Christmas Time

Here it is the eve of me going back to work and I'm just now starting to update the blog. Cut me some slack - I have 4 blogs to update and one still to set up for baby W.

Christmas season around here is quite a busy time. Plus it's also the time of birthdays. However, we've made it through the gauntlet of birthdays and holidays and we are still alive. All six of us. That sounds like a lot, doesn't it?!? Anytime we show up somewhere we create an instant party because there are so many of us. But that is the great fun of it!

Side note - thank goodness for dictation on my phone. I walked around with a baby in one arm, my phone in the another and I updated.

Where to begin? Well my birthday was celebrated a few different ways. First, I did get to go out with my girlfriends. It's become an annual tradition for us since there's a couple of us that have birthdays during this time. Then my family took me to dinner at our favorite family place. We did skip out on Scouts that night but our Scout leader was totally supportive of us celebrating my birthday otherwise we may not have ever made it to celebrate. The kids and their activities keep us quite busy - especially S's gymnastics. Plus, her meet season has started. Her first meet - the Teddy Bear Classic - went pretty good. She placed for vault and qualified for the state meet. They awarded teddy bears instead of medals.

Christmas time was quite fun. We got about 6 inches of snow the two days leading up to Christmas. On December 23rd, Ss gymnastics class was canceled because of all the snow and we decided to spend that free evening making graham cracker gingerbread houses. For T's class party, which I was in charge of, I wanted everyone in the class to be able to make a gingerbread graham cracker house. With the help of a few other moms I assembled 26 houses and put together 26 packets of frosting.. There may or may not have been some drama involved getting all that frosting done at the last minute. My good friend Ms. KN saved me by delivering 7 pounds of powdered sugar at the last minute. That was actually the hardest part. Yes, assembling the  homes in advance wasn't too difficult. Transporting them in their per-assembled state was quite difficult. The kids had a great time and they were super adorable. I just remember doing something very similar as a first grader and it is one of my very favorite memories. I also had an aunt that used to make me a gingerbread house every year. They were super elaborate and super amazing and edible. However, these ones were not edible because I did assemble them with hot glue.

Whenever you have six people in your family anything you do becomes an instant party and therefore our gingerbread house assembling became a party at our house. It was quite fun. On Christmas Eve we did want to go visit my in-laws, the kids grandparents. The normal 45 minute drive turned into an hour and a half drive. But it was a beautiful white Christmas. The family was great. That night we opened gifts from everyone but our mediate family and obviously not Santa either. We skipped the traditional Christmas eve dinner and I actually fed the kids tub side. Initially, I thought it was an epic parenting failure to not have a beautiful sit down meal for Christmas eve dinner. However, they were really excited and thought it was a super special treat since they had never done that before. They had just come in from playing in the snow and building a snowman and they were very cold so I thought a warm bath to warm them up would be a good idea. Plus, it saved about an hour of prep and clean up so that they could then bake and decorate their gingerbread cookies.

We did our traditional viewing of A Charlie Brown Christmas before the kids went to bed.  Little S was worried that we don't have a chimney so she drew a fireplace and a chimney for Santa and hung it. It was quite charming and she even left a little note on it too. Christmas morning was wonderful. Everybody did sleep in a little bit later and the older kids were most excited about the fact that little BB got her blue package that she asked Santa for.

Speaking of Santa they had an amazing visit to see Santa. We we went to the mall which is where we traditionally go to visit Santa. Little BB was a little nervous so her big brother T went first. He sat down on Santa's lap and Santa immediately said "What would you like for Christmas, Little Boy?" His reply was "I would very much like to answer that. However I have a couple questions for you first. How are you? And how is Mrs. Claus?" Then little S went and her first comment was "thank you so much, Santa, for the lovely gifts last year." Then little BB sat on his lap and just kindly asked for a blue present with some surprises and a "Meow Meow" book.Then they had their photo. It wasn't a super spectacular picture but it was a very nice visit and at the end Santa told them that they were the most polite children he had met. Then T looked at me and said basically that there was no way Santa wasn't going to be visiting the house with a complement like that!

