Introducing: Warren Matthew!

He's here! 

I know I'm biased but he's clearly the cutest baby ever 😉

At a whopping 6 days old I finally feel like everything is settled enough for me to sit and write about Warren's arrival and the first couple of days of his life. 

Last Sunday I had a dream about Warren being born, the dream itself wasn't that special but I was surprised because that was the first time he was born in my dreams and I wasn't just pregnant. As I laid in bed and processed it I noticed that I was getting contractions. They didn't hurt yet, but they were strong enough that I could clearly tell that they were seven minutes apart. Exciting, right? Well I didn't tell anyone but Matt about them because everyone was feeling so much pressure about him being born. Oh I forgot to tell y'all: my parents, grandmother and brothers all flew 2,000 miles to come see this little guy but he didn't look very interested in coming out to visit! Knowing that babies can take their time, my family timed their visit for the 8 days after my due date but it was still getting dangerously close to the end of their stay and my hospital wouldn't induce me until the day AFTER my family left! 

So you see why I didn't want to get everyone's hopes up for mild contractions every 7 minutes... 

After quietly tracking them for 2-3 hours we all got ready to go watch Matt's soccer game. I'd like to stop and point out how wonderful Texas weather is normally. This week however was NOT normal, nor was it wonderful! It has been cold, windy and dismal the entire time and his soccer game was no different. I was wearing my snowboarding coat just to cheer Matt on in the 36° rain and fog. Despite the cold, the soccer game was a huge success. Matt scored two goals yay! And I was too busy freezing and cheering to fret over contractions. Bigger yay! 

So by the time we got home from the game it was 3:00 and my contractions were every 5 minutes but not super painful. That's when my parents went to the airport to pick up my brothers, and my friend came over. 

When I say my friend came over I don't mean any old friend, this one happens to be a nurse who has worked in a mother/baby unit and is currently in the labor and delivery course! Talk about having a good support group. 

So we talked and relaxed until my family came home and then we decided to go to the mall to walk around and speed things up. Hallelujah for malls! It was the perfect distraction; we walked for an hour, I bought Wyatt and Alexis some clothes as we waited for Warren to come out and my brother David bought him a special onsie- 

Speaking of waiting, by the time my contractions were getting really uncomfortable we had made our way into the men's section and I found myself trying to help Matt remember which colors/shades of slacks he already had. 

Fyi- if it takes you 5 minutes and a full conversation to remember whether or not you have that shade of grey, you don't need any more clothes!! 

I was so focused on the contractions though that I told him, "I don't care what color your slacks are. Buy them all and we can return the duplicates!" So he walked out of there with a new outfit.. Little sneak! 

At this point it was 6pm and I decided that I no longer wanted to be in public, so we went home and I started my pre-baby routine.

What on earth is a pre-baby routine, you ask? Well on top of load the car and eat a snack I had a list of things I wanted to accomplish before we went to the hospital. One last way to get myself ready and also distract myself as the contractions got worse. So once we were home I took a nice long, hot bath then once I was clean I sat on the bathroom floor and starting painting my finger and toe nails. 

Cute, huh? I figured St Patrick's day was close enough for shamrocks.

Matt came in as I was sitting through a contraction and a look of concern covered his face as he hurried over and asked me if I needed help getting off the floor. Poor guy thought I was stuck and didn't realize I was painting my nails!

While waiting for my nails to dry I heard my entire family in the living room as Matt said I was on the bathroom floor. Thankfully my sister knew all about my pre-baby routine and explained it to them. 

Next I got up and did my hair and makeup and told Matt that it was time to pack the car! By the time we were on our way my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart and boy let me tell you- I have never been more thankful that my husbands car has seat warmers! That heat on my lower back helped so much. 

By the time we got to the hospital and checked in, it was 11pm and I was 4.5 cm dilated, so we walked the halls for an hour, then I decided to go to my room and try out some IV pain medicine. 

While I was getting my meds, Matt took my brother and sister to get some food. By the time they got back I was dizzy and lightheaded from the medicine but it helped take the edge off the pain. That's when Matt settled down and did some last minute work, getting everything ready for his paternity leave and my brother David took the liberty of snooping through my hospital room and writing on the white board... 

By 2 am all the boys were asleep. Typical boys! My dad was snoring and David was curled up UNDER my bed, so the nurse joked that he had better hope my water didn't break. 

Too bad it didn't, that would have been the funniest and grossest story ever...!

When the midwife came in next she said I was dilating slowly so I told her to start pitocin and an epidural. For you ladies that prefer to labor naturally, good for you. You're crazy, but good for you. The pitocin worked right away but made my blood pressure drop to 88/43 so they had to stop it after a couple of minutes. That boost of pitocin was all my body needed though- the contractions kept going just as strong and frequent after they stopped giving it to me. By the time the anesthesiologist arrived for my epidural I was so ready to feel numb! Too bad it took a little longer than expected.

First while I was hunched over I heard the nurse whisper, "are you ok?" 

Great sign, right? I turned around and saw the anesthesiologist sitting on the chair with her eyes closed! In case you were wondering, that does NOT help instill confidence in someone that is about to poke a needle around your spinal cord!

Turns out she was pregnant too and feeling light headed so I gave her a glass of water and offered her some of my snacks and she was able to get up and finish the epidural after a few minutes. By that time she told me that it would take 10 minutes to fully feel the effects but I should feel each contraction less and less. 

Ten minutes later she came in and asked how I was doing and I told her what a wonderful job the epidural was doing.. On my right calf.. 

That's right, it was only working on the lower part of my right leg! So she gave me some more lidocaine and came back ten minutes later. This time the drugs numbed both legs, so that's progress.. After seeing that she told me she would try one more dose of lidocaine and if it didn't work she would have to redo the epidural. With how strong my congestion a were and how weak my confidence in her was, I prayed that this time the lidocaine worked! 

Thankfully it did. Except for a random spot the size of a silver dollar on my abdomen! It is the weirdest feeling ever to have NO feeling from the waist down except a tiny circle that radiates pain with every contraction. 

But ironically, that worked out in my favor because it was the only way I could tell when I was contracting so that I could push! Speaking of pushing- that part sucks. Seriously, I wouldn't even say it was painful as much as just plain hard. 

But by 6:20am my room was full of nurses (thanks shift change) and for the next 40 minutes I pushed. At one point while he was crowning, everyone was talking about how much hair he had and one nurse said, "oh look! His hair looks red!" Shocked, mid-push I replied, "I. Don't. Want. Him. To. Have. Red. Hair!!"

Everyone got a good laugh at that. 

No offense to all the red headed beauties out there! 

Anyways, after what seemed like an eternity of pushing, I got to grab Warren and put him on my chest as the nurses cleaned him off. The next 24 hours were a whirlwind of nurses, doctors and visitors and the only things that stick out in my mind are the fact that my right leg stayed numb for HOURS after delivery thank you lidocaine, and Warren was perfect and healthy. 

Finally after what felt like days (when in reality it was 36 hours total) we got to come home! 

The last few days have been wonderful; Warren has already gone on outings that are 50-75 miles from home, he's seen lots of family and friends and he's healthy and gaining lots of weight! Our only issue currently is an oversupply of breast milk, but that is a messy story that I will get into some other day!

For now, I am going to get back to spending time with my family and being as on-the-go as ever.