Little Quint has arrived!!

In case you're wondering why I haven't blogged in nearly a week, it's because my hands have been full with my brand new infant! Little Quint was born at 12:26pm Tuesday, September 15th. He weighed 7lbs, 7oz and was 19 1/4 inches long.

Monday, I went in to the doctor for a quick check of some vitals, only to find my blood pressure ridiculously high. Since I was 37 weeks pregnant which is considered full term, my doctor wanted to induce me that day! Needless to say I was shocked! My Hubby hadn't even gone with me to that appointment. Being a bit hormonal at the time, I burst into tears. My doctor explained the risks involved with waiting, and how the baby was plenty "done" anyway. It would greatly help my health and wouldn't hurt the baby. I called Hubby and turned his world upside down. The doctor came back to me in a few minutes and let Hubby ask her any questions he had. We all agreed that I would go home, finish packing, take care of some things and check in to the hospital by noon.

No telling what folks thought of a huge pregnant woman walking out of the doctor's offices crying, but suddenly I didn't feel so ready to be a mom quite yet. Hubby told his co-workers what was happening, called half the world, and wound up beating me back to the house. He let me cry for a little while and then we started getting ready to go. I wanted to wash my hair, and we needed to pack up the computers. My bag was already packed and at 11:15 we were ready to go, but wondered if we should hang out for a bit or go look at the lake and arrive at noon. Nah, might as well go ahead and go.

We checked into the hospital feeling like we were moving in. We had my suitcase, my purse bag thingy, the boppy, and Hubby's computer bag. They started the IV and started the induction at about 1pm. We were in for the long wait since I wasn't dilated at all. The PG version of the procedure is that I was given one drug to "open the door" before we started pitocin to "put anything through the door". We emailed folks, Hubby played his computer game, I wrote thank you notes, they let me eat dinner, we called people, etc. At midnight my water broke all on its own, and at 2am I asked for some pain medication. Demerol is FUN!!! And it apparently makes me chatty. Hubby was finally telling me to just shut up so he could get some more sleep in the horrible chair/bed thing he was sleeping in. Somewhere during the night, probably between 2am and 5am, they started me on pitocin. At 4 or 5am, I asked for my epidural and then was really out for several hours. At 7am, I was dilated to 4cm and the family was back in my room to hang out during the wait. It's really weird to sit up when you're numb from the sternum down. My folks and Hubby's mom were there for patient entertainment.

At 11am, they said I was fully dilated and could start pushing soon! REALLY?! Cool. Everybody but Hubby left and I started pushing. For the first hour of my 90 minutes of pushing, I would drift off to sleep between contractions. Now that is the way to labor in my opinion! At noon, my doctor came in to help with the final push and catch. At 12:26pm, our precious baby boy bounced into the world! I can't describe all the emotions running through both of us. Hubby has tried to explaine it to folks. He says that you think you know the volume of love you're able to have for anyone else and then suddenly you're able to love so much overwhelmingly more. Hubby cut the cord and we both gawked at our curly headed little boy. They let me hold him for a few minutes, then moved him over to the warmer to get him cleaned up. After a few minutes I got my boy back and since I was cleaned up, the family came rushing in! It was really fun to show him off! He was maybe an hour old when he went to the nursery for all his checks, bath and whatnot. Hubby went with him and Quint held his finger for an hour and a half while he was checked out and brought up to a good temperature.

Apparently, because he did more grunting than screaming when he was first born, there was some concern about his lungs not being cleared out properly. They kept him longer in the nursery to make sure he got some good screams in and really cleared out his lungs. The result back in my hospital room was a very ticked off new mama who had a 2.5 hour old child somewhere that wasn't in her arms and didn't know why. So there were some sharp words with the only nurse in the whole place that I didn't like and I had to wait a while longer to see my little boy again. His lungs cleared out and he got warm enough, and my little boy was brought to me in due course, and I got to gaze at his royal cuteness once again. We took 400 pictures, tried to pin down the exact color of his hair, kissed his head and basically sucked all the goodie out of the whole experience.

