Diesel Knox Isom

 

2/20/2011   9:25pm   8lbs 12oz   21 in

Finally some pictures!  Everything is great here!  Got induced Sunday in a rather slow-going process.  Usually I go in, they break my water, give me pitocin and the babies come out within a few hours.  This doc was pretty conservative - he started me off, put some pill in to get things going and said, "Ok, I'll come check on you in 4 hours."  My mouth fell open and I was like, "What? I thought this thing was going to be OVER in 4 hours!"  So after that first 4 hours I had dilated all the way from a 1 to a 2.  Oh brother.  So then he started pitocin, but still didn't break my water.  After another 3 hours or so, I had gone from a 2 to a 3.  I was dying.  So then he broke my water and I started having good contractions, enough to get myself an epidural, and after another 3+ hours he came in around 8:20pm and I had dilated from a 3 to a 4.  Now I was really dying!!  

At that point we started to worry that we were doing the wrong thing and trying to force out some baby that just wasn't ready.  That morning some resident had checked me and measured the baby as pretty small and told me it wasn't going to be more than 7 pounds (shows how much she knows) - and then Ryan was starting to question if I was sure I'd calculated my dates right.... So then we're wondering if we're trying to force out some runt that wasn't even ready....

So anyway, after the doctor left when I was at a 4, I called Ryan who had gone home to help put the kids to bed and sadly told him to just wait around at home and I'd just call him when something started happening since we'd had nice friends watching our kids all day and nothing had happened yet.  Later I checked the times on my phone - 12 minutes after that call, I called Ryan to tell him he better get back to the hospital - now.  Seriously, 10 hours to get from a 1 to a 4, and then 12 minutes to get to a 10.  Sheesh.  The nurse was in serious disbelief when I called her in - since everyone had left me alone at that point, Ryan was gone, and the doctor had gone over to another hospital to do consults.  (And my epidural had just stopped working on the whole right side of my body which I wasn't happy about.) She was like, "but he just checked you and you were a 4."  I was like, "I know, that's why I feel stupid, but I really think something is going on!"  So she went and found a resident, had them come in, and the resident was also in disbelief and said, "If you really are already at a 10, that would be like the fastest 4 to 10 in history."  She checked me and was like, "Ok, I guess I'm going to go page the doctor!"  So after she paged him she asked if I wanted to start pushing and I said I really kind of wanted to wait for my husband.  So Ryan made it, then I waited for the doctor - so I was sitting there at a 10 waiting to push for over 30 minutes!  It was pretty funny, but at least it added some excitement I guess. We were laughing at this planned induction business since we've never done it before. It was pretty weird to wake up and have the kids say, "Where are you going?" and to be like, "Oh, I'm going to have a baby. See you later!"  Anyhow, the baby came out with one contraction and it was all smooth.  I even felt kind of proud when Ryan told me it was my best delivery yet.  :)

Cash's reaction when we brought the baby over for him to see was super cute and he's been great with the baby, trying to talk to it in a cute baby voice. 

The twins were pretty much like this:     :)

Although every once in a while we can get them to acknowledge him.  Hasn't seemed to rock anyone's world too much so far. (And frankly our kids aren't used to getting that much attention from us anyway.  :)

The boys spent most of the time at the hospital like this.

The first thing I said was that I was so happy he came out with dark hair!  And he looks so much like Cash did, which makes me happy.  Now we can have two of each.

Naming the baby was a bit of drama. Every time the lady came in I told her we didn't have a name yet and to come back.  She finally said, "I leave at 3:30 today, and I need it by then."  I told her to come back at 3.  She came at 3.  We told her to come back at 3:15.  I wanted to name him Knox, Ryan (and the twins) wanted Diesel, and Cash really really wanted Keaton. (I really liked Knox while I was reading 1776 back in the fall - from Henry Knox, one of Washington's generals.)  I said I wanted to just give him three names and we could all call him whatever we wanted.  Ryan wasn't up for that.  So she finally came back and we were still totally undecided. So I said, "You tell her the first name."  So Ryan said Diesel.  Then he said, "You tell her the middle name, and I said Knox.  So there you have it.  Diesel Knox.  Yes, I feel a little bad Cash's choice got left out, but next time I won't make the mistake of asking our kids opinions.  :)  

They kept us at the hospital an extra day - they kept saying we were such a late delivery they hadn't really had time to watch the baby for 48 hours plus he had had a lot of mucus and his bilirubin levels were too high. Funny, we delivered the same time with the twins on a Sunday night and I was begging for an extra day since I wasn't ready to go home with twins by myself yet and they refused!  This one I felt fine and they kept us.  Whatever.  Too bad I wasn't at the same hospital as last time with the hot tub and the massage therapist....

Ready to go home:

Seriously I can't believe how much fun #4 is.  I think the first is so stressful, we didn't know what we were doing, I was in lots of pain everywhere, nursing was complicated, he was colicky....then with the twins there were just two and everything was complicated and exhausting.  By #4 I may actually be getting the hang of this enough to just enjoy it!  I'm not usually a huge one to dote on babies, but I could sit around and stare and cuddle this little guy all day.  It is really SO fun. I'm blissfully happy. And tired.  :)

Now if only I can avoid getting staph infections, yeast infections, plumeting estrogen levels causing menopausal symptoms, mastitis, blocked ducts, open wounds, and herniated discs (all which have happened with my past babies)...then I will really consider this my best delivery yet.  :)

(Delivering at my inner-city hospital is probably another story in itself, but hey, it's always comforting to have an exterminator called in to visit your room while you're there, right?)