We are at home now and I am loving not being pregnant anymore and having a new baby. Jacob, Adam and Matthew love Lucas and fight over holding him, especially Matthew. Matthew has adjusted very well to being a big brother. It helps that he loves his dad so much and would rather David do things for him than me. So it doesn't bother him that I'm with the baby so much.
My thoughts on not having an epidural...I am very very glad I did it. It was something I have wanted to do since having my first. With Adam it wasn't a full blown idea yet. I was more scared of the pain than the epidural still. And Adam was a 24 hour slow labor. With Matthew I wanted to try and after it was over wished I hadn't of gotten the eipdural. But I thought I was in for another 24 hour labor instead of the 6 hour labor it was. I thought with Lucas I would have another 6 hour labor and probably would have if they had left me hooked up to the pitocin. Instead I had an 11 hour labor and it was a good thing it wasn't any longer. I was so glad to not have to go through putting that needle into my back again. Plus I think I was much more efficient at pushing. And mostly I just wanted to experience it without the epidural. I wanted the least amount of medical devices as possible. So a benefit of having the pitocin turned off was that I didn't have to have continous monitoring anymore and I loved that. They did leave the IV port in my hand but at least it wasn't attached to anything. However I did miss the calmness of having an epidural. We didn't really have the camera ready and David didn't get to see Lucas be born because of the position I was in and because he was so focused on helping me get through. He just looked down and Lucas was out. Him being born seemed to happen so much faster this time. When you have an epidural they get everything ready and then tell you to push. No one had to tell me to push. Pushing was a way out of the pain and I pushed! I'm glad I had a midwife there instead of an OB doctor. I'm glad the midwife was Roberta. I think she's fabulous. I'm glad my mom was there and not just David. My mom helped me not cave in and do the epidural. Mostly I'm glad that David went along with it. David went along with all our crazy ideas of coping with labor including the tub which I know he thought was straight out of some voo doo medicine book. When I said I needed his hands he just gave them to me. He rubbed my neck or back. I never thought I would want to be touched during a contraction but it was a security blanket for me and helped me feel safe during all the pain. I'm very happy with Lucas' labor and delivery. I've been asked if I would do it again. We aren't planning on having more children so I felt like this was my last chance to try this and that's part of why I'm so glad I did it. I like being able to say that I did it. My pregnancies are so horrible and I get so mad that my body can't seem to do pregnancies like it's suppose to do so I like that my body was able to deliver a baby like it was supposed to. If I had to do it over again I would do it without the epidural again.
Because we were moving everything was packed. Before I left for the hospital I was able to find the car seat and my newborn baby clothes out in our huge storage pile in my dad's garage. But I couldn't find the baby blankets. So Jacob and Adam generously offered there blankets for Lucas to use to come home from the hospital. This is Lucas ready to leave the hospital with both of their blankets.
A note on Lucas' name. The second week of December I told David that after we had Christmas all bought and ready we had to figure out a name for the baby. I have always liked the name Lucas but David prefered Samuel. I tried really hard to fall in love with Samuel but in the end just couldn't do it. So David told me Lucas was fine especially since he named Matthew. But we both agreed on Lucas' middle name Eddy. Eddy is my maiden name but he is not named for me. He is named after his Grandpa and Grandma Eddy because without my parents we would have never gotten through this pregnancy. My mother came every day for the first 14 weeks of my pregnancy to take care of me and my boys. Then they moved in with us for the month of July and after they moved into their new home in my mom still came over for another 2 weeks. So for 20 weeks straight my mom took care of me, my boys and all my household chores while David was at work. While they were living with us Jacob had his horrible eye accident where he was stabbed in the eye with a broken pvc pipe and had to have surgery. My mom took me and Jacob to the ER because I was too sick to drive during that part of my pregnancy. Later my dad came to UVRMC and sat with us during his surgery and then took me home afterwards so I could try to sleep and then took me back to the hospital in the morning. In September they help us move into the condo and let us store all of our stuff at their house but even more they let us use their yard and house whenever the condo walls were closing in on us. And as I said before my dad took care of moving us into our new home and then my mom unpacked and cleaned the house. Both David and I wanted to name Lucas in honor of them and the good, good people they are not just during this pregnancy but for all they have done for our family. Thank you, mom and dad! We love you so much.
1 comment:
He is beautiful Ash! Thanks for sharing this story!
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