Baby X...of course I won

This is going to be wordy and picture heavy. Sorry, but he's finally here! Xander Davis was born April 10, 2014 at 6:58pm, coming in at 7 lbs. 2 oz and 19.5" long.

I was having some blood pressure issues at home so went in for a quick check to get monitored at the doc's office in the morning. While I was getting monitored, I started going into labor. Go figure. All along I was looking to have a VBAC in high hopes that I wouldn't have to deal with the recovery of a c-section, but unfortunately, that wasn't in the cards.  They gave me the option of waiting out the contractions to see if I was making any progress or just going ahead with the c-section that night. I opted to wait and see what happened....nothing. They said I could go home, but the contractions were already about 2 minutes apart, so I wasn't sure what to do if I went home. How would I know if I was actually in labor or making progress? I have no idea how the logistics of checking my own cervix would work out, considering using the bathroom was already a bit difficult at my large size. :) There's a visual for ya. I threw in the towel and went with the c-section. At this time, I had already called in the hubs to help me through contractions, so when they told me I could be in the operating room within the hour, I freaked out. We didn't have a hospital bag, and there were a million people to call and inform them what was going on. I still had the bubs at daycare that needed to be picked up and dogs that would need to be fed and taken care of. Even with being relatively prepared, we realized there was no amount of preparation that we could've done to actually have all things in order for this delivery.

So phone calls were made and I was wheeled upstairs and prepped to get baby X into this world. I will never forget the complete anxiety I felt while getting prepped for my spinal and ready to meet this little man. I just wanted to keep him inside forever. I wasn't ready, no matter how ready I was to not be pregnant anymore. Once the STUDENT!!! got the spinal taken care of....that's right, another student doctor putting needles in my back (about as swell as that sounds)...we were ready to wait to hear the little man screaming away. This was all new to me since I was knocked out for the bub's arrival. Hubby sat next to my head and held my hand, probably just as scared as I was.

I will never forget the first time I heard him cry. Tears. There is nothing more amazing in the world than hearing your baby cry for the first time.

Hubs got up to see him and take pictures and bring him to me so I could smooch on him. It was wonderful. He stayed by my side all the way to the recovery room. Unfortunately, the rest of the night was miserable, as this momma does not handle the effects of anesthesia well. There were many buckets needed and lots of crackers and ice chips. Thankfully the baby was able to go to the nursery for the night, because I could barely sit up, let alone nurse and take care of a baby, as much as I was determined to keep trying.

Now little man is here and healthy and melting my heart. Big brother is smooching on him and trying to get mom's attention as much as possible. It's been interesting to say the least, but wonderful. More kids aren't out of the question, but it's going to be a while. I need to forget the effects of pregnancy and c-sections and giving birth before I dive into this madness again. And now the fun stuff....pictures!

He's seriously Jackson's twin. It's unreal. I can't wait to see how he looks as he grows to see if the similarity is still there. He's an alert baby and seems to wake up right at 3 hour increments to make sure he doesn't miss a feeding. He tends to bite, even without any teeth, so nursing has been a bit challenging, but I"m a determined brat, so we keep at it. People have recommended the lanolin cream, so it's on my list to find soon. I've been making a great freezer stash already, so hopefully my supply keeps up, because it was certainly not like this with the bub.

Off to get in some more relaxation while I'm enjoying a nice quiet house for a change. All the madness of dinner time will be starting soon.

Milestone

It might seem totally silly, but today is a milestone for us here. At this point in my pregnancy with the bub, I went to the doctor, and then went to the hospital. I had sever pre-eclampsia and was sent in to get some medicine to help bring my blood pressure down and try to get little man to keep baking as long as we could. In just a few more days, he was here.

This morning I had my 34-week checkup, and all looks good. Baby X is sitting very low and ready, but there's no action going on that anyone can tell. I get contractions all day every day, but even after weeks of that, I am still closed up nice and tight. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my body can do this, as another C-section doesn't really strike me as the best experience to have again. We've scheduled eviction day for April 21. I have to say that choosing when baby would come was not an easy task. I decided his due date was as good as any. Plus, it's with a doctor that I really like in the practice, even though it's not the same one I had with the bub. I'm hoping he does just as great at making the scar nice and tiny. But enough of that talk....fingers crossed baby pushes his own way out before then and I don't have to think about it at all.

Getting so close!

One thing that struck me as really odd was that I was really upset this weekend that I don't have much time left just as a family of 3. The bub was really sick over the weekend, and I had to do lots of late night snuggling. A part of me was just sad that I wouldn't have the time to give him soon, overwhelmed in what a newborn will bring. I'm hoping that he understands and this next step will be a great experience for us all. Brothers will be good, a permanent play mate, shoulder to lean on, and all sorts of other good things. Right?

41 days and counting...