Let's start this story on Friday, May 23rd. According to the records, I was 39 weeks and 1 day pregnant with mystery baby #4 (Thor or Hermione). The pregnancy had been very up and down as far as my mood and health but overall, not horrible but I was SUPER ready to be done. My blood pressure had been high at the beginning of a couple of my appointments, but it always went back to a regular zone by the end.
At my OB appointment that morning, my blood pressure was high. Not "holy crap go to the hospital now" high but high and after having pre-eclampsia with my pregnancy with Hazel, we're always on the lookout for that kind of thing. The nurse checked my blood pressure again at the end of the appointment and it was still high so the doctor sent me across the street to the hospital for a non-stress test.
I personally find the term "non-stress test" to be an oxymoron because pretty much if you're having one, you're stressed because either something's wrong or someone suspects something's wrong. Anyway, I called Jacob to give him an update but he didn't answer his phone. So I called my sister-in-law so she could try to get in touch with him. In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have called anyone because apparently I just ended up freaking everyone out. Oh well.
The test was...boring and by the end of the time, my blood pressure was back to normal. I was given a very specific list of symptoms to not ignore and sent home. Oh, and I was dilated to 4cm so one way or another, we were having a baby SOON. I spent Friday and Saturday either resting or getting last minute stuff done and eating some Rocket Burger deliciousness.
Come Sunday morning, I had a big headache, which is one of the big, bad symptoms with pre-eclampsia. So we got the kids all ready for church and dropped them off at the in-laws and headed back to the hospital to be monitored some more. My blood pressure was back up and didn't go down after a while so they called my doctor and she decided to induce me. I was SUPER happy about that since I've been induced with all the others so it's what I'm familiar with.
One of the crappy things is that I test positive for group B strep so I had to get 4 hours of antibiotics before they could start the pitocin so that made things take way longer than they really needed to. Plus those antibiotics SUCKED - it felt like my arm was being crushed. Not fun.
Anyway, they started the pitocin around 2pm and I got my epidural not long after that. The contractions picked up faster and with more intensity than with the other deliveries so I was really ready for it. Once I got the epidural, it was quasi-nap time until we got to pushing time. Since this was my fourth kid, we decided to skip the whole practice push thing. Oops. Turns out I was a bit less effective in that department this time around. I really thought I had things under control but I ended up pushing for quite a while (for me) - around 30 to 45 minutes, I think. I honestly didn't feel surprised that we had a baby boy on our hands. I super-duper promise we didn't know anything for sure but lots of different things in the pregnancy and different things with the doctors had me thinking he was a boy and I was right. Okay - Hazel was right. My guess was 99% based on Hazel thinking baby was a boy. She's been right about everyone's pregnancy for the last 4 years. Girl's got a gift.
So Mr. Thor entered the world at exactly 6pm, 8 pounds 12 ounces, 21 7/8 inches long (7/8: really people?). And I felt vindicated when they told me his size - our closest baby was Speed at 7 pounds 15 ounces so I think I did pretty good for him being so freaking huge. And his head is also enormous so: not my fault. :)
Look at the size of that noggin!
Already sucking on his fingers
This alertness lasted about an hour...and then he was OUT.
Loves his bath (and again: that head!)
Poor tired Daddy.
Why do they always put my kids' names in quotes? Do they think I'm not serious about the names? Or are they just hoping I'm not?
Home at last.
I remember that my first impression were that he was a super cute and super calm baby. He slept a TON the first night - I had to try really hard to get him to wake up to eat and even then, he'd barely eat at all. He has since made up for that. My recovery was the easiest one by far so that was nice too. Hazel and Speed love their new baby brother but Zizah generally just pretends he doesn't exist. Which is better than the alternative's I heard of so I'll take it.
And since I'm writing this 11 weeks after the fact, I can assure you that Thor is still a super sweet and cuddly baby who loves to eat, the kids still love him, and I've even caught Zizah playing with him nicely once or twice.
One Week Old
Two Weeks Old
Three Weeks Old
One Month Old
Blessing Day
Six Weeks Old
Two Months Old
2 1/2 Months Old
No comments:
Post a Comment