Welcome to the world

10:20 a.m. May 13, 2009 —  My water broke.  At first I wasn’t sure that it had actually happened.  With the other two it was a huge gush and there was no mistaking what was happening.  But this was different.  Still, I had a feeling it was my water. 

I went about my day anyway.  I fed the boys their breakfast and did our normal morning routine.  I went downstairs to help them put in a movie and just as I stepped on the last step I felt another little burst of water.  So I grabbed the phone and ran to the bathroom.  By this time it was around 11 a.m.  I called DH and told him that it was go time and he headed home from work right away.  He called me on the cell while he was on his way home just to talk to me and keep track of what was going on.  He said he was hungry so he asked if it was ok if he made a quick stop at McDonald’s on his way by to grab some lunch.  I told him that it was fine, still was feeling fine at that point and there was no imminent hurry.  In the meantime, I had called my Mom to let her know that I was in the early stages of labor.  She jumped in the car and headed down here so she could take care of the other boys when we had to head to the hospital.  She made it here in record time!  lol

DH got home around 11:30 with lunch in hand.  We all sat down to eat a bit.  Around 12:30 my Mom arrived.  At this point I was still having NO contractions at all.  Since I wasn’t contracting and there seemed to be no hurry we just sat around the house waiting it out a little longer.  Around 3 I got a call from the hospital wanting to know if I was actually going to head in at some point that day.  lol  So then I decided to get ready and head in.  So I went and took a shower and got dressed.  DH got the car all loaded with the bags.  And like a true nervous Daddy to be, he decided THEN was the right time to install the carseat and switch around the other boy’s seats.  Still no contractions so I wasn’t exactly in a hurry to go and sit in the hospital, but it was rather silly that he suddenly found all this stuff he just HAD to do. (he did this with the first two, so it wasn’t a surprise)   Finally my Mom couldn’t take it any more and came out and told him that she thought it was time to take me in….NOW.  lol  So he finished up what he was doing so we could get ready and go.  The boy’s came out and gave me hugs and kisses.  I never thought it would be that hard to give them a hug and leave but it was.  I looked at the two of them standing in the front yard all smiles, waving and yelling out "Bye, love you Momma!" as we backed out of the driveway and drove away.  And I looked at J and couldn’t believe how little he was and that soon he wouldn’t be my ‘baby’ anymore.  And I cried.  Suddenly it all came rushing into my head that life was about to change big time.

Got to the hospital around 4.  Walked up to labor and delivery so we could get all settled in.  Got changed and hooked up to the monitors and started with the million questions they needed to know to finish the check in process.  Found out that the midwife on call that day was the same one that delivered our first son.  Finally got checked just before 5 and I was at 3 cm.  My first reaction was "you’ve got to be kidding me!"  lol  With my first son I arrived at the hospital after being in labor for 2 hours and was at 4 cm.  Here I had been in labor for over 6 hours and I was only at a 3.  I have to admit, I got a little discouraged at that point that it was going to be a loooonnnnggg night.  But after the monitors came off and they had done all of the checks they needed I was able to get up and walk.  Wasn’t long after that I started to feel some contractions starting.  By 6-6:30 I was having some pretty good contractions.  Just happened that around that same time we got hit with this horrendous thunderstorm.  When that moved in suddenly I got these strong, double you over in pain contractions.  DH came back from eating dinner after 6:30.  Between five and 6 they had decided they were going to put in an IV line, just in case I may need it later.  One nurse tried, and failed miserably.  She, thankfully, gave up and said she would call the IV Therapy dept and have some one sent up to do it instead.  Wasn’t long that this guy arrived to put the IV in.  He tried and tried for about an hour to get the IV inserted.  He felt so bad that he wasn’t having much luck and kept apologizing for it.  I said it was no biggie, I’m a very hard stick when it comes to blood draws or IV’s.  He said he was so glad to see that I was able to laugh through it all and not get angry about it.  Finally, after 3 separate pokes in different areas and numerous rooting around under the skin he finally found a vein that didn’t disappear as soon as he poked it and we FINALLY got the IV in.  At that point my contractions were coming about every 4-5 minutes but were mild enough I could talk and breath right through them.

By 7 p.m. I was laboring in the whirlpool tub.  I liked that with the first one, didn’t have a chance to do it with our second.  But since I seemed to have some time, and the contractions were getting stronger, I opted to give the tub a try.  It helped a great deal.  I actually sat and ate some of my dinner in the tub!  lol  (I was STARVING by then, usually don’t want to eat during labor but I didn’t think I would make it if I didn’t eat something.  So I got chicken broth and Jello…yum!)  I stayed in the tub laboring for about an hour or so.  And all of a sudden I got the urge that I needed to push soon.  So DH ran out and got the nurse and told her that I was getting to the point where I felt like I was going to have to push soon. So the nurse and the midwife came in and helped get me out of the tub.  Just as I stepped out of the tub I got hit with a HUGE contraction.  The midwife hurried me back to the bed and got me settled back in there once I was able to walk again.  I got checked again around 8:20 p.m. and I was at a 7.  A few more contractions and an even stronger urge to want to push and she checked again and I was at 9 cm by 8:30 p.m.  I was fully effaced but had a small cervical lip still hanging in there. So with the last check and another contraction the midwife helped push that lip out of the way.  Once she did that things seemed to really move along.  At 8:37 p.m. she checked once again and I was at 10 cm and ready to do some serious pushing.  Next contraction and push and she announced that the baby’s nose was delivered.  Second contraction and push and the head was out.  Next contraction and push and the baby was delivered at 8:42 p.m.

