By the last 2 weeks before Easton was born, Davis had become increasingly anxious about her baby brother's arrival. She would come up to me and talk to him, well more like yell at him, "When is he going to come out!!!!!" all while she was poking me in the belly. I felt so bad for her because you could tell it was more than just excitement. She is very attached to her mommy and I knew that a lot of her wanting him to come out was so that she could settle into the new normal. She wanted to know the details of who was going to get her, take her to school, bring her to the hospital etc. when the baby was born. As much as we tried we couldn't give her all the answers she needed and that made her more frustrated. So when I went for my 39 week appointment the doctor said that I was 2 cm, 80% effaced, and after doing her thing said that we should have a baby in 24 hours, 48 at most. She convinced me that the baby was ready to be born and this seemed like a sure thing. She even said that there was no need to make an appointment for the next week (but let's do it anyway) because there was no way that I was making it to the following week. It was go time. I was so excited to finally have some answers for Davis' 100 questions and hopefully this would help her to know that it was going to be soon. Tomorrow was going to be the day.... at least that's what the doctor said. I had thought at the time, surely a doctor wouldn't tell a very pregnant women that she would have a baby in the next 48 hours if it wasn't a certain fact.... well apparently I was wrong. I came home from that appointment and started walking per doctor's orders during Layla's soccer practice. Davis walked with me, she was so excited, and sure enough there were contractions. Yeah, things were moving right along according to the plan. Anyone who know me knows that I like to have a plan. I do not do well with uncertainly and certainly do not just go with the flow of things. We came home from soccer and tucked the kids in just knowing that the next day we would have a baby. We told the girls that if we went to the hospital in the middle of the night grandma would be at the house in the morning and depending on how things were going they may or may not go to school. We were ready. Starting around 3 in the morning, I was having consistent contractions 6-7 minutes apart which continued as morning came. The kids got up and went to school and I was just waiting for things to move along. That afternoon I went and walked more and contractions got stronger but not closer together..... it was just a waiting game and at any moment we thought things were going to progress..... then around 3 o'clock NOTHING! Contractions stopped, baby was just happily moving about and labor was not happening. Then we had to break the news to the kids, especially Davis, that this baby apparently disagreed with the doctor and wasn't ready to be born. It was brutal "but you said in the next 24-48 hours the baby would be born!" Hindsight is 20/20. Why didn't we just keep this little tidbit to ourselves. But the doctor had seemed certain. Maybe the next day would be the day. I took the day off work because frankly at that point it really was mentally exhausting to smile and say to people, nope no baby yet.... nope no more contractions... etc. etc. etc. This was Thursday, then Friday, Saturday and all day Sunday came and passed.... still no baby. The best thing about that Thursday was I really came to terms that this baby would come when he was ready and that was a good thing. I'd been induced and did the whole pitocin thing which I really didn't want to do again and we had 3 babies with jaundice which really wasn't great fun so the longer he wanted to stay the better. I had an appointment on Monday morning when they would do the fetal stress test to make sure baby was doing ok and then we would decide the longest they would let me go before we would induce. There would be answers and I knew baby was doing good, he was active and moving around like always with times of sleep and times of wake. He was good and comfy so I went to bed on Sunday around 11 with a real sense of peace..... this baby was just a full term 40 weeker which was ok.
Then around 1:30 am I work up having some contractions. Nothing too strong but enough to know they were contractions and consistently 6 minutes apart. I dozed until around 2:30 then decide to move to the couch. Around 3:30 I was having contractions around 4 minutes apart and decided around 4:00 to get up and start some walking. At 5:00 am I decided that it was go time with contractions around 3 minutes apart so I woke Jamie up, call to get grandma to head over to watch the kids, and off we went to the hospital. Jamie is so funny, driving like a Nascar driving afraid we are going to have a baby on the side of I-26. Cracks me up. We arrived at Lexington Medical Center at 5:52 with contractions 2 and half minutes apart. Perfect timing. We went through the usual routines to get all settled in which is tons of fun while in labor.... why no I don't have any significant medical history... contraction... no I don't have a health care power of attorney and no I am not interesting in speaking with someone about it... contraction... yes that is correct, Jamie is my emergency contact and alas he is already here so lets move on... contraction. At around 7:30 my favorite person the anesthesiologist came in and epidural was in place and by 8:00 life was good. The doctor came in to see how I was doing and broke my water, one contraction later I was 10 cm and ready to push, pushed through 4 contractions and whala at 8:33 am, Easton Michael Carter was born. Weighing in at 8 pounds, 7 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long. It was perfect... well as perfect as labor and delivery can be. Easton had a bowel movement in utero so the special care nursery team was there for when he was born. A bit unnerving but overall he did great. They did some deep suction to clear out his lungs but the first cry is like music to a mommas ears. He was amazing with a head full of black hair, just like Layla.
The kids had arrived at the hospital as I was pushing (and almost walked in on that part of labor, luckily the curtain was drawn and the special care nurse was quick on her feet and shoved them back out the door saying "now's not a good time. When you come back we will have a surprise") so as soon and things were presentable, they were allowed to come in and meet there new baby brother. The timing was ideal.
The girls wanted a turn to hold him and got a chance to see him, touch his head full of hair and smile at him. Davis as always was full of questions, why were his eyes all gooey. why was his hair all dirty and yucky, why did he have little white bumps on his nose, why did he have to wear a hat and why did it have pink on it etc. etc. etc. Most importantly, she wanted to make sure he had 10 fingers and 10 toes. While I was pregnant she saw something about a baby being born with a extra finger so she was very concerned.
Layla just wanted her turn to hold him then she was good and ready to move on. I think she was more excited that she got to miss school than that her baby brother was born.
