Welcome, Baby *L*!

In a bleary-eyed, sleep-deprived, so-very-much-in-love fashion, this blog has taken at least a week to write. 5 minutes here and 5 minutes there. It may not be eloquent, or the best writing of my life, but it is the story of a new-life in our lives.

Baby *L* is here!
All 6 lbs 9 ounces, and 18 inches of pure baby-boy joy. I forgot how small they can come! *L* was born the smallest of all my boys which makes me chuckle. I was induced since they were afraid he would get too big because of my gestational-diabetes. Life is full of surprises!

I was feeling pretty good about the decision to induce after an appointment on Tuesday showed I was dilated and effaced. The doctor had said Baby *L* and I were /more/ than ready. I then spent that evening chest down (watching one of my favorite TV shows, NCIS!) on a rocking foot rest just trying to get him a little lower, our only real hurdle at that point.

The 6am alarm on Wednesday (the 4th) was a welcomed sound after nights (upon nights) of restless sleep. We grabbed my bags and headed to the hospital. (Hubs did laugh at me because I actually took the time to look human; hair brushed, some makeup on.) At about 7:30am I was checked in and in our room, hooked up to some monitors and by 8am I had an IV drip of pitocin.

The epidural was administered at about 10am. I’m all about ‘natural’ child-birth … and this is as natural as I get! 🙂 I do have to say that I have to wonder what labor would be like /without/ an epidural as there were some negative side effects, too. (Like the dead right leg I had for 36 hours after all was said and done, and the fact that when contractions *really* started getting strong at about 12:30pm I was in the worst pain of my life.) But if all it did was provide relief from 10 till 12:30… I’d do it again.

So, at about 12:30pm / 1:00pm (I wasn’t really watching the clock at this point) contractions kicked in – BIG TIME; like “grab the side of the bed and want to scream” pain. Baby *L* started coming down quickly and my doctor was called. By about 1:30 the doctor called to say she was stuck in traffic, but really working on getting there. So the nurse put the hospital-doc on-call. I heard him pop his head in at one point to see if he should go ahead and deliver and the nurse said we would be ok for a few more minutes. (Notice the nurse said we would be ok … I don’t think that is what I was thinking…) At 2:00pm Dr S walked in. She asked Hubs if it was ok if she just threw a cover over her clothes (as opposed to donning scrubs) and Hubs said /absolutely/. The moment she sat down she told me to push.

At 2:08pm one of the most beautiful boys in the world was born!

The laundry isn’t getting done as quickly, work has had to take a back-seat for just a bit, the older boys seem to understand that sometimes they have to wait. [I’m having a harder time convincing Baby *L* that sometimes he has to wait too ;)]

My heart is overwhelmed with love. Beautiful boys of my own. A family of six… four brothers to take this world by storm. We are all in absolute amazement at this journey we are on.

– Leanne from MilitaryAvenue.combyLeanneonFriday, August 13, 2010Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to PinterestMilitary Life:Baby,Leanne,pregnancy