Little Baby

No, this isn't a post about sweet Miles... Quinn is convinced that he is little all over again! My fella, who completely lost interest in his binky at around seven months, now insists on having one like the baby. He has completely taken over the bouncy seat. When I nurse Miles he begs in his heartbreaking little voice, "Please, Mom, a bite? Please, Mom? Quinn turn?" What a sweetie!

A Whole Different Experience

Last Friday afternoon (the 19th), Travis and I decided to head up to the hospital around three-thirty. They hooked me up to the monitors and watched my contractions for an hour or so.

Dr. Noorda made a quick appearance to break my water and wish me luck at 4:45. The contractions got pretty strong, pretty quick. I stuck it out on the IV meds for a little while and around 8 took the epideral. I asked for pitocin to speed things along and then had them turn the lights out in our room.

They came back to check my progress every so often, but mostly from 8 pm until 1 am Travis and I peacefully slept in the delivery room!

When my nurse came in at one o'clock she told me I was dilated to an eight. Before she had the chance to leave the room I told her that she needed to check again. She did and said, "Okay, you are at a nine," and within two minutes she checked again and said, "I will go call Doctor Noorda, you are ready to go!"

The roads were really snowy and it took him half-an-hour to arrive. It was so tough to just breath through the contractions and wait for him!

Once he was there I pushed for three contraction (around ten or fifteen minutes) and had a beautiful little baby! There was a little scare because the umbilical cord was wrapped tightly twice around his neck. The doctor cut it before he was born and all was well!

When he was born, he just looked around for the longest time. The nurses slapped his feet, gave him shots, turned him from side to side, and did all sorts of other things to try to get him to cry, but he wouldn't make a peep! I was kind of worried, but they said they weren't concerned because there were no signs of distress! It was almost a full day later when I finally got to hear him cry! (My mom was in my hospital room with me around eight that night and I had got up to use the bathroom. I heard the faintest little sweet cry and shouted to my mom, "Don't comfort him! I want to hear it!")

I feel so lucky! I am just in a constant state of "warm and fuzzy" (and absolute sleep-deprivation)!

The Best Feeling in the World

Miles Winslow Howard

December 20, 2008

1:51 am

6 pounds 11 ounces

20 inches

I am absolutely in HEAVEN!! I am so in love with my sweet little fella! I will post the details of it all soon, but for now here are some pictures:

TODAY??!!

I am supposed to be taking a nap right now, but I can't sleep. I am really antsy because in about an hour I am going to head up to the hospital and have my new little baby (that sure makes it sound quick and easy, eh?)!

Just as I predicted: I went into the doctor's office today and he said there has been no further progression... however, between now and Monday morning he will be on call so go ahead and head to the hospital anytime before then and he will give the order to start me. He said that tomorrow or Sunday would work best for him; that is why I am going in today... ;) Not really, I am just SOOO ready!

Everyone cross your fingers for a four hour painless labor and delivery! My next post will have pictures of a little guy that I can't even kind of picture in my head yet... Crazy!

F***!

I went to the hospital this morning. I had labs drawn. Dr. Noorda called to say that he planned to start me, but he wanted to come in and talk to me first (to make sure I was up for it after another long and sick night). He said he'd be there before he headed to the office. He never bothered to come in (they finally called around 9:30... "oops, ran out of time").

My labs came back saying that my potassium was really really low, so they administered IV meds. Doctor Noorda finally made an appearance, long enough to say he wants me to be dilated to a three before he induces. Yep. Yesterday he wanted me to be a two and today I was. At seven o'clock this morning he said that everything looked favorable. At three o'clock this afternoon he said that perhaps he was misunderstood. So I am home now.

Oh well. At least Vicky didn't win the Biggest Loser.

Tomorrow??!!

A few months ago I asked my mom if she would watch Quinn while I was in the hospital having Miles. I told her that I would try to make it convenient for her... "How is mid-morning on the seventeenth of December?" And it has been in my mind ever since that my fella just might make his appearance on the 17th! Fast forward to last night:

I spend a couple of hours (I really have no concept of the time I spent there) up at the hospital last night because I have been MISERABLY sick! I was super-dehydrated and they pumped me full of IV liquids and medicines. I was having contractions, but the nurse explained that they were because I was so dehydrated and that they would fade away soon. Umm... no.

After I got home from the hospital the contractions were SOOOO bad! They were coming every two-three minutes and they were really strong. The doctor tells me every visit to wait for an hour after contractions start before going to the hospital. After forty-five minutes I woke Travis up. As soon as he was downstairs with me I started shaking and shivering uncontrollably for a few minutes (freaked Travis out!). As soon as that subsided, the contractions were gone, too!

This morning I was still feeling pretty rough, so I headed up to the doctor's office. There, they hooked my up to a maching to monitor my contractions (which have calmed down a LOT but were still coming pretty regularly) and Miles' heart beat. He was "moderately unresponsive" so Dr. Noorda got out a funny little buzzer thing that has a TON of power. He buzzed the baby through my belly and my sweet little baby jumped and twisted and turned and his heart rate shot up! Super-good sign!

The doctor said that if I was dialated to a two he would send me straight over to the hospital... nope (a one)! He almost sent me over anyway, but as soon as he would have himself talked into it he would talk himself out of it again (kind of funny to watch). He said, "Come back tomorrow," and he gave me an 80% chance of delivering Miles then!

I am mostly planning on having my second son tomorrow! It's nuts! I am going to spend the day with Quinn doing whatever he wants to do today! We are going to start with making a snowman. I am sure that the day will involve going somewhere to get a hamburger (meat-bread as Quinn calls it), and who knows what else my little big-kid will want to do... whatever it is I will be taking a ton of pictures!

NO WANT CLAUS!!

It sounded like a lot of fun to take Quinn to see Santa. He has seen Santa in movies and talks about him like he is an old buddy, however...

As soon as Quinn was within four feet of Santa he was crying hysterically, "Pleeease, no Claus! No want Claus!" As soon as we turned to walk away he yelled, "Bye Claus! Thanks! See you soon!" Travis called us a few minutes later and when he asked if he'd visited Santa, Quinn told him, "Cry, cry, cry. Nanta Claus." So I didn't end up with any pictures of Quinn with the big guy like I had hoped for. But we stopped by the Play Land while we were at the mall and I got a couple cute shots of him there:

After we got home, Quinn pinched his finger. I think he has the cutest little scrunched up face when he cries and asks for kisses, so I got the camera. When Quinn saw the camera -even thought he was still sobbing- he couldn't help but try his best to smile ("cheeeeese"). Super cute.

As soon as he was feeling better he was back off to his room to play. From the next room I asked him, "What are you doing?" and he said, "A doctor." Then, as proud as he could be, he came in to show me that he is Doctor Quinn... Medicine Baby!