Well, I have news..... I'm pregnant! Oh, wait, I WAS pregnant.
I had a baby.
6 weeks ago.
WHAT?!?!
I. suck. at. blogging.
But, I thought I'd like to get back into it, so here goes =)
Last February, I was
shocked thrilled to learn I was pregnant with our 3rd baby. Totally unexpected. As in, I was on the pill. Also as in, Nigel and I were going through a really rough patch and he wasn't living at home. As in, we both said, "WHAT?! How could this happen?!"
But, it did.
And, I'm ecstatic.
Over the moon.
I am deeply, madly, crazy in love.
We had a 3rd boy =) And he has my heart in a crazy, unexpected, shocking kind of way.
I am so glad that I got the chance to do it again. Be a mommy to a newborn. Breast feed. Snuggle a baby almost 24 hours a day. Smell his sweet baby breath. Nuzzle his soft baby hair. Kiss his chubby belly. Giggle at his really loud toots and poops. Soothe sad newborn cries. All of it, every single second. I am cherishing it. It is magical.
I am blessed, blessed beyond measure. He completes our family in a way that I didn't realize it needed completing. His big brothers are madly in love with him and constantly want to kiss him and snuggle him and love on him. Ahh, it's perfect. So incredibly perfect. And here he is.....
This is one of the last pictures of him in my belly. I loved
every single second most of my pregnancy. It was definitely my most uncomfortable in many ways, but I just loved it as much as I could because I knew it would be the last time I would be growing a child inside of me =)
Wednesday, October 10th at about 11:30pm, I realized that I'd been having some pretty strong contractions. I decided to start timing them. They were coming about every 4-5 minutes. I got through a few of them and decided to tell Nigel that I thought it was the real thing. I told him and he had not much of a reaction. I tend to have a lot of false labor. But, I knew it. I told him that before we did anything, I wanted to take a shower. I asked him to sit in the bathroom with me and continue to time my contractions. He would tell me how long between contractions we were going. I was shocked when he kept saying, "Ok, that one was about 3 minutes" or "That one was only 2 minutes!"
After the shower, I decided that it hurt. BAD. So, I called both of my doulas. Only one answered. The other one is one of my best friends. The doulas live very close to each other. I asked Melissa (the one who answered the phone) to go to Stephanie's (the one who DIDN'T answer the phone) house and bang on the door and ring the doorbell. She did. No one answered.
Melissa came to my house and I said, "It's time for us to go. I don't want to be riding in the car when these contractions get worse." Plus, I had tested positive for Strep B and my doctor asked that I not wait too long to come in so that we could get at least one dose of antibiotic in me (they'd like you to have 2). Nigel's mom had come over to stay with the big boys (who were sound asleep and had no idea). Before we left, I went in their room, kissed their sleeping heads, cried at all of the change that was coming, and whispered how much I love them. And we were off....
While we were in the car, a lot of people were trying to get a hold of Stephanie. Luckily, she woke up. Nigel talked to her and said, "Get to the hospital....NOW!" We got to the hospital and walked in to Labor and Delivery. The nurses asked how long I'd been having contractions. When I said, "Oh, about 2 1/2 hours." They kind of giggled and said, "Oh, ok." Like nothing was really happening. Imagine my surprise (and theirs) when after they checked me, they realized that I was dilated to 7cm and this was my 3rd delivery =) Ha! I fooled them! They got a dose of antibiotic going and I kept going on breathing through my pain.
It was about 45 minutes and my OB walked in. She said that she had a feeling that she would be getting the phone call that I was in labor. She wanted to check me and see how fast we were progressing. I was absolutely flabbergasted when she said that I was at a 10. But I was also confused because there was no urge to push. At all. She said that my cervix had a little "lip" that needed to move out of the way first. She decided to break my water so that the cervix would have some space to move up. After the water broke, she tried to push the "lip" up and around the baby's head. Um, OW! No epidural = not a fun experience with this evil "lip". After several attempts to move things along, and me getting downright pissed and violent, swearing and hitting people (it's true, ask anyone), my OB decided to let me "rest" for a little bit and see if it would move on it's own.
"Rest" was a joke. It hurt so freaking bad. I wanted to kill people. And throw things. And I couldn't stop yelling. I thought I would be a very quiet birther (is that a word?). I thought I would just find my inner woman strength and focus on it. Well, I found it alright. It just wasn't inner. And I didn't focus on it. I instead focused on how hot I was. For a long time. Until my amazing husband found me a cure. The best cure. A FAN! He saved my life. After who knows how long of "resting", and a few times declaring that I couldn't and wouldn't be able to do this, my body decided it was time to do what we came to do. And without any control by me, I just started pushing. I couldn't stop myself.
The OB came rushing back in, quickly. I was pushing. But it hurt. And she checked. And that darn "lip" was still there. Dammit. Seriously. Without warning, she just got down to business and pushed that thing out of the way. Not as easy as it sounds, and not without me trying to shove her away from me ;) I turned into a little bit of a beast during this delivery! Anyway, I mustered up some of that beast, shot up in the bed, and pushed with everything I had. And he came out. FAST. So fast that, apparently, he was almost dropped. But, she held on, and there he was. My newest son, my sweet angel.
Boden Bear Schnackenberg
10/11/12 (coolest birthday ever!), 3:25am
8lbs, 11oz
20 1/2 inches long
A full head of blonde hair
The sweetest face you'll ever see
This is my doula and best friend Stephanie, helping me through a contraction and a blood draw. Why? Why do they torture laboring mamas?
My husband and my mom, giving me as much as I needed.
Look at him taking care of me! I have to admit, I didn't know who was where, who was who, and who was touching me. I had my eyes closed, the ENTIRE time. It was how I coped.
More husband love. And doula love. The arm on the right is my doula Melissa.
HA! I love that this (and most of the labor pictures) are blurry. It represents how it felt to me! And I love that they're smiling and making faces. While I was dying.
And here is the pain. The real pain. And Melissa is telling me to relax my face. Which helped. So much. I'm amazed at how much it helped me.
And the pushing. Serious pushing. I didn't want to do it for very long, so I did it good.
And there he is. His amazing, sweet newness. Ahh.
Look at him, just look =)
Ok, here is the cutest baby face ever. His nose, his lips, his chubby cheeks.
And his tongue =) Which he has loved since birth, and still does!
His sweet little toes....
Daddy's 3rd boy. The last piece in his legacy =)
Freshly bathed and in a turtle hat, with a turtle blanket. Just how Amy and I would have it!
Seriously, just soak him in. I do. All the time.
I can't stop kissing him, even still.
I'm so in love =)
My sweet baby. My last baby. My only natural, drug free childbirth. He is amazing.
