Introducing Seth

This is our sweet baby that was born on Friday.  He's a sweet cuddle bug that we named Seth after my amazing brother.  He's a little jaundiced and probably has acid reflux, both something that we can deal with.  His siblings adore him and I never want to put him down.  8 lbs 5 ozs, 19 inches long.

 

After a fight between the doctor and the federal regulations at the hospital, we were finally induced on Thursday morning.  The doctor said that I needed to be induced because of my Polyhydramnios and the regulations said that unless they could say what caused it, they couldn't induce me for another week and a half.  They sent me to a specialist to check it out and after a very frustrating 3 hour long appointment with 3 little kids in tow... they told me there was nothing that they could do.  Then the next morning they sent me to do another Glucose test because if I had developed late term Gestational Diabetes then they could go ahead and induce me.  Before I was even done with the test, they called me back and said that they were going to go ahead and induce me anyways because the risks of still births and detached placentas was significant enough that they wanted to be on the safe side.  So we packed our kids off to go to Bear Lake with my brother Seth and my sister Janelle... and Jer, me and my mom headed off for the hospital.  They decided to treat me as if I had GD... so they tested my blood sugar every two hours in case they needed to give me insulin.  My sugar levels were always good... but Seth's heart rate did better when they started giving me a sugar IV... and when he was born, his blood sugar levels were at 30.  Anything above 45 is normal for a baby.  They started me at 10 am... I wasn't dilated and my cervix was still really high so breaking my water was a bit of a painful challenge... and my contractions were more painful with this birth than with any of the others... because I could feel them all the way down into my tailbone and up my back.   When they broke my water, I flooded the bed twice since there was so much amniotic fluid... very exciting to say the least.  Seth didn't like it very much and his heart rate dropped.  We had to wait until he was used to it before putting me on Pitocin.  It was fun in a way... two of my mom's really good friends ended up being my nurses throughout the day and it was fun to hear them chatting and catching up.  By 8 pm I was ready for an epidural.  I got it and could breathe again.  I was tired of being in labor and it was really nice to be able to take a nap while my body kept doing the work for me.  By 11 pm I was nauseous, which usually means that body is starting to transition into the last part of labor.  By 1 am we were ready to push.  12 mins of pushing and he was out.  My most painful labor, but my fastest labor and fastest pushing time.  The placenta and cord were humongous... and my sweet baby boy was here.  8/8 baby.  I've still got swelling, but he's safe and we're glad to have him.

 

When the kids got back from camping, Ada ran up the stairs asking to see the baby.  She said, "Mom, I knew he'd be cute, but I didn't know he'd be this cute!"  Sam just kept saying, "Cute!" and Evelyn wanted to hold him and rock him.... she sings songs to him when we drive in the car.  She was also very concerned that his umbilical cord was "going to pop".  Ada has been following me around asking me if it's her turn to hold the baby yet.  She's been a good help actually.  She held the baby while I got breakfast for the other kids and myself.  Both girls were really curious about breastfeeding.  I talked to them about it and Ada wanted to know if she could feed the baby... 

 

Everything is not easy.  He has rough nights, but hopefully we'll get that resolved soon... but honestly, he's healthy... he's here... and I'm happy. I'm glad to have an amazing husband and an amazing mom.  I'm glad that my brother and sister were willing to sacrifice their weekend so that my kids could play with cousins all weekend instead of sit around waiting for mom to get back from the hospital.  I'm grateful for so many blessings.