Latest family member

(sadly my pics are unavailable till I figure out how to resize them. I no longer have access to iPhoto)

So, the last month has been a bit on the crazy side of things. I finally got around to getting seen for my tooth that broke back in January. Turned out that it needed a root canal but it was salvageable with a crown. Medicaid paid for metal fillings (I needed 4) and a metal crown - I paid for the upgrades to ceramic, so my mouth is still all white. Yay!

I got the fillings and crown on the 18th and on the 19th of August I started having real contractions. I could tell from the start that they were different than the ones I'd had before. Even though I'd been in the hospital twice with serious contractions, the ones on the 19th were definitely different. For one thing, I could feel them deeper down in my belly and by early afternoon they had settled into my back. I was pretty sure that meant baby was coming so I cleaned up around the house, took a shower, and packed the hospital bag. It helped me feel at least a little bit prepared.

Since my parents were unavailable (mom was on a cruise with her mom and sisters, and dad was at work), we packed the kids into the car and headed to the hospital around 7 pm. I was dilated to a 3. I got two doses of the muscle relaxant that sometimes helps stop labor, because the doc was hoping we could put off the inevitable for a few more weeks.

When the doctor got there a little after 9 pm, we decided to break my water and just have the baby since my contractions weren't stopping. I was still dilated to a 3, but my bag of waters was bulging through, and given my history with super quick births, we figured maybe we could just get it over with quickly. My brother Daniel helpfully brought his son Ethan over to stay with the kids so it was just me and Brent and nurse Jennifer for the majority of the evening.

I progressed quickly, but not so quickly as we thought I might. Dr. Saunders went off to rest up and wait for me to be ready and the nurse assigned to me was amazingly helpful. She helped me labor in various positions and checked me periodically. After 2 hours, I was dilated to a 7 and I stayed there for about an hour. I got up and went to the bathroom, labored in various positions, and even spent about half an hour on my knees. Jennifer helpfully pressed on my lower back and rocked my hips back and forth during the contractions, which relieved huge amounts of back pain.

Finally about 12:30 am, Jennifer wanted to check me again so I got back up. Still dilated to a 7, she suggested I lay on my side. I was up for something different, but when the next contraction hit (they were almost on top of each other by this time) it was super painful and I knew that position was a really bad idea. Turns out that was transition, and when she checked me again just a few minutes later I was at a 9 1/2 (about 3 minutes had passed).

Another nurse popped her head in and Jennifer yelled for her to get the doctor. By this time I was really whimpering through the contractions and there was no down time between them at all. Hoping it was time to push, I gave a tentative one while Jennifer was putting on her gloves and she told me to stop. But then it really was time to push. She tried to get me to grunt through it - only short little bursts, no real pushing, but I knew this was it: "no! he's coming NOW!"

One big push and out he came. The official time was 12:42 am. Jennifer was still putting on her second glove, so little Oscar came out on the bed. Jennifer joked afterward that if it had been a shorter bed he would have shot out onto the floor.

With that one push I finally felt relief. No tearing and really there was no pain. Just the relief of the push. That part was essentially the same as with Amelia.

Less than a minute later Dr. Saunders came in. So yeah, no doctor attended the birth. Jennifer and Dr. Saunders spent a few minutes checking him out and making sure he was okay, while I got ready to hold my new baby. I had told both of them that I wanted to do skin to skin, but in the excitement the cord got cut immediately (we wanted to wait a minute) and he got passed to the special care nurse. Again I expressed my desire to hold him naked against my skin but nobody heard, so when I finally got him he was wrapped tightly. Dang it. That was really my only disappointment with the experience.

Little Oz was breathing a little fast so he was taken to the special care nursery. They did a skin response test that essentially told them his blood sugar was a little low. They decided to start an IV just to get some fluids in him, but it took them a long time to get it started. Apparently the strain was enough that Oscar cried heartily, opening up his lungs and clearing up the breathing issue. The special care nurses finally called in the on-call neonatologist, who got the IV started in his foot.

I felt great, a bit on the wired side. I did send Brent home to stay with the kids so Ethan wouldn't get overwhelmed in case they woke up in the night.

Stats: 6 lbs 8 oz, 18 1/2 inches long. Lots of dark brown hair. Super cute, of course. I think he looks a lot more like me than the other two kids. Good looking, either way. :)

Oz initially nursed well, but after the first two times he cried every time I tried to nurse him. He did have the IV so we didn't have to give him a bottle. It took four more days for him to nurse again and then it was spotty. By a week and a half, the docs wanted him to get feedings every 3 hours, so I did power pumps before going to bed and allowed the night nurses to bottle feed at night so I could sleep. It was helpful because I was getting so tired I could barely function.

Let me tell you, leaving a kid in the hospital can be both exhausting and helpful. It's nice to sleep through the night, but it's terrible to not be able to take your newborn home.

Anyway, Little Oz did well with feedings and he was released on Friday, Sept 3 - two weeks after he was born. We've now had him at home for a week and he's great. We're slowly adjusting to having three little ones. It would be a bit easier if we didn't have sickness to deal with as well.

Oh, Brent got salmonella the week Oscar was born. There was a 288 million egg recall. Brent went to the doctor to get updated diabetes medicine and the doc thought he didn't really have salmonella. Our eggs weren't part of the recall so we wondered. But then there was another recall, this time of more than 300 million eggs, and this time our eggs were in the recall.

I finally got sick the day Oscar was released from the hospital, but mine was/is a really bad cold. Felix and Amelia have both gotten it, although thankfully not as bad.

So now, Felix starts out the night in his own room, although he almost always ends up with me in the big recliner in the office. Amelia sleeps on the floor next to the recliner and most of the time she makes it through the night. Not always though, so when I've got both kids in the chair with me I don't end up getting much sleep. Not that I can complain much. Brent takes Oscar through the night.

As disruptive as it is to sleep to deal with two toddlers, I don't have to wake completely up to deal with them. But feeding a newborn in the middle of the night would require complete wakefulness, so that would actually be harder on my sleep.

I know, totally selfish. But I LOVE that my babies love their daddy so much because he feeds them too. They are infinitely bonded to him and it makes my heart happy.

The kids are adjusting well to having a baby in the house. They seem perfectly accepting of his presence. I've tried to explain that mommy has a special kind of pocket (we started with talking about giraffes) where babies can grow called a uterus. And when baby Oscar got big enough he came out. If it had been earlier in the day, I would have kept the kids in the room to watch. Yeah, I'm that kind of mom. :) We also talk about nursing, and how only mommies have milk. I tell that that if it's been a long time since I nursed Oscar or since I pumped then I can get really sore. That's important for when the kids climb on me because really I get beyond sore sometimes.

As before, I'm really loving being a mom to a newborn. Oscar is a beautiful baby that I feel totally in love with.

And as always, I love to show him off. Feel free to stop by and ogle my gorgeous baby, as long as you're not sick. :)