Baby Brother is Here: The Birth Story

Not like this is news to any of you at this point, but our baby boy is here!! Here is how it all went down:
I was originally scheduled for an induction on Thurs, July 3, but my doctor had mercy on me and moved it up to Tues, July 1st. People have asked why he induced. This is why:

I was huge, people- and I only measured 38 weeks for the last 3 weeks of my pregnancy. I think my stomach literally could not stretch any more. As one of my patients said, it looked like someone had stuck a genuine Spalding basketball up my shirt. I carried all in the front, and had more issues this pregnancy with swelling and hives. I went into the pregnancy swearing that I was really going to appreciate every moment of it since it will be my last- that was very difficult to do.

Inductions are great because you can plan ahead a bit. It was nice to have Aria's sitters all figured out, and I was able to prepare her a little better for what was going to happen. The day before I went in, I told her that she got to be the boss, and pick what we did all day. We went to the library, Chuck E Cheese, and Red Robin for dinner, with Cold Stone for dessert. As excited as I was to have this little boy, it was a bittersweet day for me, because I knew it was our last day to just focus on Ari without worrying about how/where/what little brother was doing. Aria has been such a blessing, and she makes me so incredibly happy. Ryan and I are beyond lucky to be her parents.

 Chuck E  Cheese! 

This is from the Sunday before. We hit Ruth's Diner for breakfast and the Zoo afterwards.

So..... Baby Day finally arrived. We dropped Ari off at 6:30 and headed for the hospital, with me stressing out the entire time that they would be too busy and send me home. Luckily, I got checked in before every other pregnant person in the valley decided to go into labor and all hell broke loose in labor and delivery. :) They broke my water around 7:30 and my doctor predicted a baby before noon. Contractions started immediately and intensified much more quickly than they did with Ari. I asked for the epidural, and my nurse was able to talk the anesthesiologist into doing mine before he had to go in for a c-section (I know there were other people waiting for epidurals, too).

This is after the epidural, but before all the crazy shaking...

Shortly after I got the epidural, I started shaking violently. I'd already jumped to 7cm dilated (I started at a 3). Then things kind of stalled out, and the baby's heart rate kept dropping, so I had to keep switching from side to side, trying to find a position that was okay for him. They upped my pitocin a bit to try to get things going more. After a huge, insane contraction, I hit a 9 so she called in the doctor and had me push. Five minutes later, our baby boy was born!! (Yep- I have mad pushing skills... :)  )

Lachlan Hawkes McLelland "Locke"

July 1st at 11:49 AM

9 lbs 1 oz, 19.5"

My big boy!! No wonder I was ginormous!! For those of you that don't know, Hawkes is my maiden name, if you're wondering what that's all about. :)

Locke's breathing was a little rapid at first, so they had me wait a bit before I could feed him. Then, after he ate, they took him to the nursery. Ryan went in with Locke, and while they were evaluating him, he couldn't keep his oxygen levels up. This is common with newborns as they transition to breathing, but his levels were low for long enough that they admitted him to the NICU. I found out via text from Ryan as he was still with Locke in the nursery. I was scared and sad. I just wanted to have my baby with me to show him off and celebrate with those that came to visit.  I also had this vision in my head of how it would be when Aria got to come in my room and meet him for the first time. She wasn't allowed in the NICU, but on our second day in the hospital our nurse put Lachlan on portable O2 and rolled him out to the NICU doors so Aria could at least see her little brother first hand, rather than from pictures. She was so excited just to see him- it was really a cool moment. Too bad there weren't any pictures to document it. I got checked out on Thursday around 12pm. The hospital had another insane night and were in desperate need of the rooms, so I got the boot pretty quickly. Fortunately, Locke was doing better, and after 12 hours off of oxygen and passing a 2 hour car seat test, we were finally able to bring our boy home on Thursday night, just after 8. Here are some random pics from the rest of our hospital stay:

I felt lots better after having a chance to eat. That thing that looks like a pile of dog poop is actually a peanut butter cookie, and it was fabulous!! Who says hospital food is crappy?! Yum!

 Our sweet boy.

It was like deja vu- he had the cannula in his nose to deliver oxygen and we were staring at the same numbers on the monitor as we were when Aria was in the hospital. Ugh.  

Aria was SO excited when we finally got to bring baby brother home. She yelled, "Yay!! I'm finally a big sister!!" and proceeded to introduce herself to him, "I'm Aria Dawn McLelland." She was so focused on him and kept saying the cutest things to him. It's so sweet to hear your older baby tell your new baby the sweet sentiments you've said to her for the past three years. The drive home was one of those "ah ha" moments for me, where I was reminded what life is really all about, and filled with gratitude for my perfect little family. :)