"What we are to be, we are now becoming..."
Our good friends the Comishs visited the other night and brought their Wii Fit for us to try out. It's pretty fun, we'll have to look into this as an option over gym memberships...? Anyway, while Jeff tried out his hand at fitness indoors, Corbin ventured outside to swim in his pool, his new favorite thing. He LOVES to jump in... can you tell? He never stops cracking us up.
A Nintendo Wii...
... and baby Quinton.
I realize there are some readers who may not be interested in or appreciate this post, so skip it. For all you moms out there... here are the details of my birthing story "Quinton style". For a little stinker who stayed so comfy inside me until the last hour of his due date, he sure decided to come quickly once it was time....
On Sunday morning (June 8th--the due date), I admittedly had an emotional break-down and hadn't slept very well on top of it.... and couldn't face going to church and hearing all the comments, questions, and advice so we stayed home and slept and spent some quality time with Corbin. After naps I was getting desperate for contractions so I decided to TRY the castor oil method... but I only took 1 tablespoon before going for an hour walk. We came home for dinner and still nothing-- not even "side effects" from the castor oil. I went to bed frustrated, but feeling confident I wouldn't go much longer. Well, at 11pm I woke up with "real contractions" and I knew I would need to get to the hospital sooner than later. They were coming 2- 5 minutes apart and were mildly painful, but I thought I would check in and walk around. My sister-in-law, Sarah came to stay with Corbin overnight (thanks Sarah!) and we left.
We arrived in the triage room at 12 midnight and I was checked to be at 4 cm and 85% effaced. So, we decided to walk and get this baby on its way. At about 2:30am I was at a 5 and we were admitted to a Labor/Delivery room. We decided to keep walking because it had helped. At about 6am I was at 6cm and started considering an epidural because I was getting so tired and the contractions were definitely getting stronger and closer and longer... and more painful. When I would lay in bed though they would slow down and so I did get some rest, but no "sleep". I decided to start pitocin to speed things up a little and they sure did!
At 7:30am I got a new nurse who checked me to be at an 8. The contractions really started getting intense and about 20 minutes later our nurse came in to turn up the pitocin and I told her I felt like I had to push. She told me that she'd paged my Dr. who had gone into surgery at 7:30am and then decided to check me.... I was a 10 and the head was "right there!" She quickly turned off my pitocin and ran out of the room to get some help. I started getting a little scared because 1) it dawned on me that I was about to have a baby without any drugs, 2) the nurse told me the on-call Dr. and my Dr.'s partner were both unavailable, and 3) my legs started shaking uncontrollably. Luckily, my amazing husband was by my side the entire time and did a great job coaching and encouraging me and applying counter pressure on my back. Before I knew it, there were 3 nurses in the room and with 3 contractions worth of pushing, Quinton arrived. They immediately placed him on my tummy and I got to rub him down and hear him "squeak" or attempt a cry. He was SO beautiful... I know he's a boy, but newborns are gorgeous, in my opinion. The cord was cut and I laid in bed for 45 minutes holding my new son, waiting for my Dr. to arrive to stitch me up. (If you want those details... I'll fill you in over the phone or face to face).
So, essentially I went from a 6 to a 10 in about 2 hours and I had an all natural childbirth with NO DOCTOR in the room. HELLO! It was amazing. In comparison, I really think I could do it again, meaning without an epidural. My recovery has been much easier and it was nice to get up and walk around after I had him. Banner Gateway, by the way, is a NICE new hospital and we loved our stayed there... although we didn't stay long. With Corbin we had to stay 3 days...much longer than we wanted to because it took him so long to have a wet diaper. But Quinton was peeing as he was coming out of me so we checked that off the list real fast. Anyway, 28 hours after his birth we were discharged from the hospital and we took our new bundle of joy home. Looking back, I would have stayed the extra day we were allotted because having a newborn and a 22 month old IS a juggling act and we would've gotten more sleep in the hospital.
P.S.- Corbin LOVES his baby brother and tries to be such a good helper, but he doesn't realize the boundaries of a baby, like: he can't catch a ball, he can't eat grapes, you can't push on his tummy or touch his eyes, etc. etc. He is just so interested and eager to share with him, but he's still too small for much interaction. It'll be fun to watch their relationship unfold.
It's a miracle, Quinton let us sleep 6 hours straight last night! Jeff and I couldn't believe it. I just had to share the exciting news. Our first night home was really rough, so this was a welcome relief. He's getting the feedings down and although this is not a repeated pattern yet, we are hoping to get to the 6 hour mark soon since he never dropped from his birth weight. At his 4 day check-up yesterday he weighted in at 7lbs 5 oz. when the majority of newborns drop 10% of their birth weight. Not Quinton... the pediatrician pronounced him "medically perfect", not even jaundiced, yeah! We sure think he's practically perfect in every way, especially after last night.
For all you moms out there, it is VERY intriguing and enlightening and empowering. The authors are husband and wife and founded an Institute for brain-injured children over 25 years ago and their research has lead them to believe that the things they teach brain-injured individuals can actually help "average" children. I began reading this book on the recommendation of my older sister, Katie who used the "Teach your baby to read" and "Teach your baby math" methods with her children. It is pretty impressive. After this baby arrives I plan to use the techniques from this book to teach Corbin while also attempting to potty-train... all the while finishing up my last 4 classes of my Master's program. Needless to say, I'll be busy....
ANOTHER book I am also almost finished with is C.S. Lewis' The Magician's Nephew in the Chronicles of Narnia Series. This book, although not written first, is meant to precede all the other books because it explains A LOT, like how Narnia came to be and where the light post came from. There are so many intriguing gospel parallels in this book, as with all C.S. Lewis' works. It's a quick read.
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