Christmas morning was wonderful, magical -  all the adjectives that describe an absolutely perfect day. They were super excited for their sister. Little W slept through a good chunk of it and we all got just the perfect gifts. It did warm my heart that little S's favorite gifts for the ones that I crafted for her. I would often get up at about 5:30 or 6 AM to craft after the baby's second or third feeding of the night. This is my only quiet uninterrupted time and I am certainly not a morning person. Therefore, it was truly an act of love to get up and craft all these gifts for them. Each of the kids got a hooded blanket and I also made them their own blog books and for my husband I made him a family vacation book from our trip to Maui. I also crafted each of them a toy. I made T the 11th doctor. For a little S I made her a mama and baby owl and for little BB I made her a polar bear in a sleeping bag. They were all very happy with all their gifts and they were all quite modest in what they asked for. Later on Christmas Day we went over for prime rib at my sister's and that was also great fun to spend some time with them and my nephew and just enjoy their company. Plus, get to enjoy my mom who is feeling well.

We're looking forward to the new year I start work up right after the new year 2016 has been spectacular to us  - one of our best years ever! Especially with our amazing family vacation and the birth of our sweet little boy.

We wish you and your family and loved ones a great happiness this year and hope that we all have a great 2017.

Photos:

- Birthday celebration with friends, then with my family, and lastly the gift from little S. 
- T decorating his graham cracker house in his classroom.
- Decorating houses here at home.
 - Snow-magedon 2016 
- Night of Christmas Eve
- Christmas morning - fresh snow, baby's first Christmas, gift opening.
- Gifts from the kids.
- Santa photo
- Photos of baby from the season
- Ss first gymnastics meet
- Other miscellaneous photos

Where we are at...

Our newest edition to the family just turned 8 weeks old. How is that possible? The last 2-4 weeks of pregnancy were like an eternity but somehow the past 8 weeks have blasted by. He's great, by the way. So am I.

One quick story from our first week. The state nurse practitioner conference was the same day as my due date. I really wanted to go. I also needed to go since I was short 5 credits for my re-certification. The keynote speaker was THE guru in the NP world- like if you were to say to any nurse practitioner "Margaret" is coming to town they would know you were referring to Margaret Fitzgerald. She's been a NP about as long as I've been alive. She's a celebrity in our field. Well, she was coming to town and I wanted to hear her speak at our conference. Since the baby and I were doing well, I got up super early and headed to the conference when he was just a week old. I was concerned some folks, even her, would not want a baby at a professional conference but I went anyway with the backup plan of leaving if needed. While waiting for her to start her talk she walked to the back of the hall right to me. She stopped and asked if she could admire my baby. She asked about him and said he was the youngest attendee she has ever had at one of her talks and she was honored he was there. I beamed and we enjoyed the two day conference together. He was a great companion! Most enjoyable conference ever!

Okay, back to the update.

We're all doing pretty good. The kids adore their new brother. BB (the youngest of the older kids) has not bonded with him as quickly. She actually prefers to take care of me rather than help with him. Sometimes when I'm up in the night feeding him she will get out of bed and come find me to offer me a blanket or bring my water. Sometimes she just snuggles me and strokes my arm. She's such a loving child. She has her moments but she's pretty great. She, by the way, just turned 3! Amazing how time flies!

BB had a fun Monster Mash theme birthday party with her closest family friends. She had a grand time but totally freaked out when we put candles on her cake and lit them. She started screaming and hid under the table. Otherwise, a pretty good time.

We had the kids' parent teacher conferences in October. Because I had not bottle trained our baby yet we ended up showing up at the end of T's allot time because I could not get our baby to hurry up and finish eating. However, his teacher is wonderful and is a relatively new mom herself (twin 9 month old boys) so she could understand. T's doing great - all As (this is the first year they get letter grades). His areas needing the most focus is math and listening attentively, as well as participation in group work. (I feel his pain with group work - in college I just wanted to do the entire project myself - so much easier than trying to work with others but he needs to learn and perhaps so should I). S's teacher handed us her packet of info and simply said, "She's perfect - you can go." She was joking but S is pretty darn near perfect at school. My question to the teacher is how can we get that kind of behavior and work ethic at home? Her teachers really don't believe me when I say that kid can really push my buttons and give me a run for my money. WOW!

Little W is awesome. He's such a perfect addition to our family. He not the super easy baby S was but a little easier than BB - definitely easier than T. He has his evening fussy time when nothing makes him happy except if we walk with him. He's a great eater, continues to be a decent sleeper. He LOVES his bath time. He LOVES my mom. He loves his vibo bassinet.

I'm missing work. I'm grateful for my time at home but I miss my co-workers and patients and the routine of being at work. I'm sad that is approaching winter. It gets so dark and dreary here in the winter with short days and significantly less sunshine. This time having a baby has been so much easier than the last time. With all the families at our school becoming good family friends I've had an endless stream of meals and flowers and goodies. I gained a total of 22 lbs this pregnancy and I'm down over half of that. I think it's slowing down from all the goodies and Halloween candy we have around here!

