Baby News!!

We finally had our new baby-Luke...just like his daddy and late for everything, even his own birthday. He was due March 30th and showed up April 7th.

Here's my birth story:
My midwife wanted me to come in Wednesday, April 8th at 9 am to break my water and get labor started. Actually, labor had started, but I am slow. :) Fine by me-as much as I can get done without feeling pain is wonderful! Anyway on Monday night (April 6th) Patrick decided to wake up at 1 am and not go back to sleep until 5 am. I had a gut feeling that I would have the baby the following day-that's just how my life works! :)

So Tuesday I decided to clean the house one more time and get all the laundry done; basically make sure I was as prepared as I could be for the new arrival. That afternoon I called Rick and asked if he could come home a little early because I was very uncomfortable and tired. I was not in pain, but I was extremely irritable and just felt worn out. Rick was off work on Monday and Tuesday and volunteered to work at the store in Live Oak on Tuesday since they are short-handed and need help. I thought that was incredibly stupid seeing as I was already a week overdue, but that's what he wanted to do so.......He got a phone call to come home!

He got home an hour early and we continued our nightly routine (getting the kids fed, bathed, and ready for bed). At 7 pm I put Patrick in bed (he was tired from being up most of the night before), and at 7:15 I came out of the bedroom and told Rick I was getting into the bath to relieve my discomfort-I had a lot of pressure and mild-what I thought were more Braxton Hicks-contractions. As soon as I got into the bath I asked Rick to bring me my cell phone so I could call my midwife-all of a sudden I had a ton of painful pressure and hard contractions. By 7:30 I was out of the tub and trying to crawl around the house getting dressed and ready to leave for the hospital. I told Rick, "Unless you want me to have the baby in the tub we need to leave NOW!"

So we left and arrived at the hospital at 8:45. My midwife helped me undress and checked me; by that time I was in extreme pain and she told me to go ahead and push if I wanted to. Two pushes later Luke Andrew was born with his cord wrapped very, very tightly 3 times around his neck. It was too tight for the midwife to be able to unwrap it so she had to get him out as soon as possible. She yanked him hard and kept telling me to push harder. She plopped him on my chest and said, "Sorry, Dad" and cut the cord herself. A respiratory therapist took the baby away and went to work on him-he was completely blue and gray and struggling to make a noise.

I wasn't scared until then-I had no clue he was in trouble because my midwife is awesome and didn't panic or make me nervous at all. I didn't get to hold my little guy for an hour and a half-it was torture because he was right there, but I couldn't touch or see him. Finally they let me have him and he took to breastfeeding like he'd done it a hundred times. He was perfectly fine-the only thing wrong with him was the bruising from trying to strangle himself. We came home less than 24 hours after we got there and I am still totally in love and baby mooning.

I keep waiting for him to become more difficult like Patrick was, but he hasn't yet-he sleeps through the night and hardly ever cries. He's awesome!! Sarah and Patrick had very different reactions to Luke-she loves to hold him and help change his diaper and things like that; he is jealous and tries to push him off of our laps.

Welcome to the world Luke!

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

9:17 pm

9 pounds, 21 1/2 inches

Dark hair and blue eyes like mommy! :)

Why I Hate Shopping

Our last trip to Wal-Mart as a family of four:

We got there and put the kids into a cart together (first mistake). Then we went past the toy aisle (second mistake) and had to give them each something that we had no intention of buying to bribe them into being good.

When we made it to the food section I realized I meant to pick up some Gatorade for Rick so I told him I'd be RIGHT BACK (third mistake) and walked back about 7 aisles to get it. On the way back I could hear my kids hollering, laughing, fighting. I started walking faster cause I could tell it was about to get out of control unless mommy or daddy stopped whatever was going on.

They were at the opposite end of the frozen food aisle and as I turned that way two men passed by me and I overheard them say, "If those were my kids I'd beat their [butts]." Obviously I acted like I had no idea who those bad kids were and pretended to be debating between curly or straight fries. After the guys passed I jogged down the rest of the way to see what the commotion was over and there is my useless unobservant husband standing with the freezer door open, staring blankly into the cold while my daughter was screaming, "OH NO!! DAAAAAD-DEEE!!!", and my son was sitting with a tub of butter between his legs, plastic seal pulled back, scooping it out and eating it by the handful. Ummm, HELLO? I can't even go get a forgotten item without chaos ensuing? The funniest part is Rick insists on tagging along to "help" me. HAHAHA.