to get me cleaned up and tested. Because I was delivered Cesarean they had to stick a tube down my nose and throat to clear out the remaining fluids. Yuck! Once all that was done, I was given to my Dad. He held me within 3 minutes of being born. Mom was still under anesthesia so she couldn't hold me, but Dad brought me over to her and she held my little hand. It was nice to see her after all that time!

After Mom was all sewn up, they wheeled us down to the family waiting area and I got to meet my my Grandma and Grandpa Ropers, but only for a little while. Mom was taken into a recovery room and I was wheeled up to the nursery to get cleaned up. Dad came up and watched me to make sure everything was O.K. By 22:00, I was back down in the room with Mom, Dad, and Grandma and Grandpa Ropers. It was good to be with them!

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The statements and opinions included in these pages are those of Brian D. Ropers-Huilman only. Any statements and opinions included in these pages are not those of Louisiana State University or the LSU Board of Supervisors.
© 2000 Brian D. Ropers-Huilman

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visitors since 17 September 2000