Danny's reaction to his new baby brother was priceless. And I was really looking forward to hearing his impressions since he's so verbal now. He walked in, eyes wide, and said, excitedly, "Baby Owen came out. Now he not make you tired." For months, he's heard me say, "Mommy's tired, she has a baby in her belly." Apparently, he doesn't know how this works just yet. The baby is going to be making us tired for quite some time, I'm sure.
Fiona, on the other hand, is going to be a challenge. She is 15 months old, has no impulse control and is a very strong-willed child. She walked right up, pointed at him and said, "Baby." Then proceeded to not-so-gently pat him. She did seem rather concerned when he started crying this morning and can say his name. It's adorable, let me tell you. Videos soon, I promise!
And for those who like birth stories, here's an abbreviated one:
On Saturday night, we left our children with Nana and PopPop and came home. Well, first we stopped off for some candy (licorice) because we had planned to watch a movie. Licorice, my midwife tells me, can induce contractions. And we bought the good quality licorice. Whether it was just his time or whether it was the licorice, I may never know (it's safe to say, though, that it was probably just his time since he was 16 days late!). I went to bed at 11, slept until about 12:30 and woke up feeling crampy but didn't think it was contractions because, well, they just didn't start and stop. I walked around for a bit, got back in bed and rested with a warm rice sock and waited. Then the contractions started, first at 5 minutes apart for about an hour.
I woke Jim up to tell him that it was starting and he told me I needed to get some rest, which, based on Fiona's and Danny's labor, was the right answer. However, Owen had other ideas and apparently, the dog knew about it. Bob just stood by Jim's side of the bed and looked at him like, "Well, aren't you going to do something?" And there was a lot to do ... blow up the pool, turn up the temperature on the water heater so there would be enough hot water, get out the birth supplies, make sure I had Smart Water and snacks and probably a lot of other things that my husband could tell you about.
Rather quickly the contractions became 3 minutes apart and by 3:30 or so they were 2 minutes apart and double-peaking. By 3:30 a.m. I was almost fully dilated. By 5 a.m. Owen was making beginning to make his descent as I labored in the birth pool in our bedroom. I pushed for about 9 minutes and he was out. The cord was wrapped loosely around his neck twice but his heart rate never dipped during labor. I felt around in the warm water to check the gender, which was a surprise to us, before our midwife brought him up.
Start to finish, this labor lasted five and a half hours. This kid broke all kinds of records ... heaviest baby, longest baby, longest overdue, shortest labor. Yesterday was pretty rough for me. I began to vomit when I was in labor and got myself into a low-blood sugar spiral where I couldn't keep anything down, not even water, for the first 12 hours after the birth. I was too nauseous to even sleep. By late afternoon, I was so depleted that my leg muscles were cramping. What finally worked was my midwife's suggestion that I take a bite of food every fifteen minutes when I was awake, then take a Tylenol PM and get some sleep. It worked. I slept and Owen slept 5 hours last night (that is actually the longest stretch of sleep I've had in months!). I had to rouse him for a feeding this morning.
Much of what went on yesterday is unknown to me, as I was puking most of the day. But Jim says the kids had a blast in the backyard at Owen's very first "birthday party." Even Owen spent a little time outside. The night before Jim had set up a little water park in the backyard with the slip and slide and the pool around the swing set area. Then he grilled turkey burgers for dinner.
Right now, they're all sleeping and I've eaten something other than the BRAT diet and ice chips today. Needless to say, I'm feeling a lot better and getting to know our new little guy who is sitting in his bouncy seat all snuggled up in my new favorite piece of baby gear - a swaddling blanket. It's like a straight-jacket for babies. Genius!
Here are a few photos of our precious baby boy. Also, here are some photos that my dad took.
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