going home

Samuel was born on Tuesday Feb 1. We finally went home Saturday Feb 5 due to Samuel's jaundice which was holding at 12.4 again that day. We were ready to go but I was also nervous. I'm always scared when bringing home a new baby! No nurses to help me at night anymore...

Ready to go!

Walking to the door.

Loaded up with THREE kids!

We drove 3 blocks and were home =)

Noah wanted to hold Samuel right away. Then he insisted that since he was a big boy now he didn't want any toys in his room. So he and Evie ran up and down the stairs taking all his toys down to join the others (his room had overflow in it - some baby things and some bigger things).

Evie went up to her room and got her 1 year old sandals and tried to put them on Samuel =)

Dave said we needed a bili-blanket so that arrived later that afternoon. Ug. How I loathe the bili-blanket. Samuel had it for 8 days and he's still jaundice.

See how he glows?

hospital day 3 and 4

Here is Evie visiting on Day 3 (biliruben 12.5). Noah would sit on the love seat and play Angry Birds and Evie would come look at Samuel.

Day 4 - biliruben 12.4. Cutie! He's looking more like himself now - less swollen. The red spots on his skin are that rash.

He started getting pretty good at sleeping in the bili-bed.

And here are some shots of my room. It's kinda funny but it started to feel like home. I stayed with Samuel though I could of course have gone home - I didn't want to without Samuel though.

And Terry was great enough to stay with me every night too - the love seat pulled out into a bed. Staying in the hospital was a little boring, but otherwise it was pretty great. I had every meal brought to me. I had visitors when I wanted them. I didn't have 2 other active kids running out their energy around me. I could read as long as I wanted (had to read HP since that's all I had!). And best of all, the nurses cared for Samuel in between feedings at night. They always said he slept so that made me feel a little better. And I slept wonderful in the hospital!

hospital day 2

Oops - these first 3 photos are from day 1 during the birthday party. I forgot to include them. Terry is taking a photo on his cell phone to send to facebook and his parent's email.

Gramma is helping Evie to hold Samuel for the first time. She was pretty excited to do so.

She looks a little unsure here, but Evie was and is pretty excited and pleased with her baby brother.

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Day 2

Samuel had his circumcision done this day and he was not happy about it. In fact, he was very fussy all day and his mommy was super stressed out, not to mention emotional and hormonal. I was wondering what kind of baby he was going to be! Thankfully, he did much better the following days.

This isn't the best proof photo, but Samuel developed a rash called Erythema Toxicum that was especially evident on his eyelids this day. Erythema toxicum is a common, noncancerous skin condition seen in newborns with the main symptom of a rash of small, yellow-to-white colored papules surrounded by red skin. It looked like he had little pimples all over his face and chest. On Day 2, Samuel's eyelids were affected. Perhaps due to the crying from the circ.? Anyway, not the best day for a photo op...

Samuel's biliruben level began to spike already on day 2 (9.3), which really wasn't such a surprise since Noah and Evie did the exact same thing...for weeks. And weeks. Ug. Bili-blanket here we come. It's our way apparently - lots of dark hair and jaundiced skin.

-----Nurse Eva time. Jaundice is caused by excess biliruben in the babies blood which turns the skin and eyes yellow. Biliruben is the bi-product of broken down red blood cells (newborns have more of these) that can't be excreted do to an immature liver or something to do with breastfeeding. Since all of our kids have done this, I think it's something to do with my milk, but it's harmless unless the biliruben level gets above 20 or 25. -----

So Dave started him on a bili-bed. I had never seen this before but it was pretty neat, except that I couldn't hold Samuel. And as I said before, he was fussy! It was a long day. My arm got sore from holding the pacifier in his mouth. Poor little guy.

We had many visitors - another benefit of being in town. I snapped a shot of just one group though - Terry's aunt JoAnn and cousin Tawnya. They came while the bili-bed was being set up. They left b/c of the crying that ensued!

A woman came taking pictures for the paper. Terry took this photo, which was actually better than what they got. We sent this shot in and it was published the following week. Their photo will go in for March.

that first day

After Samuel was born we were moved to a different room. It ended up being the best one they had which was great since we were there for 4 days due to Samuel's jaundice.

It took Samuel a little time to get the hang of nursing which surprised me. Evie took to it immediately and easily. It took some work and time with Samuel, while Terry slept in the chair, which is what I wanted to be doing. I finally got him to sleep and tried to take a nap too.

Here is that sleeping hours-old newborn Samuel with aunt Stephanie's blanket to keep him warm.

We kept remarking that Samuel didn't look that swollen from the birth process. Looking back at these photos makes me think he was. His eyes are puffy and his face a little rounder than it is now. Still beautiful though! Oh, and you can see that little flake of skin on his forehead - his skin was peeling all over his body. Actually, he still is peeling over 2 weeks later. That's b/c he was overdue, overcooked.

I might have slept for like 20 minutes (I'm a poor napper) before breakfast arrived and shortly after, our kids! Noah and Evie did not have mommy and daddy there in the morning to get them ready so they knew something was up. Plus, Gramma and Grampa had big news for them - their baby brother was born! Right after breakfast (845am!) they came right over to the hospital which is only like 3 blocks from our house. I was so glad we stayed in town.

Here is Samuel during his sponge bath. All the nurses fussed over him, having a lot of fun with his hair.

They brushed it =)

Then I got to smell him - love that smell. Also, you can see from this photo how observant Samuel is. He really looks at you, studies you. Noah was a lot like that too, had this serious look on his face all the time. Samuel might be less serious and more deep... We'll see though.

