Its crazy to think that already 2 weeks (and one day) have gone by since he was born! Our lives have been changed so much but we are truly enjoying all that little Nicholas has brought to our family. He is such a sweet baby, so alert and attentive, and he has even been sleeping well the last two nights. He wakes every 4 hours for feeding, but then goes back to sleep, allowing me to get a decent number of hours of sleep. Now that I've figured out the pump Jared can feed him and let me get to bed a little earlier even, and the sleep has made a world of difference for me.
The labor that brought him into this world was definitely NOT like I'd expected. We'd been told that early labor can last for days even, and when I felt the first contraction at 2:30 am on wednesday dec. 19th I didn't panic but tried to go back to sleep. No sooner had I rolled over into a new position with my dozen pillows and another one hit, just as intense. Then another. And another. All came within mintues of one another, and finally we figured (Jared was up by this point) I'd better let my mom know, mostly for my moral support, but partly in case the real labor had started. She reassured me that most labors are quite long, especially first ones, so its better to stay at home at get my things sorted.
I got in the shower to try and get distracted, but the contractions kept coming every 2-3 minutes with such intensity that we woke up Jared's parents and headed off to the hospital about 4am.
Once we got there they determined I was at 5cm. or so, and could get an epidural without slowing the labor too much, and from there the contractions kept coming every 2 minutes.
From there on out we were just waiting, and it was a bit slower than we expected. Once I was at 10cm. I began pushing, and all in all ended up with 5 hours of it, 2 being occasionally pushing, and 3 at constant. When he finally arrived, the doctor and pediatrician were really surprised at how big he was. The pediatrician kept saying, "They don't make 'em like this in Minnesota!" He had the cord loosely wrapped around him, and took some prompting and oxygen to get him breathing.
I finally got to hold him about 5 minutes later. As we were snuggling I felt something warm... Needless to say, his plumbing worked!
The recovery has been mostly good for me since we've been home. Jared really was a fantastic nurse, and took care of me a lot in the hospital and once we returned home. His work was extremely accomodating, and we was able to spend the rest of the week at home, and then Christmas Eve off as well. My family was able to be here about a week after he was born, and we loved sharing our baby with them, and watching all of them get to know him and love him too. It was tough to say goodbye.
We're beginning to get into the groove at home, and we've figured out feedings and systems for his care. The highlights of my day are when Jared gets home, and weekend nights when he can help me take care of the baby. I included some recent pictures on here. It seems like I take at least one a day, so I'll try to keep this updated. He is changing so fast, and already looks like a different baby!
