06.15.09

One week old!! Well, actually more like a week and a half, but oh well. :) We are all doing well and thriving, adjusting to life as a family of four!

I can say with confidence that Oliver's world just about fell apart completely. LOL He had a really hard first few days. He took it out on everybody at some point in time, and at one point all we did was ask him to put on his socks, and he totally lost it and had a tantrum!! Jeremy and I realized that maybe our expectations of him were a teensy-weensy bit high, and after he and I made some adjustments, as well as some compromises, things are getting much better. Getting better everyday, actually. But I do have to say that this part took me by surprise. I was worried about having two children, the adjustment to be made with a baby again, the sleep deprivation!, but never did I worry too much about Oliver. He, by far, has had to make the biggest adjustment and in turn we were taken by surprise at how easy the baby seemed suddenly, and now how are we going to help our first child through this? But like I said each day gets a little better, but we have said more than once that we feel like we are in completely new territory for us, and that gets a bit scary sometimes!

Liam is doing great - he is such a good baby. He is starting to show little bits of his personality already...he is a finger sucker, by nature. I have never witnessed this before! But already if no pacifier is in reach, well, by all means, he has ten fingers! He has soothed himself to sleep twice already by doing this. He also takes after his father and brother in that he likes to be a *clean* baby. Liam cries for 2 reasons - he either needs to eat, or he has a wet/poopy diaper. Oliver grew into his cleanliness ... he could sit in a wet diaper all day long, didn't bother him! But not Liam - he cries pretty much within minutes of getting that diaper wet. And fine by me! The sooner that thing gets changed the less diaper rashes we'll ever have to deal with. He's a great sleeper and has already given us several 4-hour chunks of sleep. Makes you feel like a new person after getting 4 hours of sleep!! We are just so in love with him...I am so in love with him. Jeremy often asks, quite sarcastically, if he can *please* hold the baby now. :-)

Below is the birth story ... so men you might want to stop reading here. (There are pictures at the very bottom!) But if anybody is interested, I always like writing it down to share and to remember it by. I smile thinking of this labor and delivery, as it was really just what I was hoping for. God is good and many prayers were answered!

TTFN ~ J

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On Friday (6/6/09) I had an appointment just like every other Friday. Since I work in the office we'll often just have my appointment really quick, first thing in the morning. I had had 2 previous weekly visits, both times my cervix being closed, high, and basically not doing anything. Same old story as Oliver!! But this appointment, she said she was going to bring my cervix around to the front, because it was facing the back and after she did that she said I as dialated 2 cm! I was beyond excited, and I think we were both a little surprised. Now we need to back a little bit...

Starting Wednesday I had an intuition that Liam was going to be born soon. I even told Jeremy that it wouldn't be long. He just laughed and said "Yeah, right" and also something along the lines of that I had just jinxed it! But I just said again, really, that I didn't think it would be long until we met this baby. All throughout that day then I started having loose stools. Not fun, mind you, as well as embarassing! But I secretly hoped this was a sign labor was coming, as it often can be. Wednesday night I got little to no sleep. I could not get comfortable, I was in and out of the bathroom all night, I was having pains, and finally fell asleep at like 5 a.m. I told Jeremy to call work, tell them I'm going to be late. Thursday was hard again. Loose stools all day, lots of discomfort, just lots of pregnancy stuff. I kept wishing this all meant something, but really didn't believe it entirely. Thursday night was much better for sleep, but I did have one single solitary contraction that woke me up in the middle of the night with pain going through to my back. I stayed up and waited for the next one, thinking surely this was it! And ... it never came. One lousy contraction. Woopee!! LOL Well, then came Friday.

So now we're at my appointment and I'm dialated! Maybe that one contraction did more than I thought! :) Anyways, it's common to spot after getting checked and I did do that a little immediately after the appointment. I went about the day, having random contractions here and there but nothing too different from the Braxton Hicks I always get. Then about 2:30 I had one good contraction, and a pretty big urge to go to the bathroom. I got to the bathroom to have quite a bit of bloody show - requiring a pad. This was different than before. I went back to work, trying not to think too much about it. Then the contractions did start @ about 3:30. I started timing them and we were at about 8-10 minutes apart. I then talked to my Dr. and asked her if I get hooked up, just to see what was going on. Sure enough, they were showing up and pretty soon everybody started getting a little excited, because we really weren't expecting this! She checked me again right before 5:00, and I was now 3 cm! I think it really sunk in then that this was happening. She advised me not to leave, not to go home, but to stay in town. I just about called a good friend to see if I could go to her house, but then Dr. L told me to go to her house. She's beyond a good doctor...seriously. So after getting carpool squared away I hung out in her basement, laboring for a few hours until Jeremy got there. (He didn't think I was serious about this at all. It wasn't until the third phone call that he actually got the picture and started frantically running around the house packing! I think his favorite memory is telling Oliver I was going to have the baby and Oliver had to go to Hailey's house -- so Oliver went downstairs and got his shoes on and his backpack on his back all by himself and came upstairs and declared to daddy he was ready to go!) Dr. L was going to go the hospital to check on someone else, so we decided to go too and see where I was at. After getting admitted, she checked me again and I was now 4-5 cm (still CANNOT believe this! My body figured it out!!!) and this time then she broke my water and off we went! We labored for a few good hours working through each contraction. I reached the point though, where I no longer felt the desire to do it without the epidural. I started vomiting (did this Oliver too) and shaking, all signs of labor progressing. I asked to be checked and was 6 cm, so I decided to get the epidural then. The CRNA did such a great job - it was in within 5 minutes and was "just right." I could still move my legs, still feel the contractions, but it was much more manageable. We went like that for about 2 more hours until I was complete and ready to push. This is where fear kinda set in for me. I pushed, quite unsuccessfully, for 3+ hours with Oliver. That was horrible and I hated it. So I started pushing and the nurse said we had "some work to do," meaning more pushing. Dr. L came in and had me do a few good pushes and she seemed pleased, but did say that baby was OP - meaning coming face up, instead of face down. It makes pushing more difficult and can bring on some intense back labor. Many comments were made about the epidural being a good thing! They didn't need to tell me!! :) We had some good pushes and I kept thinking they were lying to me, just encouraging me to keep going so I wouldn't give up. (Dr. L knew I was worried about this part.) It wasn't until they told me to feel his head (OMGoodness!!) that I finally believed we were close to done. Maybe 3 pushes later Mr. Liam was born, 45 minutes after we had started pushing. I was so elated!! I know I screamed out loud and I got the great experience of holding him immediately after birth, also something I didn't get to do with Oliver. The resident later told me I was the happiest mother he had seen immediately after birth, and it made the experience very rewarding for him! He was great, Dr. L was great, the nurse was great. Everyone was so encouraging and it made such a difference. I didn't think I had bad care last time, until I had good care this time.

45 minutes later I was up using the bathroom and have been going ever since. Recovery is going well but I have awesome support at home in the form of an amazing husband and mother, as well as in-laws. I have to admit, after the death of an uncle, a grandma, and the loss of a much-wanted baby, life is pretty sweet right now. I'm typing with one hand, have puke all over my shirt, and 2 hours worth of dishes to do, but I haven't been this happy in a long time. :)

Many blessings~J