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| Completely Perfect :) |
Sunday evening I got in to a bit of a tizzy nesting - putting our baby swing together, getting my mom's room ready, doing dishes, picking up toys, and then finally hitting the hay for what I thought would be the last good night's sleep before the baby would come on Tuesday.
Ross came in our room about 4:30AM and wanted to get in our bed. Feeling protective of my last decent sleep I asked him to get back in his bed and got up to situate him. I tried to head back to sleep, but found these Braxton Hicks were getting quite uncomfortable and more intense - though still far apart. After trying to sleep for another hour to no avail I decided to take a bath to see if that would soothe anything.
Stephen decided to stay home from work since he'd been fighting off a cold and wanted to rest up for when Rowland arrived. Thank heavens for that. By about 8:30 I got him up telling him we should probably head to Colorado Springs soon instead of that evening like we were planning. Also a blessing - my mom flew in early and was already in the Springs and would be there ready for us anytime anyway.
We got the kids up and dressed, our last things packed, and finally headed out the door around 10AM. My contractions were still all over the place, but I felt good about at least being only 10 minutes away from the hospital if things started happening instead of 3 hours. This whole idea of contractions and dealing with them on my own has been foreign to me. With my other two kids I was already in the hospital and settled before having to deal with any remotely painful contractions. I felt like I was doing okay breathing through them when they did show up - sometimes within 10-15 minutes, sometimes an hour later.
After dropping our stuff off at the hotel, we headed out for some lunch - Olive Garden - and it was OH so good. Ruby downed the salad like no tomorrow - so did I, and we all had a yummy lunch. However, when I stood up to leave, I got a pretty painful contraction that put me back in my seat again for a few minutes. My mom suggested maybe going to the hospital to at least get checked. We stopped at Wal-mart for a couple things, and waiting in the car, I decided more and more I was going to head for that hospital as soon as we dropped off the kids.
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| Olive Garden Lunch - yum! |
Steve helped my mom take the kids up to the room, and while I was waiting in the car by myself, was when those horrendous contractions started coming on hard and strong about every 10 minutes. I called Steve and told him he better get down fast and we headed for the hospital. I have never hated red traffic lights more in my life. Also - 80mph on a highway is not fast enough either. I kept telling Steve to get out from behind all the slowpokes in between my moaning and dreading every contraction as they came. Steve pulled up FINALLY to the hospital where I very slowly (unfortunately - in my mind I would have been sprinting if my body would have let me) hobbled inside till they put me in a wheelchair and headed for labor and delivery.
Once we got there, about 3:30, I pretty much asked anyone who would listen for an epidural, promising signatures, money, expensive gifts, whatever their hearts desired, if they would find and deliver the anesthesiologist to me. However, I was informed they would have to check me first, then admit me, THEN put in my IV and THEN wait for the anesthesiologist to come. I wanted to cry - but that was already happening anyway. I will totally give the nurses credit - they were all incredibly good sports and positive with me while I was in agony. They checked me to find I was dilated to a 5 and 100% effaced. My first nurse, Jessica, who got me situated in my room and the IV going. I was still in agony, and she checked me again since she was certain the way I was acting I could easily have dilated to a 10 and be ready to deliver...Steve likes to tease me about this Really I had just progressed to a 6. We all know I have very little pain tolerance - even though this is my third child - I hadn't had to go through the whole contractions with pain phase, and can report - I am NOT a fan of it. Steve was good and supportive, and kept a great level head through this whole ordeal.
Good ol' Jessica ran and tracked down my wonderful best friend with the epidural and in the mean time while I waited, gave me to meds to take the edge off - I felt loopy, but was insanely happy when they worked and I didn't have to feel the intensity of the contractions so much. Shortly after, by about 4:30, the anesthesiologist came and made my dreams come true. After that, I was quite pleasant and at ease with the world. He got me good though - I felt NOTHING from my belly down. I didn't even have any idea what position my legs were in. It was crazy.
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| Looks like a whale is in my bed - just the sweet awesome peanut ball working to get Rowland to turn. :) |
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| You must know - the epidural has kicked in - obviously - to get a smile like this. ;) |
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| Steve is happy for me to get that epidural as well. :) |
From there, the rest of the labor was a dream. I settled in and took a fabulous nap until around 8 when my doctor, Dr. Aarndt, came to check me. She said I was dilated to an 8-9 and would probably be ready to push when she got back from doing a c-section (there had already been 5 other ones that day!). Throughout all of this, sweet Rowland did well. They told me he was face up, but had an amazing trick to get him to turn - they called it the peanut ball. It's like one of those big exercise balls, but in the shape of the peanut. You lay on your side with it between your legs, and it opens up the pelvis, and somehow always gets that baby to turn. I wish I would have had this with my other two - Ross was face up - which led to my c-section, Ruby came out sideways (which I assume she was face up until then anyway since she took her sweet time). This magic peanut ball did the trick, and just before 9, Dr. Aarndt got everything ready for me to push. Steve and I got ready for the whole ordeal. Last time - I pushed for about an hour - hour and a half - so we were geared up for the long haul.