She asked if DH had made the announcement yet.  He said he hadn’t had a good chance to look, but he thought it might be a boy. She confirmed that it was a boy.  They laid him on my chest and he was perfect.  DH cut the cord.  And for the next couple of hours we just spent time hanging out.

The nursery people finally came i

n and did whatever it is that they do.  His Apgar scores came back at 9 and 9 so they said he was doing just great.  They brought in the scale and DH laid him on it.  We had all been discussing how big we thought he was.  To me he looked way smaller than my other two boys, the midwife and the nurses were guessing somewhere in the 7’s.  So imagine our surprise when the scale registered at 8 lbs. 12 1/2 oz!!!!  Wow!  Then they measured him and he was 20 inches long.  The midwife said had he waited until his due date 3 days later he would have easily made it to 9 lbs.  Yikes!  Thank goodness he didn’t wait. lol  And thank goodness he didn’t decide to be super stubborn so that I would have had to wait until the following week to be induced because he would have been huge.

While I rested DH made the call to our parents to let them know it was over and they had another grandson.  Everyone was waiting on pins and needles to know what we had.  They all wanted a girl so I’m sure there were a few disappointed moments when they all got the news of another boy. But he was healthy and beautiful and that was all that mattered to us.

Around 11 or so they had me go and soak in the tub again.  My back was killing me and I was achy from the delivery. So the super hot bath was wonderful.  Made me feel like a human being again, woke me up, and gave me the energy to spend some time with DH and the baby.  Once I was out of the tub they put me in a wheel chair and packed up all our stuff and we headed out of the labor room.  At the hospital where we deliver before you leave the delivery area to go to your post partum room they stop you just inside these big fancy double doors that lead to the other ward and they play a lullaby over the intercome system so that the whole hospital can hear it, then everyone knows a new baby has entered the world. It’s rather cool.  When it’s done playing they wheel you out through the waiting area for the family and onto the maternity ward.

They took us to our post partum room and we had to laugh.  It was the exact same room we had when we had our first son.  First we had the same midwife and then we got the same recovery room.  We got all settled in and we were both kind of wide awake so we just sat up talking and holding the new little guy before we settled in for the night.

He slept awesome that first night.  I know part of it was probably because of the drama of just being born and tired out, but still.  We actually got a really decent amount of sleep that night, which was much appreciated.  Turns out that it wasn’t just a fluke for that night, he did that each night we were there.

We didn’t have a name picked out before we went to the hosptial.  We did go armed with the list of names we had been contemplating for a long time.  But nothing, at first, seemed to really jump out at us that just screamed that it was "the" name.  So one of our nurses brought us two name books to look through to see if we got any inspiration from that.  We scoured them and still couldn’t find anything different that we wanted.  So we just started trying out some of the names we had on our list.  And finally, on Friday, we decided on what his name would be.  The birth certificate people were finally pleased that we had made up our minds, the nurses were excited and went and made him a crib name tent.  And that’s how he became Evan Lucas.

Thursday evening, after our family practice Dr got done with clinic hours, he was circumcised.  Both DH and I decided that this time we would go along and watch the procedure.  It wasn’t what we expected but it wasn’t horrible.  He handled it like a champ.  Before they got started they strapped him into this little body shaped thing so that he wouldn’t be able to wiggle or kick during the procedure.  They were just about ready to get started and he decided to pee.  And let me tell you, that little boy can get some distance behind it!  lol  Our Dr jumped out of the way becuase she was wearing dry clean only clothes and he just about took care of that!  lol  Once that was all cleaned up they got underway with the procedure.  And almost the instant they were done and getting ready to take him off that little table he started to poop.  And he pooped and pooped and pooped.  Never could have thought such a little person would have so much in him to get rid of.  I felt so bad for the nurses that were trying to clean him up and clean up their table and stuff.  He most certainly left an impression with them all!  lol

Thursday night we had our celebration dinner.  They provide a special meal of our choice that got delivered to our room, complete with cloth napkins, wine glasses and sparkling grape juice.  It was really nice.

Friday DH left for a while to take care of some paperwork stuff at work to get the insurance stuff started for Evan.  While he was gone I had my lunch and rested a bit.  By about 3:30 I wasn’t feeling so great so I tried to take another short nap to see if that might help.  But it didn’t seem to help much.  So I just decided that I would rather be at home than to just sit there feeling kind of miserable.  So we started packing up and getting ready to be discharged.  It took the nurse who was supposed to help discharge us a whole hour before she got us out of there and on our way, she was sooooo slow it was painful.  And we were pre-discharged!  All they had to do was remove the umbilical clip and security monitor off of Evan and get us out the door.  We finally left the hospital around 6.  Got home around 6:30.  Almost immediately when I walked in the house I headed up to the bathroom becuase suddenly I felt REALLY bad.  Ended up throwing up everything I had eaten that day.  I felt better after that but not for long.

