Jonah's due date was April 21st. The last week of March I had an OB appointment and was told my belly was measuring a little small. The doctor wanted me to have an ultrasound to make sure the baby was still growing on track. March 31st I had an ultrasound appointment. I wasn't too concerned when I went in for the appointment, but was a little anxious to hear that things were fine. After the tech took all the measurements, she went to show them to the radiologist. She seemed to be taking a while so I starting getting a little nervous. She came back to tell my amniotic fluid was low, but bordering on ok, so they had called my OB to find out how she wanted me to proceed. The tech told me to wait in the waiting room until they received word from my OB. After 30 minutes of agony for me, they told me I could go home but to call my doctor. I called the doctor and she then told me she actually wanted me to go the triage at the hospital instead. She said I had time to go home and gather a bag and some things. I ran home packed a bag for me and an overnight bag for the boys in case I ended up staying a while at the hospital. I ran over to my friends (Jill) house to thank her profusely for watching them while I was at my appointment and what would now be the rest of the evening. I felt awful as I drove away leaving her with 6 kids to take care of! (4 were hers)
I got to the hospital, ran into my neighbor who is one of the head L&D nurses and she got me all checked in. I was in triage for about an hour or so before my doctor came by. She told me I'd be staying until I had the baby. She said there wasn't room on the schedule for an induction until Tuesday evening (It was Monday at the time) so I'd be staying on the antepartum floor until induction. I called Seth, who was working, told him what was going on. We both just started laughing because, um, we were supposed to be moving that coming Friday.
I called another friend (Alycia) and had her pick up the boys from Jill's and she took them home to get them ready for bed. Seth stopped by the hospital to see me, then went home to spend the night with the boys. The next morning Seth took care of the boys while I was bored to tears at the hospital. Seth told me to try to enjoy my alone time and think of it as a trip to the spa. Seth brought the boys by the hospital that afternoon for a visit before heading to yet another friend's house. Luke was a little concerned seeing me in a hospital bed, hooked up to an IV. Taft was just excited to be getting to meet his baby brother soon. "So tomorrow your baby is going to pop out?" Since we thought my induction would be that night, Seth took the boys to my friend Jessie's house to spend the night. Jessie has two boys Taft and Luke's ages and they had a total party.
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| Last picture pregnant. |
Around 9 p.m. Tuesday night they moved me to the L&D floor and started Cervadil, which helps to ripen the cervix. What I was not previously told was that this takes 12 HOURS(!!) to work. At this point I had been at the hospital well over 24 hours and was so bummed that labor would not be starting that night. Since we weren't going to be having a baby that night, I sent Seth home for a good nights sleep. I was given a sleeping aid (first one of my life) and man was it awesome.
The next morning around 9:00 they started pitocin. Around 1:00 I got my epidural and around 4:00 it started wearing off. I went from thinking I could feel my contractions to full on crying like a baby in about 20 minutes. I completely started panicking that I would have to deliver without an epidural. I just kept thinking how unprepared I was to deal with that kind of pain! Luckily we were able to get the anesthesiologist back in and everything was taken care of by the time it came to push.
Then about 3 pushes and baby Jonah was here.
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| First picture with Mom |
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| First picture with Dad |
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| Just the tiniest peanut! 6 lbs 3 oz |
Since we had left our kids with my friend much longer than we were anticipating, Seth rushed off to pick them up. When Luke saw Jonah for the first time he said, "I wanted a baby that talked." He was also hesitant to hold him or touch him. He warmed up to him toward the end of the visit.
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| A visit the next day |
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| First family picture as a family of five! |
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| Herway Brothers |
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| Taft is such a great big brother. He loves Jonah so so so much. |
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| Already trying to get Jonah to laugh |
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| Seth, the hero of the week. He did such an amazing job taking care of the boys, me, packing up our apartment, all the while still going into work! |
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| I took this selfie to remember how precious the first days are. My face shows how completely exhausted I was, but man, just laying there with your baby, almost totally uniterrupted for a whole day, is priceless. |
As much as I wanted to soak up my bonding time with Jonah, I was also feeling like a burden on others (by having them watch the boys) and was starting to stress about our move. We ended up staying an extra 24 hours longer than I was hoping, but thanks to wonderful friends it all worked out.
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| Ready to go home! |
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| Jonah spent one night in our Coronado apartment. |
Seth tell the boys stories every night and occasionally he tells them the stories of the day they were born and they really love it. Seth's predicts Jonah will love his story the most. It definitely was the most dramatic! We are so grateful to have another baby boy to love.
