Meet Jack

This is Jack Isaac Seaver. He was born last Sunday, June 5th at 6:42 a.m. He weighed 6 lb 11 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long. And this is the story of his birth.

Friday, I had a very disappointing doctors appointment; they weren't going to induce me. I was only dilated to 1 1/2 and they want you to be ideally at a 3, but at least a 2. But they had me make an appointment for the following Monday, sure that I'd be ready. I made the appointment, but told them I'd have a baby by then. The disappointment wasn't that they wouldn't induce me, but that I couldn't have my mom get on a plane without a guarantee that there would be a baby. I was pretty sure that like my first two, this baby would come at night and then we'd have to inconvenience someone with watching the boys.

My plan for Saturday was to get the house cleaned and all my grocery shopping done because I was sure this baby was coming Sunday night/Monday morning. I woke up at 3 am having contractions but they weren't any different than the contractions I'd been feeling for the last 4-5 months. However, we discovered that Ryan had developed a horrible rash all over his stomach and back and up his neck and face. So after a trip to urgent care, we discovered that he was having an allergic reaction to amoxicillin (lovely). In between all of the work and excitement, I was realizing that the contractions weren't going away. They weren't getting any closer, but they weren't going away and by 3 pm, I was sure that I would end up at the hospital that night.

Sure enough about 10 pm we called my mother-in-law to come stay with boys. I'm so glad she was willing to do that. And about midnight we headed to the hospital. I would really like to hit this point in labor during the day. I think I would stay home longer if I could take a walk or keep busy, but at night there is nothing to do and contractions make it impossible to sleep. I'm always a little nervous that I'll get to the hospital and then they'll send me home. I was a three when we got to the hospital, which was an impressive gain and in an hour I was at a 4, so I was staying and we were going to have a baby.

The nurse was new and as she tried to get my IV started she blew 3 veins before she got another nurse to poke me. This was honest to goodness the most painful part of my recovery. Nothing can touch the top of my hands or my arms (not even my watch) and I have 3 huge, lovely bruises. But I digress; I got my epidural (the closest thing to heaven on earth) and they broke my water and then things progressed so slowly. They had a lot of trouble keeping my blood pressure up and so every time the machine took my blood pressure, the alarm would go off. And apparently, the alarm doesn't ring at the nurses station because I had to page them to come turn it off every time. The worst part was that it's the middle of the night, Jer and I are exhausted and every time I get close to falling asleep, the stupid machine goes off. Towards the end, babies heart rate started to get erratic because the cord was wrapped around his neck, so I had to wear an oxygen mask, which stunk (literally, as in, it smelled bad).

At 5:45 I was only dilated to a 7. Six was shift change and the new nurse came in to do her thing and about 6:20 she decided, as kind of an afterthought to check me. She pulls up the blanket and said, "Oh, there he is." His head was crowning. So she quickly ran to get the doctor and the pit crew. The doctor came in and said, don't sneeze. Because the cord was wrapped around his neck it required some light and carefully timed pushing, but at 6:42 he finally make his entrance into the world, perfectly healthy and plenty angry. At 6 lb 11 oz he's much smaller than my other two 8 pound babies and I wonder why. Was my due date wrong, was it something I ate or didn't eat, or is it simply genetics. I'll never know, I just didn't expect to have one this small. But I actually love his size. Especially because it is warm and he doesn't have to be bundled up all the time, I get to snuggle this tiny precious baby.
Well, I think that's enough from me for now. There'll be more to say and more pictures to post later.