Everett's Birth Story

Who knew it would take me almost a week and a half to get this story out! By this time, most of you have already heard it in some version or other. But I thought I would just write it down for memories sake:-)

Most of you know we did not know what we were having. It was a suspenseful surprise all the way up until the moment of truth, where Daddy made the big announcement. This picture was taken about a week prior to the big day for my mom, so she could see how uncomfortable I was...yet already in love.

The 23rd started off as any normal birthday-day would! I got up early to decorate for my 4 year old. Balloons and banner, presents wrapped and set up before he woke up. Very nice start to the day! The boys had school that day and Logan's cupcakes for his Birthday celebration were done and decorated, ready to go with him. The boys got up and I was feeling great! I got them off to school and I headed over to my doctors appointment. I had been seeing the same Captain throughout the majority of the pregnancy and had begun a great relationship with her. Very rare in the military community. Being the 23rd was two days from my due date and seeing the doc who was probably going to check me, I was weary because this was the ONLY day I truly did NOT want to have our baby! I mean, two kids sharing the same birthday?!?!? How awful right?!?!

Unfortunately when I got the OB place my doc was running very behind and Mike and I needed to get some things done during a "childless" day. (he was off from work). There was another doc free and so I thought, well, why not!? This gal proceeded to check me and stated that I was 5-6cm! WHAT?! I knew since the past saturday I was 3-4cm and I could stay that way for weeks, but I wasn't having any contractions or anything! She proceeded to check me further which was basically stripping my membranes pretty hard. Then she told me she was going to call labor and delivery and that I needed to go in. I was totally shocked and totally not ready mentally! I thought I was going to talk to her about an induction day!

I called Mike and told him what was going on, and we ended up getting the boys early from school and dropped them off at our friends house. We are so grateful for this family...they seriously just took our boys in as their own and I don't think I could ever repay them! We headed down to the hospital and I started getting uncomfortable and having contractions, but they were about every 8 minutes apart. At least they were regular. I was however, determined to not be "forced" into labor when we got to the hospital. I wasn't going to walk to make the baby come and make me progress. We already had a day of false labor and I did not want that to happen again. If it wasn't meant to be, it wasn't meant to be.

At the hospital I was 5 cm so they kept me and started the process! Mike went back to the car to get our bags only to find out we FORGOT OUR CAMERA! YIKES! I was so disappointed, but there was truly nothing we could do. We live 40 min from our hospital so there was no sending him back home. We only had our phones to take pictures with. We got plenty:-) I decided to get an epidural with this labor because with Austin I only had a quick spinal block at the end and endured the labor without pain meds. It was incredibly painful with him, and I felt very overwhelmed. I also knew that once my water broke the labor would go quickly, so we got set up with the epidural before my water broke. We found out then that our anesthesiologist also shared a birthday with one of his siblings...how strange! It was then that it began to hit me that yes, Logan and this baby will be sharing a birthday as it was only 5 oclock and there was no way this baby was waiting for the next day.

My water broke about 6, right at shift change and the new staff came on for the night. Mike and I were goofing around...well, actually he was goofing around. At one point they didn't like the baby's heartbeat so they gave me O2 via a mask. Mike thought it would be funny while rubbing my back to stick his face in mine and try and "sniff" some of the O2. Of course I couldn't help but laugh and that made the monitor on my belly go nuts. The nerve of some husbands:-) Just kidding...it was a good thing. Because of the epidural I couldn't feel the pain of the contractions but I could tell they were only minutes a part. (I was truly blessed with a pain free labor!) I then felt "open" down there (sorry if TMI) and I asked them to check me and sure enough with-in two hours I went from 5cm to 10cm and ready to go! So tons of people flooded the room and I got my mirror to watch myself push (always helps me push harder). They were placing bets on what the gender would be and even at that point I really had no clue or intuition.

I pushed about 4 contractions worth and the baby's head was out. Only thing wrong was the cord was wrapped snug around his neck. Of course I got the doc who was training someone and this trainee wasn't doing a very confident job. She shoved him out of the way and said " I gotta get this baby out"! Of course once I heard those words I pushed the hardest ever and he came right out. We asked them to not say the gender but to let Mike tell me what it was. I was desperately searching his eyes as he looked and as soon as he turned to me, before he spoke a word, I knew it was another little boy:-) Everett Michael 8lbs 9 oz, 21 1/4 inches long...I started crying and laughing at how big he was! So healthy, which makes me so happy. He was born at 8:07pm, which I later realized was the about same time that Logan was born on the same day, 4 years earlier. By the way, if you want to know the story behind his name, here is the blog post about why we picked his name.

Despite the cord around his neck, several low blood sugars and a slight fever in the beginning, he was perfectly healthy and oh so beautiful!!! Our family is now complete, 3 boys in tow, a God given gift:-) He started nursing great and hasn't stopped yet, he pooped the first 12 hours at least one an hour, and he LOVES to sleep! At first he was startled a ton by just the littlest noises, but right now as the music plays loudly and the Logan and Austin play crashing their cars, he sleeps soundly in his bouncer.

I felt the labor and the delivery went extremely well. I only got once dose of the epidural which was a blessing that I was pain-free. However, because of the uncomfortableness of the "sleep/dead" legs and the shivering, etc; I almost wished that I hadn't gotten it. I am glad that I have been able to experience both a painful and a pain-free labor just to know what it is like. I think Mike enjoys the pain-free one more as it is very hard according to him, to see me in pain and not be able to do anything about it. He again, showed what a great coach he is, knowing exactly what to do for me, always being there even if I just needed a pillow adjusted an inch. I love my baby daddy:-)

It has been a whirlwind week and a half at home! I think I can let my breath out about Everett being a good baby. In fact I actually called a nurse and asked about him sleeping so much! I have had to wake him up every 2-3 hours to eat! This is SOOOO unlike Austin who only took short cat naps his whole first year. So thank you Jesus for this little Easy Everett!

Logan is in love with his brother and can't wait till he is older so Everett can join in the fun. Logan enjoys holding him and Austin likes to sit next to him and look over his shoulder. It is going to be a crazy house at times, but it will be so much fun to see their bonds.