4 Weeks Old

Well the first month has flown by and was not as I expected. K is a great baby, sleeps and eats and hangs out. NeNe had a tougher adjustment to the new family but has been getting lots of alone time with Nana and Pop which he just loves. Another few weeks and he won't remember life before K anyway. Just got the double stroller so we took it out for its debut this morning and got some exercise treking around the Wakefield lake. We stopped at 2 parks for some playground time which NeNe thoroughly enjoyed. We hope to make it up to Gloucester tomorrow to see the Magoo Family for St. Peter's Fiesta. They just had a baby girl about 2 weeks before K arrived so it'll be great to see them. Highlights for next month include visits from Grandma and Grandpa and Betty, then it'll be time for the Wiggles concert with the NJ clan. Looking forward to an exciting summer!

Baby June Arrives......

Thursday May 31st my water broke at 7:30am in the morning. Not a huge break but it had happened with NeNe so I knew I hadn't just peed my pants. Anyway, I called the Dr. office and they had me come in. The Dr. was in surgery so I saw the Nurse and she was unable to confirm whether my water had broken or not. She sent me home and told me to call if contractions etc came on otherwise come back in the morning for my regularly scheduled appointment. So I went home and somewhat packed my bags and waited around. I realized nothing was happening so I sent Dave back to work and figured Baby June wouldn't arrive in May anyway so I at least had until the next day. I went to prenatal yoga and ate a lot of ice-cream. Went back in the next morning for my appt and the Dr. confirmed that my water had indeed broken and since it had been the day before that I needed to go right to Labor and Delivery. My dad was watching NeNe so I called to tell him he'd have to keep him for the day (scary thought) and called hubby to go home and pack a bag for me and meet me at the hospital. I arrived at the hospital and my friend M was working (she was my Doula for NeNe's birth and also teaches the yoga class I was taking). She was assigned as my nurse which was fantastic and even though her shift was over at 3pm she stayed until the baby was born. I was hooked up to the contraction machine and even though I was having contractions regularly I wasn't feeling a thing. They put me on pitocin to see if that would move things along but it really didn't make that much of an impact. I was thoroughly enjoying myself - walking around, eating sherbert and listening to wonderful nature scapes music. I thought this was going to be much easier than Nathan's birth and boy was I wrong...... Eventually they decided that the pitocin wasn't working and even though I was between 4 and 5 cms I wasn't progressing fast enought (my Dr. was very tired and wanted to go home). So, they fully ruptured my membranes (broke my water - I'd only had a slow leak) and then things really started moving. Within 2 minutes of them breaking my water I was in complete agony with very painful contractions. When I relaxed with certain contractions they weren't as bad but with M as my nurse and not my doula there were other things she needed to do and monitor and couldn't fully focus on the relaxation. I felt as bad as I did at the end of NeNe's birth when I felt I couldn't do it anymore and I wanted to either run away (ha ha) or call for my "Mommy" I was checked again and still only 5cms so I decided there was no way I was going to deal with this pain if I didn't need to so I called for the epidural (even though I'd been so proud that I didn't have one for NeNe's birth). The Dr. worked fast and I had an epidural very shortly after that but within the 10 mins of deciding to get one and having to sit up for him to put it in my back I was ready to push. I may have been the position I was sitting in for the epidural but the baby came down very quickly and I wanted to push right then and there - this was all of a half hour after they ruptured my water and I'd been eating sherbert and thinking things were great. They epidural worked really fast and as soon as it was in I was on back and pushing. The epidural was great in the sense that it really only numbed the pushing, which is numbing in and of itself, but because the edge was taken off I was really able to enjoy the birth itself. They put a big mirror up so I could watch and I know it sounds insane, but it was absoluletly incredible to watch. I pushed maybe all of 4 or 5 times and the baby was out. We could see the head first and as expected it was a full head of black hair and a small little head. Another push and the head was out and the final push and the back was out and then we saw them..... balls and a peepee. Maureen screamed "It's a Boy!" and I yelled "Oh Shit!" Most of you know we were expecting a little girl, who we had been prepping NeNe for and planned on calling her Claire. We were totally shocked to say the least. He's absolutely perfect though and we are so happy. We brought him home from the hospital in the cutest little pink outfit.... He looks a lot like NeNe did but with dark hair/skin/eyes. My Mom removed all the girl clothes from the dresser and closet and put them away and went through all of Nathan's old clothes to wash and put them away. We have girl bedding on the crib and the dresser has the most adorable furniture knobs with princess and cupcakes that will have to be replaced with airplanes and trucks at some point. He's an adorable little guy with a mild tempermend and we wouldn't change a thing. He was born at 7:04pm on June 1st weighting 8lbs 2oz and 20 1/2 inches long.

Anyway, that's the official story. We've now been home a week and I'm recovering well. NeNe is still adjusting, but all in all it's going great.