And this is my Joy: What happened to summer?

Fall is in the air! I LOVE it! I love the smell of the breeze, the cool mornings, and not having to turn on the air conditioner first thing in the morning! I especially love fall because I am not pregnant anymore! Woo Hoo!!! Here's the story of how our last little man came into our family:

I started having contractions July 22 after church. My due date was August 13th. I was excited! 3 days later I had my doctors appointment and was dilated to a one. The baby was still high and my cervix was thick. 2 days later we ended up at the hospital at noon after I had been contracting all morning. I was dilated to a two but my contractions were coming every 3-4 minutes. The nurse let Russ and I stay for an hour and walk to see if my labor would progress but it did not! We went home later that afternoon and my contractions finally stopped that evening around 7. That following weekend we had Anna's birthday and she got her wish, no baby! July 31st I had another doctors appointment and was dilated to a three. I had more contractions that day from 4-7ish and then again from 9:30-10:30 and then nothing! I was getting pretty annoyed! We ended up at the hospital again August 2nd, thinking I was surely in labor and that they would keep me, but by the time they got me settled and hooked up to the monitors, my contractions decreased enough that we went home once again! At that point I was just over 38 weeks. That evening I swore to Russ that I wouldn't step foot inside another hospital until my water broke or the baby was falling out of me! I decided that our little man would not be born until I was 40 weeks. The next evening my water broke after 5pm just as Russ walked through the front door after work!

I could have shouted "Halleluiah"!!!

So we were off to the hospital to STAY!

After we got all settled and poked and hooked up and papers signed, my nurse checked me. Still dilated at a three but my cervix was soft but I forget how much it was effaced. The baby was still high and his head was not tight against my cervix and I was gushing lots of fluid so they got me on pitocin to get me contracting regularly so the baby would drop. It was a slow process that took 4 hours just for his head to engage tight against the cervix. During those 4 hours I had a dose of pain medicine that was heavenly until I could get my epidural and then we got a bit of a scare as the baby's heart rate decreased with every contraction. My nurse and the resident kept a close eye on me and baby and they started flipping me from side to side to try and get his heart rate to stabilize. I really thought I would end up having a c-section but by 2am he finally stabilized after they had flipped me to my left side and so I stayed put, so grateful that everything was turning out okay! (most likely the baby's cord was being compressed during contractions, and at some point as I was moving positions, he moved just enough that the cord was fine and his vitals stayed up and looked great until he was born)

We LOVED our nurse, Maggie and we loved the resident...but at the moment I cannot remember her name! They were the best we have ever had!!! They were funny and easy to talk to and just awesome!

After the baby stabilized, I dilated quickly and before 4am I was checked and they told me if I wanted, I could push, since I was feeling a great amount of pressure. I wasn't dilated to a 10 yet and after talking to the nurse we decided to let my body do as much of the work in moving the baby down before I started pushing. The longer a woman can hold off pushing and let her body do it for her, the less work she has to do in the end....if that makes any sense.

So, I actually fell asleep for a bit and my nurse came in right before 4am and told me, "Okay, I am off at 5 so let's have a baby!" They checked me and I was ready! Once they moved me onto my back and got my legs in the stirups I suddenly felt huge amounts of pressure and had the most overwhelming urge to push! They had me do one practice push, then got everything ready, and during the second push his head was crowning and after that I gave just some little tiny pushes and out he came! The delivery could not have been more perfect! I did not even tear! The second the baby came out he was crying and it was the cutest little tiny cry I have ever heard! My next thought as they put him on my tummy was how small he seemed! I really thought he would be our biggest baby but Carter and Kya were both bigger. He peed all over the nurse as she was cleaning him off which we all had a laugh over and we were just so happy to finally get to meet our little man after over 38 weeks of pregnancy and 10 hours of labor!

I have to say, for being our last baby, he sure teased us until he was born! But being our last baby, he has been the best newborn out of all of them! No constant crying night after night, no projectile spit up, no nursing issues....it has all been so much better this last and final time! I think there's no better way to end this chapter of bearing babies than to end on a sweet note with a sweet and very mild-tempered baby.

I had retained lots of water after I had Brennen. The day I went home, I actually retained more water in my legs and feet, but thankfully it went away!

The kids are loving him lots and even Kya has adjusted better than we expected her too. She has lots of naughty episodes but I think they are getting somwhat better as each week goes by.