We had some visitors in the evening and I sent my Hubby home for a good night's sleep. At some point in the evening, I gave a first shot at breastfeeding which had minimal results. During the night, he slet in the nursery and was brought to me for feedings. With the second attempt, I was gratified by the nurse saying I was doing everything right for him to nurse, but not much doing. By the third attempt, we had some success! And thus ends the first day of our little Quint's life.

My Amazing Labor Day Weekend

My folks were in town for this past Labor Day weekend to (A) really get to see me huge pregnant and (B) help me get things ready for baby. Within my little notebook of lists (yes, a whole notebook of lists), there was a big list of things to do before my personal labor day. There was a Daddy list, a Mama list, a list of things I can stock in the freezer, a list of thank you notes to write, a list of pediatricians to examine, a grocery list (always), and a list of smaller home chores to do.

They took these lists and ran and it was a sight to behold! I was left with just answering questions (which gets harder closer to meal time) and occasionally fetching things. Here is a probably incomplete list of the things that got done this weekend by the four of us.

Large ham mostly devoured by the masses
Crib is now assembled
The changing table is now assembled (despite having all the wrong hardware)
The hot air balloon mobile is painted (this took 10 times longer than I thought it would)
The mobile is assembled
The water hose is finally attached to it’s reel
Ugly dead tree branches were jerked from various trees
All three toilets now work properly
Baby kicks were felt
Baby presents were opened
The light switch that wasn’t like the others is now like the others
Mini blinds were purchased and hung in the baby’s room
Home Depot was visited twice for more parts
Draino was used on my tub with fantastic results.
Laundry was washed
Groceries were gotten
Parents were schooled on GPS functions
Parents were fully introduced to the wonders of Aldi
Thank you notes were written
The brass headboard was done away with (weird story there!)
Several meals were made not by me!
Trees were trimmed
Walks were taken without me (Hubby has missed this)
The changing tables were stocked and prepared
Card games were played
A recreational fire was burned in the fire pit
Lots of porch sitting
Several naps
My computer was backed up so that the thumb drive, my home computer, and work computer all have the same data/pictures on them.
Church was attended
Furniture was re-arranged

That list will make anyone feel like a slacker! But there were 4 people and 3 days involved. Because of all this, I now feel incredibly prepared for the arrival of my little fella. Each of these nights I slept incredibly well because I was really tired and felt really accomplished. Parents are great! They really come through when you’re about to give them a grandchild!

Weird story about the brass headboard: I was going to give it to goodwill, but we were all feeling lazy about leaving the house to take it there in Daddy’s big enough vehicle. He suggested putting it out in the yard with a “free” sign and seeing if it took a hour to disappear. It took 90 minutes on a Saturday! The weird part was that it was picked up by two floppy haired teens, one with a shovel in his hand. A shovel? What’s the shovel for? Even if they were doing some unrelated project in the yard and walked down the street to fetch it at their mother’s request, why’d they bring the shovel? We jumped in the car to see where they took it, but it was stashed away somewhere by the time we made our rounds. Oh well. It’s a mystery.

The lizard rodeo

Saturday afternoon, the baby crib assembly project got underway. My Hubby and Dad were going to put together the crib in our bedroom where we'll use it as a co-sleeper for a few months, then move it to the baby's room. Hubby and I neatened up the room a bit to have maximum floor space for the project, and moved furniture to clear out the corner the crib will belong. Oddly enough, there was a lizard under a swivel rocker we had. We fetched the cat and tossed her at the lizard. As soon as it moved again, she was on the trail and they darted under the bed. We finished moving the swivel rocker to another room and determined that the corner needed to be vacuumed.

Ingredients to a lizard rodeo: one cat, one lizard, a closed bedroom door, two dingbats and a vacuum cleaner.

Instructions: assemble all and turn on the vacuum.

Hubby turned on the vacuum about the same time I unearthed the the lizard amongst some papers under an end table. The lizard darts towards the vacuum, near the beater bar. Hubby jerks the vacuum up off the ground so as not to have fresh ground lizard. The lizard darts over to the dirty clothes basket. I go over to the cat, now sitting on the bed. The vacuum is still running. I try to pick up the cat to toss her towards the scurrying lizard. She manages to launch out of my arms WITHOUT scratching me and does two backflips before landing on her feet 3 feet from the still running vacuum. Hubby turns off the vacuum while I started to laugh hysterically. The cat is hissing before she actually touches the ground. She then hisses at the bedskirt, at my ankles, walks two steps and hisses at the TV cart, walks to a corner of the room and hisses at it while wiping her face with a paw. All of this took approximately 10 seconds.