Halloween - delightful. The kids had a great time going out with their dad. I stayed home with W and my in-laws and handed out candy. We didn't have as many kids as we have traditionally had. Little BB totally got into it. There was a scary house decorated with people in the windows pretending to be zombies and she kept going on and on about "monkeys coming out of the windows." She doesn't know what zombies are. After they were done and my in-laws left, we went to visit our favorite kindergarten teacher. Costumes - T was Indiana Jones, S was a cat coming out of a pumpkin (that girl can never do anything simple), and BB was a pink princess. All costumes homemade. T's was put together from a variety of things we already had. S - I made her pumpkin out of left over fleece from the Monsters I made for BB's party, BB's dress was S's old princess costume that I made 5 years ago.

We did manage to sneak in a fun outing to our local pumpkin patch with some close friends. That was super fun. We went on the last day they were open and got to see the 700 lb pumpkin be dropped from 4 stories high. Lot of water in that! Becca LOVED riding the cattle train. W just snuggled with me in the pack.

Thanksgiving was delightful. My sister had just flown in from Japan a day prior but with my mom's help she threw together an amazing feast. I just showed up with my army of kids, my husband, and my long time friend whom we had just picked up at the airport (Ms. M). She stayed a few days with us and we crammed as much into our short time as possible. Plus, celebrated T's 9th birthday a couple times.

Lastly and most recently, we celebrated my husband's birthday. It's birthday season around here. Combine that with the holidays and the kids think it's endless celebration time. T is all about Dr. Who this year. He has never seen the new ones but rather the old 1970s ones. My daughter gets a kick out of the go go boots the women wear and T thinks the big hair every one fashions is crazy funny. Still. the enjoy the show immensely. 

So before I have to change this blog posting - again - because it's been 4 weeks since I wrote it - I'm going to add some photos and call it good. 

While having 4 kids is amazing and wonderful and all sorts of adjectives of awesomeness, it's also a ton of work with little free times. So, there's where we are at...

1. My date at the NP conference. 

2-4. BBs Monster Mash party (S and I made the monsters and I made the pinata - little BB found the correct string first try!)

5. One week old snuggles 

6. BB on the eve of her 3rd birthday

7-8. Halloween

9-11. Snuggles with Baby W (it took BB a while to want to hold him so he's quite a bit older and bigger when she finally took her turn)

12. My boys

13. Kissing my cutie

14. Nan was able to get one of his first smiles 

15. More snuggles with my little guy

16-18. Ms. M's visit

19. Our birthday boy aka The Doctor

20. Toothless kids (both lost teeth within 24 hours of each other)

21. Eight weeks - we work hard for those cute cheeks!

He's Here...W's Birth Story...

Warning - very long posting. However, this is our family history so I feel in 50 years the details will be really meaningful.

First - a little back story.

A few weeks before our baby was due I had quite a long day scheduled for us - all the kids needed their dental cleanings and it would be BB's first visit. Her last trip to see Uncle Doc, our dentist, was for mouth stitches so I was not surprised she was not all that happy about her visit. I was big and uncomfortable and just didn't care if she got her teeth cleaned or not. But from there, I promised the older kids a fast trip into the Lego store while BB and I started ahead to get to my office where we could all get our flu shots.

All that day I was just not feeling well. Like I was ill. I felt like I had a fever and my body ached but at 36/37 weeks pregnant, who feels great? So I chalked it all up to pregnancy and being grumpy that day. We went ahead and made it to my office for flu shots and those were a success - working at an allergy office that gives allergy shots every day, my nurses rock and no one else gives as many shots as them. The kids didn't even bat an eye lash from discomfort.

While they collected stickers I talked with one of my colleagues. I showed him my hand which had been throbbing all day. That mixed with the other symptoms I was having I suspected an infection on my hand (which I've never had any type of skin infection ever and I don't like self diagnosing - I always guess the worst scenario on myself). So I asked him for his opinion. He concurred. He said it was the type of infection that really needed antibiotics and that since I was already an established patient of the clinic he would go ahead and send in some pregnancy safe antibiotics.

I started the antibiotics that night and the next morning the hand was somewhat worse and needed to be drained. I took care of that - I had done that many times on other patients during my urgent care rotation. It was not pretty but it felt better and over the course of the day the antibiotics kicked in and the ill feelings I was having started to lift and my hand started to improve. That night, however, my digestive tract revolved against the antibiotics.

