The Whole Story

As many of you out there in the blogging world, I have foregone all efforts of scrapbooking, journal writing, and all those other wonderful memory saving things I am supposed to be doing. Instead, I blog. I will then publish them in one of those adorable little books and call it good. The reason I am saying all this is because I am now going to write the entire story of Rhode's birth. Probably not going to be entertaining reading for anyone but me 20 years down the line. That and it will be filled with lots of pregnancy/labor words that can gross out the feint of heart. With that said...

I knew I would probably have my little boy earlier than his due date. Because Scarlet was such a heavy weight, my doctor thought I should just schedule a C-section from the beginning. I wasn't a big fan of that idea. Option number 2 was inducing early.

I went in for an ultrasound when I was exactly 38 weeks along and the ultrasound tech told me my little guy was already 8 1/2 lbs. with a head the size of a 42 week old baby. I took this as good news. First off, have you ever heard of any baby actually weighing what they guessed they would on the late ultrasound? I sure haven't. They are usually at least a pound over. I was a little concerned about my baby's noggin, especially after my doctor compared him to "So I Married an Axe Murderer." (It's like a melon on a toothpick!) But I knew if they thought he was a chunker, I was that much closer to getting him out.

So, as expected, at my appointment the next day the doctor decided the baby was big enough and it was time to get him out. When? The next day. I was already dilated to a four and after stripping my membrane (uh, ow. That one hurts) I was basically on my way to motherhood anyway. He tried to schedule me for inducing the next day but the hospital wouldn't schedule me because they were too busy. So, after a lot of back-and-forth yelling on the phone, my doctor told me to go in tomorrow anyway and tell them I am in labor. So that is exactly what I did.

I woke up the next morning and after moving around a bit, I was definitely having contractions. We got Scarlet ready, finished those last few get-ready-for-the-new-baby tasks (which for Jon included putting up some more trim in our guest bedroom. Who knew newborns needed trim?) I dropped Scarlet off at the Warrens for the weekend and we headed to the hospital.

That was the nerve-wracking part. I had this weird fear with Scarlet that the hospital would send me home because I wasn't actually in labor so I waited until I was absolutely positive she was coming before I went to the hospital. This time, I knew I was in labor but I was still only having contractions every 10 minutes or so. Not nearly often enough to go to the hospital. So here they are strapping me up to all the machines giving me the 'are you sure you're in labor' look while I try to give them my most realistic impression of a woman just minutes away from pushing out a kid. The nurse left, still pretty skeptical and I thought I was done for. About 10 minutes later, my labor and delivery nurse Robert walks in and asks if I want to have a baby today. I was so relieved.

I really got a kick out of Robert. I have never had a male nurse in the hospital. Robert was especially interesting. He was a black man in his 50's from Mississippi. Not exactly your stereotypical maternity nurse. When he asked me my religious affiliation and I said LDS, his response was, 'oh good, LDS people always say the funniest things.' I'm not really sure where that observation came from but I knew that we would get along after that.

They hooked me up to all the IVs and monitor things and got some Pitocin in me. By this time it about 1:00 p.m. They broke my water a little bit later and then we waited. Jon turned on the TV and we watched a lot of crappy television. By about 2:30, I was finally having some pretty painful contractions. And, just about then, Robert came in to tell me they wanted to give me an epidural a little early because another girl was going in for a C-section. A few minutes later, the pain was gone and I was one happy pregnant girl.

Three hours of TV watching later and they decided to call the doctor. He got there at about 6:05 and three pushes later, Rhode was born at 6:17 p.m. He looked so tiny! All this light brown hair and this scrawny little body. They set him on the scale and he weighed in at a lithe 7 lb 4 oz.

He was instantly a great eater and an ever better sleeper. That first night, he slept for 8 hours. My nurse was panicking because he wasn't eating often enough but there was nothing I could do to get that kid to wake up and eat. So we both actually got some decent sleep that night.

Scarlet came the next day. Isn't it crazy how much bigger they seem? I swear Scarlet had put on 10 pounds and grown about 10 inches since I had seen her last. I couldn't believe I had been in the hospital with her only 18 months earlier.

They had a special 'new parent' dinner for Jon and I that night. Steak & shrimp, cheesecake, and sparkling cider. Not exactly high quality restaurant food but really good hospital food. I got to go home on Monday after a little extra baby monitoring.

My mom came in town Monday night and we spent a very nice week eating take out, watching Rhode sleep, and wrestling Scarlet away from him. Oh, and somewhere in between all of that my mom scrubbed my house from top to bottom. Best maid service I've ever had :) Just kidding, mom.

He really is such a good little baby. He takes great, long naps and even when he's awake he is pretty happy just sitting there looking around. I really thought Scarlet was a pretty good baby. Thank goodness she came first, she was so much harder! His only potential fault is he seems to have his days and nights mixed up. He sleeps away most of the day but gets up promptly every two hours to eat at night and is wide awake from about 5 a.m. to about 8 a.m.

Kristy and Courtney drove up from BYU for the weekend to meet their new nephew. I think they were impressed. But they enjoyed Scarlet's new loving attitude even more. She is not always a fan of people who aren't me. But now that I was frequently occupied, she was more than happy to take advantage of a grandma and aunts that would give her anything she wanted.

Now it is just the three of us during the day. It is pretty exhausting and I am still in what Sam Miller so aptly calls 'zombie mode' but all is well. I am already feeling almost 100% recovered and I am pretty sure my two kids are as good looking as kids get :)