Thursday's Child Has Far to Go

"Son, you already have more pictures of you than most grown people have of themselves..."

These are the first words of wisdom that our new little man has gotten.

And even though we have a lot of pictures of him, I don't have an easy way to put them on to this laptop, so picture will come soon, but until then, here is a little bio on our newest family member and his 'how I got here story':

We think his name is Duncan Scott Fife, but the verdict is still out on that vote. Teagan wants to name him Bennett, Garrett wants him to be Duncan Ammon, and Grandma still thinks we are trying to play a trick on her by telling her his name is Duncan. So we will see what finally gets put down on his birth certificate papers before we leave tomorrow.

'Duncan' was born last night at 10:36pm. Super easy labor, super easy delivery. He weighed 7lb 15oz which makes him our second lightest baby (Owen was 7lb even, but was 2 weeks early, so Duncan is right on schedule with how fluffy our babies get the longer they cook.) He is 20" long and has super soft blonde hair, so he looks a lot like what Owen looked like when he was born. I called Owen a bald baby the first time I saw him, and Duncan has even less hair than he did...and they really aren't 'bald' babies, but compared to our other ones, these two boys look bald!

He is already a good nurser, sleeps well, and doesn't seem to be a fussy little man. He is having a tough time keeping his temperature up, so every couple of hours they come and get him and send him to the nursery to warm up for an hour or so under the heating lamp and then they bring him back wearing two shirts, wrapped in five blankets, and laying on two disposable feet warmer pads. He comes back warm and rosy and sound asleep!

For a little man who threatened to come so early, he really had a change of heart and stayed much longer than we expected; he was only 8 days earlier than his due date.

I went in for my regular check up, with nothing new to report, but hoping for some good news from the exam... you know, hoping to hear her say something like, "Wow, you are at a 7, head straight to the hospital!" But no, he was still very high and had a long way to go before he would be putting enough pressure on the cervix to help it dilate. But I was at a three, so there had been a little bit of progress over the last week.

She offered to try stripping my membranes (you know how I feel about that...) and said that she has a really high success rate with doing it, so I gave it a shot. She actually did it twice and then sent me home and told me to go power walking and whatever else I could to get the contractions going. So straight home I went and I got on the treadmill for a couple of hours while I tried finishing up the MockingJay book.

Then came a warm bath and herbs, and before too long the contractions were at a steady 2-3 minutes apart. Scottie came home, the boys went to a neighbor's house, and I called my midwife to let her know that I thought it was time to head to the hospital.

She had just pulled into her driveway (this was around 8ish) and she (hesitantly) agreed that I should at least go and get checked out.

As we walked in, the nurses at the front desk asked if I was going to want and epidural and as I nodded 'yes' through a contraction, the anesthesiologist walked by on his way out the door on his way home. Luckily he heard my answer and he turned right back around and was ready to give me an epidural as soon as my doctor decided to keep us in the hospital.

Everything went fairly quickly...we were admitted, got the IV started and the epidural in, and soon it was time to start pushing.

Teagan was here for the birth and my midwives did a great job explaining everything to her as they went along. She has had the most in depth, nine-month-long science lesson EVER! They asked her if she wanted to catch the baby or cut the cord, and she opted to cut the cord (she said she was worried about dropping him on the floor!). I only had to push three times to get him out, and it took Tig about that many tries to get the cord cut all the way through.

It was wonderful; it was easy; it was so much fun. Scott and Tig got to laugh and feel that nervous energy together while the contractions helped dilation. It was a good experience for all of us.

Later on, once we in the recovery room, as Teagan was drifting off to sleep, she quietly said to me, "Mom, this was the best experience of my life." Lessons learned. Class dismissed.