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| Last day of pregnancy |
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| Kids sporting their big brother/sister shirts |
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| Grandpa J stopped by the hospital |
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| First night home, spending quality time with sick Daddy |
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| Isaac wanted a picture with his brother |
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| Aunt Steph showing the love |
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Tomorrow Stephen will be one week old! Tonight I am reminiscing about what I was doing last Sunday night. Last Saturday night I had contractions during the night, but they never got closer than 10 minutes apart. Nate went to work on Sunday and I sent the kids to church with Tim and Jenny. I didn't want to risk having contractions in church. I called Nate around 3 pm and asked him to come home. The contractions weren't consistent, but they were painful enough that I had a hard time caring for the kids. We called my Mom and asked if she would rather spend the night at our house and have nothing happen or get a call in the middle of the night and have to drive out. She opted to spend the night at our house and we're all glad she did! I went to bed, but didn't sleep that night. The contractions were painful, but weren't getting closer together. Finally I had two contractions 5 minutes apart and woke Nate up. We got to the hospital at 3 am. I was really nervous they were going to say I was only 2 cm and send me home. But, I was 7 cm already! The nurse was just as surprised as I was. She told me I must have a high pain tolerance to progress that far before coming in. The contractions finally started coming regularly. I kept the pain medication option on the table, but wanted to see how far I could get without it. I mostly didn't want the drugs because the side effects scare me. I don't like the idea of catheters and IV's and I've heard the epidural horror stories. Although at 9 cm I was begging to get an epidural! I was just nervous I would be pushing for 2 hours or something. Thankfully I only pushed for about 20 minutes. Stephen was born at 9:03 am. It was neat that my Mom was able to see him enter the world too. I was floored at his weight, how did he fit inside of me?!
Stephen picked up on nursing right away. He did great the first night and I was feeling pretty good. We decided that I wouldn't stay a second night at the hospital. It sounded like a good idea at the time. We got home that night and Nate was super sick. He was out that night and of course Stephen was awake almost the whole night. I kept thinking, "why did I leave the nurses who could help me during the night?!" We spent Wednesday recovering at home. For Thanksgiving we went to my parent's house. My sister flew in that afternoon and has been helping us since then. She leaves this Wednesday and it will be hard to see her go!
(Adding this a couple days later.)
Stephen had his first bath on the 23rd. He didn't seem to mind it. We noticed his umbilical cord was starting to smell. He had a weight check on Saturday and the Dr. tugged the rest of the cord off. Thankfully the smell has gone away. He is gaining his weight back and nursing well. He had a couple good nights of going 3-4 hours between feedings and one night he went 5 hours! Of course last night he was eating every 2 hours and not sleeping well, growth spurt perhaps? I love the baby sounds he makes, the grunts and motor noises. We've had people from Faith CRC bringing us meals which is a huge help. Tomorrow morning I have to get the kids off to school by myself, should be interesting!