I got in position and Dr. Aarndt gave me the go to give three pushes - each 10 seconds each. I did, feeling pretty good about my efforts. She told me to ease up and have a break in between the contractions, and then all of the sudden she was telling me, "oh, here's the head and shoulders that have come out...and here is your son!" I was in such shock with how fast it went, I didn't have any team to really even react. There was little Rowland, laying on my chest, giving his first sweet cries, and Steve and I looking at each other like, "Did this just happen? It's all done, and he's here?!" It was so calm and effortless. He came out like a little raisin with dark hair like Stephen's, a subtle widows peak, and dark eyes (I may actually get my brown eyed child!). He was born at 9:02PM on Monday (wanted it to be a Family Night Activity I suppose), January 26th, weighed 6lbs 12oz and 19 1/2 inches long. Our littlest one yet. Ross practically had two pounds on him when he was born. CRAZY! Rowland came out so fast too, he looked perfectly shaped - no cone head or anything. He looked completely perfect.
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| He's here! |
We finally decided on Rowland's name about two hours before he was born. Rowland Doneal White. Rowland is from our family lines, and Doneal is Stephen's dad's name. We felt it fitting since his dad likes to get going and get things done. Rowland seemed to be the same way.
I felt like a million bucks comparatively after being in labor half the time with this little guy. I didn't even tear, and the soreness has been extremely minimal. Steve and I enjoyed our little boy, we snuggled him, I got to nurse him, and then head to the new mother's room. It was wonderful.
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| One happy mommy :) |
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| Two handsome boys. Steve LOVES being a Daddy :) |
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| Rowland enjoyed his bath. |
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| Except for this part :) |
Ross, Ruby, and my mom came the next morning to see our new little member of our family. Ross kept saying, "Here's my baby! Ohhh - he's so cute," and Ruby would pat and point to the baby when asked. Otherwise - she just wanted to enjoy the sucker she was working on. The oohing and ahhing over him and wanting to hold him would happen when we got home. :) They both love their little brother and love holding him and talking about his cries. Mostly - they are incredibly thrilled to have their Grammy Joanne here to play with them. She's pretty much a super hero around here. It's been SO nice to have her with us.
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| First sibling picture! |
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| Ruby just doesn't get what the big deal is here. ;) |
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| He's so little! Everything drowns him! |
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| Ready to go home :) |
I spent two nights in the hospital, we had Rowland circumcised, and then finally got discharged and made the three hour trek home. I was nervous about this, but everyone did really good, and we were all SO happy to be home in our own beds.
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| A happy sister - excited to hold her new little brother :) |
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| They both were excited to snuggle him - Rowland is enduring getting passed around. ;) |
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| Ross refers to Rowland as his baby. He loves his baby brother so much. :) |
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| LOVE the faces in this picture :) |
So far Rowland is usually a dream. He's got some of his night and day mixed up which is tiring, but we'll get there. He prefers to be held when he's sleeping at night - Steve doesn't mind complying. He's pretty good at eating, other than the falling asleep during it all we have to deal with. He's so sweet when he's awake looking around wondering what in the world is going on, and all the noises that are constantly bouncing around the house. :)
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| Ross wanted to hold Rowland and watch a show with him. ;) |
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| My sweet Rowly :) |
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| Rowland is usually pretty good at waiting his turn - sometimes it's boring though. :) |
We love him and are so excited to have him in our family. We love our growing family, and our new little Rowly Polley.
I am so grateful for how smoothly everything went. I was so worried and concerned moving here about the logistics of having our third child three hours away. I knew I wanted to have another VBAC though and Heavenly Father calmed my heart as we made the decision to move here to Colorado. I knew things would work out the way they were supposed to. And, He, of course, followed through to a T. Even though Rowland came early, we were prompted and prepared to be to the hospital in time, and Heavenly Father knew how much I could handle and what I could not. I am grateful for each of our beautiful, miracle children. They have formed and shaped me to be a better person, and realize the sacred role of a mother. I know that Jesus is the Christ, my and our Savior. I know God gives us these beautiful, new little spirits to help us grow, and to remind us He is there and there is so much more to this life. I know families are forever, and the more we put in to them, the more we get out of them. A family of 5 - here we are. :)