I've never taken antibiotics while pregnant. Plus, it was a new antibiotic to me (Keflex). I prescribe it all the time and it's fairly mild for GI side effects but I think since my GI tract is already very delicate during pregnancy (like I take anti-nausea meds every day while pregnant), it put me over. Between the diarrhea, vomiting, and cramping from the other two symptoms, I became dehydrated and started having some contractions.

I contacted the doctor the next day and we worked on hydration. It took a few days for me to bounce back but I finally did just in time to make it to family bingo night at the school. I had been on bed rest for a few days and was anxious to get out of bed and I was assigned a strictly only sitting job as a compromise. (I helped the kids call the numbers - it was quite charming.)

I went back to work and finished up my time with my student over the next couple weeks. I went to my 38 week OB appointment and we discussed induction at just over 39 weeks. He said he was worried I would wait to long to get to the hospital and with the logistics of planning around the other three kids, I may just end up having the baby in the car so we should go ahead and just schedule it early. Plus, he really did not think I would make it to 40 weeks. I was losing weight from not being able to eat due to no space from the baby and the poor baby was crammed in and starting to move less.

I was happy - we were all scheduled for induction October 11 - which I thought 10-11 had a nice ring to it for a birthday. My doctor warned me - be vigilant as I could still have spontaneous labor happen before then and to come to the hospital if contractions were too painful to talk through or at 5 minutes apart.

We had a nice weekend after that - launching rockets with out two closest families of friends. I was pretty tired and very immobile but the end was in sight. I went to work on Monday and all was good. I was slow. The week progressed normally - I had meetings at school and lots of kid activities. The kids had the latter part of the week off due to teacher in-service. That Thursday I took them to the library, lunch with their dad, picked up the dog at the groomers, and we came home where I completed a baby hat for W because the first one didn't match him coming home outfit. I also had a girls night out scheduled with my friend.

That night, my friend picked me up at 7 and we went out for soup, salad, and Carmel apples. She dropped me off at 8:45 and I helped tuck BB into bed. I felt tired - tired from a very busy day but fine. My mom called to check on me. She said, "I just had a feeling you may need me". I told her, "No, I'm fine. Really. I want to go watch some Dr. Who with the kids before they go to bed. I will call you if we need you."

I took my shower, put rollers in my hair, and laid down to watch a show with Hubby and the older kids (about 9:15/9:30). As we were watching these old Dr. Who episodes I had a really painful contraction. About 10 minutes later it happened again. Little S tried to snuggle up to me but I just didn't want anyone touching me. I texted my friend at 9:45 and just asked her to be on standby, just in case because I was having painful contractions but about ever 10 minutes so a long way to go. She assured me she would keep her phone close that night.

Hubby put the older kids to bed at 10 (remember, no school the next day), and I laid in bed, experiencing horrible pain that lasted about a minute very regularly at the 10 minute intervals. At 10:45 pm I looked at Hubby and said, I think you should go get my mom - even if it's a false alarm, I'd feel better having her available just in case. I called my mom and she said she would be ready (she no longer drives).

At 11:00 my husband took off to get her and they were back at around 11:45/11:50. I texted him while he was gone - the contractions had moved to every 8 minutes. I was still trying to lay down but the contractions were getting so painful that I would often wake up and having to stand when they occurred. I assured him, I had to get to 5 minutes apart and I thought that would take more time. I didn't want to be turned away at the hospital nor did I want to labor that much at the hospital. Five minutes apart should give me plenty of time to get there, get checked in, get pain meds, and then have the baby.

At 12:15 am I could not tolerate the contractions any more. They were 6-7 minutes apart but the pain was so intense I had to practice all my relaxation techniques I studied with kid 3.0 (we didn't do classes this time around - I was opting for as many pain management techniques as I could have so why take a class when I've been through child birth 3 previous times). I was also pretty sure my mucous plug fell out during one of the many trips to the bathroom I was needing to have - pretty much after every contraction.

So, we woke my mom up and left the house. We arrived at the hospital about 1:00/1:15ish. The main entrance was closed so we had to go through the ER. I could not walk the long distance from the ER to the second floor so Hubby pushed me in a fancy wheel chair. It felt like it took forever to get there.