Gramma and Grampa brought the kids back after dinner for Samuel's birthday party. I had bought a cake per Noah's request weeks before. This was one of the first times Noah held Samuel.

Then they moved to the love seat. Samuel started crying shortly after this and Noah did not like it. He looked up with this concerned look on his face and yelled out, "Someone cover my ears!"

The cake - yum. I look a little drugged. But hey, I had given birth and had almost no sleep during this day.

Snuggle

baby belly progression

I once saw a pregnancy progression of belly photos and thought that I'd like to try that. So that's what all those baby belly posts have been about. And now I've combined them for easy viewing. Pregnancy is an amazing thing.

17.5 weeks, 8/27/10. This was the first photo I took b/c I had just "popped."

19 weeks, 9/3/10. Though this was a maternity shirt, I could not even fit in it during the third trimester.

20 weeks, 9/9/10. This was the halfway point and also the ultrasound date.

24.5 weeks, 10/4/10

27 weeks, 11/1/10

30 weeks, 11/20/10

32 weeks, 12/7/10

34 weeks, 12/18/10

36 weeks, 12/31/10

38 weeks, 1/14/11

40 weeks, 1/29/11. Here I was past the due date of 1/26/11. Samuel was born 2/1/11 and weighed 8 pounds and 8 ounces.

Almost 2 weeks old on 2/14/11. Samuel had his 2 week check up, weighing in at 9 pounds.

Samuel's birth

Finally, the 40 weeks of my third pregnancy are up - though it was more like 41 weeks.

Samuel Jonathon was born at 4:58am on Tuesday, February 1st, 2011. He weighed in at 8 pounds, 8 ounces and was 21 inches long. I was right, our kids keep getting bigger.

When Terry and I went to bed on Monday, January 31, I was feeling quite restless and nervous...

I had been to the OB that morning and was declared 4cm dilated. My doctor encouraged us to schedule an induction since I was already almost a week overdue. So we allowed him to schedule the torturous pitocin drip for 6am Thursday February 3rd, praying that we wouldn't have to show up for it (I was induced with Noah and did not want to experience that again).

That night we watched the weather and learned that it was going to be like -40 degrees outside with blowing snow and the barometric pressure rising. I had a bad feeling that that night was the night. We put the kids to bed and I thought we might not be there in the morning to get their breakfast (my parents were already here). Turns out, I was right.

I couldn't sleep. And when I finally did drop off, I was awoken at just before 2am with a serious contraction. It was like a dream. It woke me and I groaned and woke Terry. I had another contraction soon after and knew they were the real deal, much different from the false labor contractions I had the week before. I was immediately nervous. Months before this I had continually been so full of fear of the pain I was going to be going through. We had prayed about it quite a bit and I was learning about trusting God to care for me. But I started out nervous.

Terry jumped into action while I lay in bed. He dressed, woke my parents, put in his contacts and started his Blazer. While he was busy, I was already having to breath through the contractions - they were quite strong since I was already dilated so far. Terry came back for me and we said good bye to my parents and drove to the Gburg hospital - there was no way we were driving to NP with the coldest weather of the year.

We arrived at the hospital at 230am and they wheeled me down to the Labor and Delivery Suite. They already had my birth plan and were most willing to oblige me, thankfully. They monitored the baby for 20 minutes and then let me get up and be free, which I was so ready to do (with Evie they made me stay in bed, this time I wanted to move).

Here is Terry after an hour and a half of labor (love that the clock is in the background). He is quite excited, though I don't even remember this shot being taken!

So I sat in the rocking chair and worked through the contractions. With my other births I never took seriously the laboring options I had studied. With Samuel, I mostly did deep breathing. I also tried to relax all the muscles in my body. The contractions were intense and pretty darn close together at 1-3 minutes. Terry recorded all of them in his phone. Pretty amazing of him.

Here is Terry praying for me between one of the contractions. I felt like God was being so kind to me and said so, like He was giving me good breaks - actually, I think they just felt like long breaks b/c they weren't actually.

I started out feeling nervous but pretty soon had to concentrate so much that I didn't have time for anything else. All the fear left me. God really gave me a great labor - only 3 hours! I just found myself able to deal with the pain, get through it and rest in between contractions. Actually, I felt a lot like Bella from Twilight as she was becoming a vampire (totally lame I know) - that if I started to freak out I wouldn't be able to cope with the pain. I felt like I handled it pretty well. Doctor Hult said I was very stoic. The nurses said I was a rock star. Terry was continually encouraging. So I kinda just dealt with it and that worked well for me. No epidural and surprisingly, compared to Noah and Evie's birth, I didn't even feel like I needed one.

I asked my mom to come with - she has a very calming presence. I was so glad she was there. In between contractions she read to me (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - I don't care if you think I'm a heathen b/c I LOVE those books!).

Soon, I had been laboring for nearly 3 hours and the nurse requested I move back to the bed to be monitored again. Then things really picked up. I was in transition and there was nothing I could do to cope. I wasn't stoic anymore. Pushing was very different than it was for Noah or Evie. But it was over pretty quickly and Samuel was born. After they mopped him up, they handed him right to me. I was a little emotional...

It's so overwhelming to meet your child for the first time. It's hard to believe that you were carrying that little person around inside of you. They never existed before and here they are, brand new, complete and perfect.

The nurses were asking me how much I thought he weighed. I thought he looked so small that I was just so surprised when they said 8 pounds and 8 ounces! He was also 21 inches long.

With lots of dark hair, as you can see.

Proud papa Terry almost a half hour after Samuel was born.