Birth Story

I'm going to try and at least get started on this post. It may take me a few days to finish it but I wanted to get some more pictures up.

We're all home together now. I had a pretty short hospital stay and came home Thursday morning. It has been wonderful sleeping in my bed again and feeling so comfortable at night. Now, of course, I just can't get enough sleep but such is life with a newborn. Nathaniel has really been a good baby so far so I can't complain. Plus, Marsha came here late Thursday night and has been such a huge help so I've really been taken care of.

Now for the birth story. Joe ended up getting work off Monday morning so we were all just kind of putting around trying to get stuff ready until it was time to go. My parents came close to 11am to watch the girls and then it was time to be off. Before we left, my dad and Joe gave me a blessing which really helped to calm my nerves.

I figured once we got to the hospital we'd just be sitting around waiting for the c-section to happen but we really didn't have much down time between blood tests, getting the IV in, signing paperwork, and whatever else we did. Anyway, 1:30 rolled around and Joe and I couldn't believe the time went that fast.

Here's us waiting for the surgery

I think this is during the surgery

It was a little different this time since they took me back to the operating room by myself while they did the spinal and got everything ready. It was kind of frightening sitting up there on the table by myself with everyone working on various parts of my body but it was pretty painless luckily and was over fast. It helped when Joe came in to be with me. It sure seemed like they were tugging on me a lot this time, especially right at the end. They were talking about his hair and it seemed like it took forever to get him out. I guess it was a little harder with a bigger baby. They said my scarring wasn't bad at all and the doctor even pronounced that I could have "4 or 5 more". He was kidding, of course, as Joe is always quick to remind me :).

Joe got a little woozy at the end this time, which I noticed only because he sat down for a little bit. I am amazed that he can watch as much as he does. Just from the tugging I felt I knew it couldn't be pretty.

Here's my first view of our beautiful boy
The first features everyone noticed were his big lips and reddish hair
(I don't see much red in it now but it did look a little red for awhile in the hospital)

So big and healthy

Getting some cuddle time while they sewed me up
Here's some from the recovery room with his eyes open
(and me bawling like a baby of course)
Back in my room enjoying some jello
Our little burrito
Getting some love from his big sisters

This experience has been vastly different from the other two. It was so wonderful to have Nathaniel with us the whole time. It was kind of strange, though. Joe and I both kept wondering when they were going to take him away or hook him up to monitors. In fact it kind of made us anxious not to know for sure what his heart rate, pulse-ox, and respirations levels were. He is healthy, though, and eats like a pro. It's amazing to me that he has the whole suck/swallow/breathe concept down since it took the girls so long to master that. I have to admit, though, that it hasn't been quite as easy of a recovery for me with a newborn to take care of. The initial recovery went well and I was up and moving in the hospital pretty quickly but it's the further recovery now that I'm home that is taking longer than I expected. I guess a lot of that is just having 3 kids. It will be hard when Marsha goes home since I have been relying on her a lot.

I really don't want to jinx myself but little Nate is really a good baby and has only been waking me up two times a night, although sometimes he has a hard time going back to sleep. At least he's not up every two hours. He is rarely fussy. He is so alert, too, and loves to just take everything in. He is so sweet and we love having him in our family.

The challenge since we've come home is that both Elizabeth and Natalie have been sick with colds. As always, Elizabeth has it worse and has had a hacking cough. It has been hard to keep her away from the baby, especially since she wants to hold him so badly. Hopefully she will be over it soon.

OK, I think I'd better finish this and post it before I miss the opportunity. Thank you everyone for the comments and congratulations.