Over the next few hours I felt worse and worse.  I figured it must have been something I ate that just wasn’t setting well with me.  I ended up sleeping the majority of the rest of the day.  Around midnight I guess I started to freak out my Mom and DH.  I was talking out of my head, and apparently reliving the birth.  I was running a temp of 103.5 and burning up and cold all at the same time.  I slept fitfully throughout the night.  Finally around 4:30 a.m. on Saturday morning I told my Mom that I was having some severe pain in my right side.  I went up to the bathroom and by the time I came back down I couldn’t hardly walk and I couldn’t stand up straight.  We decided maybe it was time to go to the ER.  She went and told DH that we were heading in to the ER because I was having right side pain and couldn’t stand up.  She helped me get ready and she took me in.  We got there around 5 a.m. and got an IV hooked up almost immediately.  They were trying to determine what was causing the pain.  At first the Dr thought the same things I was thinking:  1) appendicitis or 2) that there was still placenta pieces that were left behind after delivery that the midwife missed.  He ruled out appendicitis pretty quickly.  And decided then to ru

n some lab tests to see if they revealed anything.  If they hadn’t then he was going to have the OB/GYN on call come and do an ultrasound to see if there was a post delivery issue causing the pain.  But the lab results came back that my white blood cell count was high, indicating I had an infection.  They finally discovered that I had a bladder and urninary tract infection ravaging my body.  The pain I was feeling was from that but the pain I was feeling that was snaking around my side heading towards my back was the infection spreading and heading towards my kidneys.  Thankfully we caught it before it reached the kidneys though.  We finally were able to leave the ER around 8 a.m.  We barely had left the hospital when they called my house looking for me, they had intended to give me IV antibiotics while I was there but they forgot.  They wanted me to turn around and come back and if not then I needed to take my meds ASAP.  On our way home we tried to get the prescriptions but they didn’t open for over an hour, so my Mom just brought me home and got me settle din to sleep again.  And DH went and got all my meds and anything else I needed.  I ended up being on some pretty strong antibiotics for 10 days, anti nausea meds, and some kind of narcotic pain killers (which I never took).  I pretty much lost that whole weekend once we were home but I felt better after a few doses of the meds.  they figured that I had had the infection for quite some time while I was pregnant and just never knew it.  Why it reared it’s ugly head then I don’t know.

But here we are two weeks later.  My Mom has gone back home.  DH has been back to work since our 3 day stay in the hospital (he didn’t get any time off).  And now it’s just me and my three boys.  K and J LOVE their new baby brother.  Everywhere we go they tell everyone and anyone that will listen about their new baby brother.  They hug and kiss on him all the time and tell him they love him.  They won’t go to bed at night without giving him hugs and kisses and telling him goodnight and sweet dreams.  In the morning they can’t wait for him to wake up so they can tell him good morning and love on him some more.  J is my "helper", he likes to get me a diaper so I can change Evan and he watches me get the bottle ready and wants to "shake it", and then helps me burp him when he’s done eating. If the baby even as much squeaks J says "oh no, baby crying" and gets this super concerned look on his face and goes to him and pats his arm and tells him "you fine, you ok" over and over again.  K is a huge helper as well.  He helps out with whatever J needs.  If we need to go out of the house he has taken on the task of holding J’s hand and helping him get around safely.  He opens the van door so J can crawl in and get in his carseat so all I have to do is buckle the straps.  He’s been an awesome help to me and is so proud to do it too.  The day they visited in the hospital he immediately went to the bassinet and looked at the baby all smiles and held his hand and said "hi baby, I’m Kyle, I’m your big brother".  It was soooo cute!  And he was all smiles when he got to sit and hold the baby and looked at me and said "Momma I’m the big brother and I’m going to be the babysitter for the baby."  They both love him to pieces and have adjusted wonderfully to the changes.  Couldn’t ask for more!

At his one week check up he was back up to birth weight at 8 lbs 12 oz so he didn’t have to go back for a month now.  And he managed to fight off the jaundice we thought he might get from all of the bruising on his face and head from delivery.  So no hassles with that sort of thing.  He’s doing awesome.  They all are.  As I’m sitting here typing this K is sitting on the floor next to Evan holding his hand and telling him what cute little fingers he has and covering him up with his blanket so he doesn’t get cold.  J is sitting next to both of them talking to the baby and giving him loves.  and the best part is that J tries so hard to say Evan’s name.  But it comes out sounding like Oven instead.  lol  It’s way to cute.  And one day he tried to say "Evan baby" and it came out "Oven baked", it had us all in stitches!  lol  But I love my boys, wouldn’t trade any of them for anything in the world.

Life is good…….