4 Weeks Ago I had a Baby

Due to my hugely swollen ankles and feet and my overall gigantic-ness, I felt sure I would go into labor on my own this time. No such luck. On February 24th I went in at 6:30 am to get induced. This was probably my easiest labor. At 7:45 I got hooked up with my IV and the pitocin drip started. At 8:20 the doctor broke my water. Of which there was a river (something I don't remember with my other ones). An hour later I got my epidural before anything got painful. The epidural was actually TOO strong. I couldn't feel a thing and started to feel like I was going to pass out from being lightheaded and my blood pressure dropping. So they gave me some epinephrine and turned the epidural down 3 points and all was well after that. Before I knew it was time to push. I had to be told because I couldn't feel a thing. I started pushing by noon. It was all so casual since I wasn't in any pain or anything, the doctor was just chatting with the nurse not even facing me and I was worried I was going to push the baby out while she wasn't looking and no one was even going to catch it. Occasionally she would take a peek and tell me what an "amazing birth canal" I had and to push again. At 12:28 Evan was born, all 8 lbs. 12 oz. and 21 1/4 inches of him.

My friend Kam came and took some gorgeous pictures of him in the hospital. All subsequent pictures have been on my iPhone and they look really bad.

Chad finally got his male heir.

He has delicious, furry, squishy cheeks

Welcome to the world, little man!

What our life is like now....

There was a lot of sibling love going on the first few days, which combined with my postpartum hormones and lack of sleep caused a lot of anxiety and grouchiness on my part. But things are better now.

It is definitely weird having a baby after an almost 5 year break. The basics I remember, but I feel like I'm learning all over again how to figure out the Eat, Activity, Sleep time scheduling. I keep re-reading my old copy of Secrets of the Baby Whisperer. I shouldn't complain, he is a textbook baby so far, and no more difficult to get to sleep than any other. I'm just out of practice and have forgotten what it feels like to be sleep deprived.

My biggest challenge is keeping up our schedule with the other kids, when all I want to do is sit on the couch and watch TV and hold my baby--not drive carpools and go to gymnastics and soccer practice.

My one triumph is I give him 2 oz. of formula in a bottle a day. I've never been successful having any of my other kids on both breast and bottle so I was determined to do it with this one. Just knowing I can have a tiny ounce of freedom if I need it means so much to me.

So now we are just getting into our routine. Chad threw his back out a few weeks ago. He likes to make sure that he gets his moment whenever I have a baby: a kidney stone 2 weeks before I had Rylee, a migraine during my labor with Avery that was bad enough for him to leave the hospital and miss the birth. And I don't remember what happened with Izzy, but I'm sure there was something.

I lost 20 pounds and then plateaued and proceeded to gain 2 pounds back thanks to Cadbury Mini Eggs. I have another 20-25 to go and no pants in sight that I even remotely fit into. And that's when I reach for the Mini Eggs to make me feel better.

I wish I could just hideout in my house with those Mini Eggs, Evan asleep on my chest, and Downton Abbey going on repeat in the background. Oh, well.