Now Hubby is chuckling at the randomly hissing cat. Ok the cat is out of commission as a lizard weapon. I walk over to the dirty clothes basket, and we find it under a blue dress shirt. Hubby says, "well if the cat doesn't want it, then I don't want to kill it." I'm with him on this. So now we try to catch the lizard. We corner the poor thing and catch it in one of Hubby's cowboy boots. Still chuckling, I take the boot out front to free the lizard. I upturn the boot with Mom looking on. No lizard. I thwack the boot against my hand to knock it out of the toe and then can see the lizard. Now it tumbles out and scurries off to hide in the grass. Free and unharmed. End of lizard rodeo.

We now have a crib assembled in the corner of our room, a changing table assembled in the corner of the baby's room, and the mobile for the above the crib is half painted by Mom and I while the men did all that. Very productive baby preparation weekend! Thanks Mom and Dad! And Hubby!

ahhh the joys of pregnancy

I had a rough night Thursday night, but my wonderful Hubby handled it quite well. We were both busy and didn't return home until 10pm and 10:30. I had been inexplicably sad for a lot of the day and had drank some "happy tea" twice during the day which caused a slight lightening of my mood. Maybe it's the ginseng in the tea. I just figured the random sadness was hormone related since I wasn't worried about anything.

My sweet Hubby put me to bed and went about his business. At about 11pm, I started crying for absolutely no reason. Like nearly hysterical crying. I couldn't even catch my breath to call him. About 10 minutes later, Hubby came in. He said the Spirit had spoke to him and said I needed him. How very true! He came over to hold me while I bawled. He only asked me 2 questions: Are you worried about anything? No. Is the baby alright? Yes. Then he did the very marvelous thing that men usually have trouble doing. He stopped trying to figure it out and just held me while I cried hysterically for about 30 minutes. He prayed over me, and anointed me with holy water.

When I started to calm down, he said we should find something to cry about. What good will that do, I wondered. There was a box of Aldi brand cheese nips beside the bed. He said we should cry for all the poor cheez-its that had to be packaged and marketed as mere cheese crackers and deal with the ignominy of being labeled as an inferior snack. So let's cry for all the undervalued cheez-its of the world. He then proceeded to give a cute cartoon type cry. It made me laugh as hard as I'd been crying!

So do I have the best husband in the whole wide world or what! I love him so much!

pregnancy memories

I read in a pregnancy magazine this morning a list of some particular memories to take note of that might be amusing later. There were a couple I don't remember if I've written down anywhere. One they suggested was the first time a stranger noticed you were pregnant.

Memorial Day weekend, I flew to Texas by myself to visit my folks. While checking in to the airport, there was one black fella in particular that I kept going through lines with. I was in front in the baggage check line, he was in front of me through the first part of security, I was in front of him through the shoes & x-ray part of security, etc. About the third or fourth time he leaned down next to me to pick up his carry-on bag, he saw my baby bump, which was at eye level at that moment. He stared for a minute, then looked up at me and absolutely beamed! I beamed back and said, "Yep!" to the unasked question. I can still see his face. He told me "good luck" before we parted ways. All during my pregnancy, I've had this same kind of reaction from several black men and never from white men! Explain that one for me!

Tuesday night, our baby boy was kicking around something fierce and I was laying on the bed, belly exposed, to watch the action. Hubby was standing near our bathroom door talking and stopped to exclaim at one point. He said he had just seen both feet protrude at the same time and could tell which way the toes were pointing! I asked him if he was sure and he pointed out that feet are little wedge shapes and knees are not. Weird! And pretty cool. I keep telling the baby that that's not the way out. He'll catch on after a while.

A friend took some pictures of me while pregnant this past weekend and, for once, I'm showing our faces on this blog. Vanity run a muck, I know.

36 weeks pregnant