So Lucas made it a Mother's Day I will never forget! And as Steve reminded me today, hopefully I will never have a Mother's Day where I have to work quite that hard either! Steve and Maggie were at church that morning, when I noticed I had a major nosebleed while eating breakfast. Used the home monitor to see my blood pressure was really high, called the on-call physician, and they directed me to Labor and Delivery again to be monitored for a few hours. Like the previous week, my blood pressure calmed down but they wanted me monitored for 2 hours before releasing me since I had been at a '4' for three days and was still contracting. We just kind of assumed we were heading home; I was working on thank-you notes and Steve took off for a bit. But when the nurse did a final exam at 2 pm to call the doctor with the results, my water broke...so we were staying!
Everything actually went very smoothly. In retrospect, it may have been a good thing that my water broke at the hospital. I actually got to try most of the things on my birth plan this time. I used the labor tub for about an hour until I'd dilated to a '6' at 3:30 pm. Steve and I walked the halls, and I sat on the exercise ball. Either the water had really helped mask the pain or things were getting intense. Back in the tub at 4:30 and maybe 15 minutes later, I was having enough pressure that the nurse checked me, ordered me out of the tub and called the doctor. So yes, I made it through sans epidural again -- only a few minutes of wondering what in the world was I thinking with that decision!
Now the semi-funny part of this whole story was that neither of us realized the baby was that close to arriving. Both our families were in town, as they'd planned to be for Mother's Day. Around 4:55 or 5 pm, Steve's parents were bringing Maggie to the hospital. So his cell phone rings and he leaves the room, which was a flurry to set-up activity at that point. Maybe 3-5 minutes later the nurses start flipping out. "Where's Dad? He's going to miss the whole thing!" The doctor wasn't there yet, and I hadn't pushed once...so this was a little confusing to me. I kept telling him that he was out in the hall on the phone, but they couldn't find him. He was in the OB waiting room visiting with Maggie and his folks. Luckily he cut the visit short just in time, and headed back down the hall to see my doctor fly past him in scrubs.
I think I started pushing about 2 minutes after Steve returned to the room. This round was nothing like Maggie, who took 20-30 minutes. One push and the head was out, two pushes and we had a baby. Lucas was born at 5:15 pm on Mother's Day -- 9 lbs and 10 oz and 20 inches long with reddish-brown hair and slate blue eyes.
The first week home was pretty challenging. We'll spare you all the details but it involved an ER visit the first night he was home (bloody spit-up that thankfully was nothing major), weight loss for several days, and constant monitoring for his billirubin levels. He is an adorable little guy on the whole though. To answer the million dollar question, his big sister Maggie thinks he is pretty great. If anything, she's a bit too loving and affectionate - lots of kisses and hugs and trying to feed him Cheerios.
I am still on maternity leave until after the Fourth of July, but it has been busy the whole time. Primarily due to the fact that Luke is what most would call a "high-maintenance" baby. We're not sure if it's acid reflux or colic, but he just does not sleep very well or like to be put down and doesn't like swings, bouncy seats, or pacifiers. This makes it difficult to get much of anything done around the house without incessant screaming, but I'm trying to force myself and schedule some outings with him. (As I type, we have just returned from an emergency trip to Steak N Shake happy hour to get Lucas to fall asleep for his second real nap of the day...and soothe mom's nerves with a milkshake!)
Despite all the worrying and complaining we may have done the past few weeks, we feel incredibly fortunate to have this little man join our family. He's already starting to change on us. He gained approximately 2 1/2 pounds between his 2 week and 1 month check-ups, clocking in at 12 lbs 3 oz and 21 3/4 inches. He's rolled over for us (tummy to back) approximately 8 times - know it's kind of a fluke thing but he's kept it up. He's also starting to do some of the standard baby things -- being fascinated by fans and lights -- and occasionally sleeping for 4-5 hour stints at night. We're looking forward to him growing even more and starting to do a few field trips soon.
In the meantime, thanks to everyone for the prayers, well-wishes, and incredible meals. It has meant a lot to have your support and help the past few months!
1 comment:
Loved hearing about the birth! I can't believe you did it meds free-I want to try it as well so you give me hope. Congrats again on a beautiful family!
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