Once there, the lady doing the checking in would not do anything for me until I showed her my ID - thank goodness I did not leave my purse in the car! Then she handed us this 2+ page paper to fill out while we waited for a nurse to come get us. She could see I was uncomfortable and I could not sit during the contractions. Finally, she said we could fill out the paper work in the back (my husband could complete it while I gave a urine specimen, changed my clothes, and a nurse hooked me to the monitor for 30 minutes). I used the bathroom and had to have Hubby help me change my clothes. I laid my upper body across the bed and rocked back and forth - contractions seemed to be much closer together since we left and I thought gravity from sitting/standing was the cause. Finally a nurse came in (Carrie) - it was someone I went to school with 16 years ago. It was nice to see her friendly face and she started to try and hook me up. Then she looked at me and asked a couple questions. I was so out of it having been focusing on pain management through relaxation I actually could not make out what she was saying. She repeated herself and then said, "Let's skip the monitoring - I'll do your check." 7 cm with boggy bag. She left to call anesthesia and my doctor. Another nurse immediately showed up and wheeled me away. She said her name was Shannon and was just floating that day because the floor was full. She also did not even know what room we were going to as at some point they were all full but we would find something. Oh, bonus, the hospital had just launched a new electronic medical records program that was slowing things down.

We ended up in room 6, I think. I immediately went back to standing. She tried to hook me up to monitors and had to do so while I was standing. Then she started my IV. First one blew. I told her to stop being gentle and not use lidocaine to numb the area because I was in so much pain, IV pain was the least of my worries. When I'm in active labor like that I also don't like to be touched (my poor sweet husband starts to feel helpless at this point) Finally the IV was in. The nurse said they could give me some pain meds through the IV but if she thought the baby would arrive before 2 hours then there would be no time. I definitely did not think we had two hours and if we had two hours, I'd go epidural all the way. (That's saying a lot because I HATE, and I mean HATE needles, and big ones I hate especially but I was banking on epidural this go round.) Alas, I knew there was no time for meds or epidural. What's left? Nothing.

I was left in the room, standing against the bed contracting about every 2 minutes with 1 minute breaks from severe pain. I was pretty deeply relaxed when I could feel baby pushing down. I looked up at my husband and said, "It's time. You better get someone." He went out into the nurses station and calmly said, "Hello? I think we're having a baby in here." The nurse and the doctor came screeching in and he very, very quickly slid on his suit cover up thing (I think that's the technical name). and he said, "No pain management options but if you push the baby out, you will feel better." That's all the motivation I needed. In my mind I leaped onto the bed and started pushing. (Remember, I was doing my funky hypnobirthing so some of what happened is foggy.) But according to Hubby, it went a bit (only a bit) slower than that. The doctor said I could push and I pushed and out came the head. I heard the nurse say, "You can reach down to touch him." but I was sort of frozen in pain and didn't want to. But I heard my husband say he could see him and that I was doing amazing that gave me a lot of energy to keep going. My water also broke at that moment. I don't think I was in a completely broken down bed because I felt the warm fluid hit my feet. The next push out came the shoulders and then one more easy push and he was out. Six minutes later the placenta.

I have often heard people describe pushing the baby out like they were being torn in half. I did not experience that. To me, it felt so much better to push and get the baby out than to keep laboring and cramping. I may have had that "ring of fire" sensation but it really was not bad, even with second degree tearing. My pushing was not super controlled but my doctor said with natural childbirth it is tough to control the pushing.

Baby also came out really clean because he was in a mostly intact sac for most of the process. He did have the cord wrapped around his neck - twice and was quite blue/purple. He also pooped on the way out. When I was born - I had the cord around my neck once and pooped on the way out. Maybe this kid will take after me?!? He also sucks his two same fingers I sucked as a baby, too.

After the birth, the doctor told me about the tearing and he needed to do some stitches. I looked at him and said, "You're going to numb the area, right?" I don't know if he normally does or not, but the nurse had to go track down lidocane to numb the area before he started. The numbing of the area was awful! I still feel like I felt the stitches and the whole "you're numb in that area following birth" - that was not the case for me. But, the cool thing about natural child birth - I recovered SUPER fast. As soon as those stitches were done, I was up to the bathroom and cleaned up. In fact, the photo of baby and me was less than 30 minutes after he was born and I think I looked fairly decent because I had already visited the bathroom and sponge bathed myself.

Then back to bed to get some pitocen to contract my uterus to ensure no hemorrhage. They really don't mess around when you've had 4 kids. Three hours hooked to that thing! At that point, my nurse started asking my "pre-admission" questions and I signed consent forms.

