On Friday, May 24th we welcomed our sweet baby boy James! He was born at 11:39pm and weighed 5 lbs. 15 oz. and was 20 inches long! If you are interested in the full birth story, you can find that below:
Beginning Thursday night around 11pm, I started to have some small contractions. They progressed throughout the night and became more uncomfortable and more frequent. They kept me up all night and I almost went in to the hospital! I called labor and delivery at about 4:30am and they said if they kept up their frequency for another hour to come in, and of course, they moved further apart rather than closer together!
Friday I continued to have contractions but they were about every 20 minutes and nothing too bad. I had a doctors appointment that afternoon. I got Elise put down for her nap and passed my monitor up to my upstairs neighbor, Sarah, to listen to her while I was gone. At the appointment I had really high blood pressure and my doctor checked me and I was at a 3! He was slightly worried I might have pre-eclampsia so he thought I should get some blood work done over at labor and delivery since it would be a faster process over there. After thinking on that for a few more minutes, he decided he would just induce me instead! Next thing I know I'm getting dressed in a hospital gown and calling Zack, my mom and Sarah to let them know in our change of plans!
After getting in my gown, and hooked up to all the monitors they started me on pitocin at about 4:30pm. I started to feel my contractions about every 10 minutes and they increased in pain so I ordered my epidural. I was numb on one leg but not the other and it seemed to do nothing for my pain. So we called in the anesthesiologist not one but three times to make me fully numb. And let me tell you, I was numb! Nurses and doctors would come in to check me and say you're going to feel some pressure and I kept thinking, no, no I won't! Which was great and exactly what I wanted!
Elise meeting baby brother for the first time!
They checked me at about 10:45pm and I was dilated to a 10! They had me do a trial push and said that I did a great job! This made me feel good because since I was so numb I was worried I wouldn't be able to push well since I couldn't feel anything. I started to push around 11pm and, of course, as soon as it was pushing time my contractions went from every 2 minutes to every 5 minutes so we had to wait a little longer between pushes. After about a half hour he was born! He arrived at 11:39pm and was absolutely perfect!
Fred and Kathy visiting baby James
It was a whole new experience for me to have done a vbac because Elise was an emergency c-section. It was very cool to get to hold him immediately after birth and be able to watch them clean him off and weigh him, etc. It was also nice to be able to nurse him not too long after. With Elise it had been a good 3 hours or more before I held her or nursed her.
Katie, Emily and Sarah came to meet James!
Recovery has been going great so far! My mom flew into town on Saturday night and came straight to the hospital to meet her newest Grandson. She and Zack were great taking care of Elise while I stayed at the hospital. It was nice to just have the quiet moments in the hospital with just me and James. I was discharged Sunday evening and have been doing great at home, with help from my mom!
Picture time with mom
Elise has been doing really well with having James home. She really loves her little brother- perhaps a little too much! I keep saying to my mom, I don't know how anyone survived an older sibling. She constantly wants to hold him and kiss him. I definitely have to keep my eye on her at all times! James is doing really well. I took him to his first doctors appointment today and he already weighs 6 lbs. 2 oz!! Way to go buddy!! Having two kids is certainly a challenge and I know it will only be harder when my mom leaves next week, but we couldn't be happier to have this sweet little boy in our lives!
Farewell dinner from the hospital- it was yummy!!
Always wanting to hold baby brother! She loves him so much!