Dylan wanted to look at him from a distance but overall was apprehensive. He was not interested in holding him, not interested in getting too close. Cautious. Later in the day he decided that he did want to hold him and was so interested in talking to him. "Look, I'm holding Easton."
Jamie took the kids to get breakfast but more so to give me a chance to let Easton nurse and spend some time with him in peace. What an amazing moment and I am so thankful that Jamie was willing to give us this time together right after he was born. Perfect.
Easton went after that to the nursery for the usual stuff including his bath. He had so much hair they washed his hair under the sink which was very cute.... at least from the pictures that Jamie took. The kids got to stand outside of the window and watch the whole thing which was great then they got another chance to hold him before leaving the hospital for a bit. By that time they were going a little stir crazy so it was time for them to go. They came back later in the afternoon to visit and Davis was devastated that she had soccer and couldn't stay forever.
The first night was rough. I can not tell a lie. He was very discontent and coughing up some crude which made this mommy worry about him. He also was stuffy which apparently was just from irritation from when they had to suction him out through his nose after he was born. This would have been good info at the time not the following morning when the pediatrician came in. Otherwise he was wonderful. He had a hard time latching on correctly at first but after the first day he was getting the hang of it. Day 2 brought about a shot, his circumcision and his hearing test. He was really sleepy after his circumcision which is normal but he didn't want to wake up and eat so we were having to strip him down and irritate him to wake him up. At that point I think we had about 4 hours of sleep in the last 2 nights between going into labor and his first rough night so we were just ready get home and settle in. Night number 2 only got worse and Easton really just was irritable, wanting to cry and nurse all night. Around 12:00 we took him to the nursery so that we could get a couple hours of sleep and the wonderful nursery nurse loved on him until about 2:30 am so we were able to sleep. I think these few hours may have been the only sleep that made us survive. Easton went that morning for his test for jaundice and all the other "stuff" they do in the nursery and low and behold we finally had a child who passed his jaundice test the first day, hurray for a big 40 week baby. He was doing a lot of gagging type things and the nurse speculated that she thought he was refluxing which is also what we thought but other than sitting him up some while and after he was eating there wasn't much we could do about it. It would just be a waiting game to see what would happen over the next few days. He had lost some weight down to 7 pounds, 14 ounces which was ok but our babies have been know for losing too much weight after birth so that's always a concern. The pediatrician wasn't supposed to get to the hospital until around noon but he decided to swing by early and confirmed that we would be seeing him the next day for a weight check. We were ok where we were but he didn't want to see him lose any more. So everything was complete. We were set to go home!
We went the next day for a weight check and he was down to 7 pounds, 10 and a half ounces so the following day we were back again. Yuck. But, on Friday we were up an ounce and half so heading back in the right direction.
The next few days after we came home from the hospital were a blur..... he slept like well a baby during the day and was up screaming all night, not good when there are other children in the house. Now the kids are deep sleepers but his cries were so fierce and loud he even was waking them up so as I was trying to calm Easton, Jamie was having to go up with the kids and try to get them back to sleep. We looked forward to the weekend and not having to get up and go to school. The kids decided on Friday night that they wants to go spend the night at grandma's so that they could sleep good and not get woke up by Easton.... poor babies! I felt so bad for them! Friday night did get better and he "only" screamed from around 4 pm until midnight. He did then settle down for a few hours if he was snuggled next to me but he was certainly not getting into his bassinet. Saturday he cried until 12 but then went a 2 hour stretch in the bassinet.... progress. Then Sunday night he was very restless but at least not screaming his head off until 11 or so then settled in. We're moving in the right direction.
On Sunday we had a photographer come to do newborn pictures. It seemed like a good idea. She came to the house and we had 2 hours of her time. We scheduled her to come at 12 because he had been really happy, and pretty much sleeping his life away, at this time of the day. Some sleepy naked baby pictures and pictures with the kids and we would be done. I really wanted to have someone do pictures so that I didn't have to worry about them. I've done this before, having good intentions to do special pictures then next thing you know the sweet newborn is 3 months old and it's too late. I didn't want to miss out on the first few days pictures because I know too well how quickly baby's change and grow up. Unfortunately Easton was having none of it. He would be sound asleep and as soon as he was gently laid down with a heating pad under the blanket no less to keep him warm, he would wake up screaming his head off. Nothing seemed to work, he nursed again, snuggled, feel asleep then we barely moved towards getting a picture taken and whala SCREAM! It was about the most excruciating 2 hours of my life. I felt so bad for him, he obviously was miserable and just wanted to snuggle, but on the flip side, the photographer had been paid and this was the one chance to have her do her magic. So, we spent 2 hours snuggling, gently laying down and taking pictures for 2 seconds until he screamed. We tried a pacifier, something he hadn't been using, but at least that would calm him down, we could grab out the pacifier take 5 pictures then shove it back in as he whaled. I was mentally and physically exhausted, short tempered, and frustrated but cling to some hope that we got a couple of good pictures out of it. I do know that he won't remember how horrific these 2 hours of his life were so that does make it a little better. After pictures, he snuggled and within seconds was sound asleep and so peaceful. Just an angel.
Looking back there's only one word that comes to mind. Survival.... that's the only way to describe the first week with any newborn. But in a sleep deprived, exhausted, emotional and emensely blessed sort of way. It's so hard to describe to someone without children how you can live on an hour of sleep and yet be so thankful for every waking moment. Even after hearing hours straight of screaming, seeing this sweet little innocent face alseep in my arms makes every second worth it. I know there will be plenty of sleepless nights, worried moment and days full of tears of joy. What an amazing journey... and it's only been a week!