Total time from first timed contraction to birth 3.5 hours. W was born at 1:57 am. Super fast. Honestly, I was completely surprised that he came early and at how quickly he arrived. The doctor kept insisting he was a week ahead of schedule and I just kept putting it in the back of my mind having these visions of waiting around like I've done in the past. He also kept telling me - give myself plenty of time to get to the hospital. I thought I had. I guess I gave just enough time to get there. I didn't even get to prep the kids before leaving as they were already sound asleep. They woke up to their Nan (my mom) at the house, no parents, and her telling them the baby was born.

As I said, recovery went super smooth and fast. The one thing baby struggled with was temperature regulation. He kept getting cold and his temperature kept dropping to below 98 degrees. So at one point he went to the nursery to sit under a heat lamp for 30 minutes. Otherwise, he was great. Super healthy and happy. Of course, I did not sleep much those two nights I was at the hospital. The nurses tried to give me rest but I was in a hallway right next to one of the nursing stations. It was loud - all the time. Then at one point during a 2 hour nap when they said no one would disturb me I woke up with a window cleaner outside my window. I was on the 8th floor - that freaked me out! But once the grogginess of sleep wore off I was fine. Ironically, I was in the same recovery room that time as I was when T was born.

Early the morning of baby's birth I called my friend who had dropped me off from our girls' night out. She gets up at 5 am to work out. I let her know the baby was born and she was my first visitor coming at 7:30 am. She had seen me less than 10 hours prior and I was very pregnant but not having contractions. She was amazed things changed - literally over night. We had several other wonderful friends and family stop in. It was a great day! But I was tired after 24+ hours of no sleep. I was also quite sore.

We are so happy with our little one. He just fits in perfectly and is so pleasant. The first few nights were tough but once we got him into a rhythm he's sleeping well and waking twice at night (2 am and 6 am).

He weighed 7 lbs 12.8 ounces, 20.25 inches long. Lots of dark hair. He shares his dad's name - just in reverse so his first name is his father's middle name. I really wanted to name him after his dad but we did not want them having the same first name so we were going to call him by his middle name. Then one of my colleagues at work, who does that with his name, said he grew up his whole life struggling with that and it has caused confusion since kindergarten through medical school and still as a partner in his own practice. So, we simplified things and reversed them. My husband is named for his two grandfathers.

The other kids have been wonderful. Our toddler (almost 3) struggled the most. It took a few days for her to warm up to him and she kept checking my tummy to see if he really was out. The other two are in love with their brother. T just wants to pat his head all the time. S has changed her mind and thinks some day she may actually be open to being a mom after seeing how amazing her brother is (she really did not like all the changes I experienced while pregnant - she would keep saying, "Yet another reason I never want to have a baby.") She said the other night, "Mom, it was totally worth it - he is so amazing!" She's my unfiltered child so I know she is in earnest.

There you have it. Birth story and lots of details. Now for photos!

1. Profile pic - 38 weeks.
2. Profile pic - 38.5 weeks - less than 24 hours prior to delivery
3. Just out of the womb and the first time seeing him - he came out very clean because his sac didn't break until his head came out. He was quite blue so they were trying to get him to cry.
4. Our doctor holding him - he's also very clean because of the super fast delivery - the bed was not even completely broken down when I started to push. I could barely speak but I remember saying I needed somewhere to put my feet after that first push. (Side note - our doctor's sister is the kids' vice principal at school.)
5. The nurse's timer and notes - it was so fast she jotted stuff down on her notepad next to a timer - all the computerized charting had to wait.
6. Stop watch on my phone next to my husband's watch with the time. I started my stop watch when I thought the contractions were regular. You can see how fast things progressed. 
7. Being checked out by nursery nurses - he liked the warmer.
8. Measurements - these are my proof - the hospital wrote his measurements down wrong in the chart. The nurses were shocked when they weighed him before discharge and he had gained weight instead of losing it (It was because they recorded it incorrectly - just they insisted not. Just saying - here is my proof.)
9. Baby and me about 30 minutes after delivery. As soon as I was stitched up I went to the restroom and cleaned myself up. Recovery was really fast - one perk to natural child birth. That I did enjoy.
10. Baby's first bath - he likes getting his hair washed.
11. Clean, clean baby.
12. Daddy and son hands.
13. Baby feet - my favorite!
14. Dressed to head home (I really missed being at home - 36 hours at the hospital was plenty.)
15. Older kids meeting him and instantly loving him. He totally recognized their voices.
16. Day 5 snuggles.
17. Just hanging out on his soft blanket being "chill".