Samuel's birthday was absolutely perfect, just like Beckett's. We are so grateful to have had two completely healthy deliveries and two completely healthy boys!
I want to write out Samuel's birth story, and my apologies in advance for how long I'm sure it'll get!
It was Saturday, November 15 and I had spent the day at home with Beckett and his best bud, William, while Kolby helped William's parents (our good friends) move to an apartment pretty near us. I had felt fine all day but at the very end I started feeling kind of flu-ish-- fevery, achy, etc. It died down after an hour or so but it stuck in my mind because our childbirth class (when we were pregnant with Beckett) talked about how this can often be an early sign of labor.
We headed over to Kolby's parents' house that evening for a family dinner. While we were there I started feeling very uncomfortable. It felt like the baby had moved down and I'll leave it at that. I couldn't get comfortable sitting or standing-- something I didn't experience with Beckett. I told Kolby about it and while I didn't necessarily think it meant labor was imminent, I knew I couldn't go on like that for another two weeks until our due date.
I started having contractions after dinner, which wasn't too unusual, but by the time we were driving home I started to suspect this could be something different than the irregular contractions I'd had on several occasions before. This kind of freaked us both out, because we weren't ready in the same way we were for Beckett. With Beckett, mainly since he waited until a few days after his due date to arrive, we had the house totally clean, both of us had all our ducks in a row at work in preparation for our maternity/paternity leave, and we were literally just sitting around waiting to go into labor. Thankfully I had experienced a major nesting binge the prior week, so the nursery was ready and the house was mostly in order. As soon as we pulled in the driveway from dinner (around 9pm) we went in to action mode... Kolby got Beckett to bed and I zipped through the house tidying up so that when my parents came to stay at our house while we were at the hospital they wouldn't have to walk into a huge mess (remember, there were two toddlers playing at the house all day). Then I took a bath to see if that would calm the contractions and help signal either a false alarm or the real deal. Kolby frantically worked to get things in order for his classes, for a sub. Thankfully in a matter of a couple hours we were able to feel much more settled and ready, and started to get excited about the prospect of an early arrival.
The contractions continued, but just like with Beckett, it wasn't the kind of thing that was easy to time. It again was really hard to tell when I was having a contraction, since the pain was largely in my back. We sent word to my parents (who live two hours away) and to Kolby's mom (who was out of town, several hours away) letting them know that this could be nothing but could be labor, and said we'd follow up when we knew more. A couple hours passed and it was still really unclear which it was. Finally we decided to go ahead and go to the hospital and find out for sure, since we certainly weren't getting any sleep at home anyway and also we wanted to make sure we gave family enough notice to hit the road and make it in time, if this was really labor. We called our good friends from church and they came over around 1:45am to stay with Beckett and sleep on our couches (so thankful for them!).
Kolby loaded the car and I snuck into Beckett's room and rocked him for awhile. I cried and cried. If this was labor, things were about to change a whole lot and that made me really sad. Really happy too, but in a very bittersweet way for him. It was a strange mix of emotions, plus several really painful contractions with a 35 lb toddler smooshing my belly. I kissed him about a million times then Kolby laid him back in his crib and we hit the road for the hospital.
A few minutes into the drive I started feeling exactly like I did when we drove to the hospital in labor with Beckett, and I was sure this was in fact the real thing. Contractions were painful and about five minutes apart, and the bumps on the road were excruciating. Just like last time, I had a couple contractions on the short walk from the car to Labor & Delivery and had to stop and hunch over and grab the wall like you see in TV sitcoms. We got to our room and the doctor checked me and wanted to wait an hour then check again before officially admitting us. They monitored the baby, we walked around, I took a couple of baths (warm water is amazing) and an hour later I had made enough progress that it was official-- it was baby day! This was about 4am.
Labor was awful. Good grief it was so painful. The baby's heart rate was really fast-- which was concerning but not terribly concerning, but meant I had to stay on the monitor and couldn't move around. That sure didn't help the pain thing. It was back labor all over again and that was a bummer to say the least. I had no break from the pain. Zero. Not the usual story they tell you about in childbirth class where you survive a contraction then get some downtime before the next one. No sir. My mom arrived around 6am and I just started crying when I told her it was back labor again. She and I had both really hoped that was a one-time thing (she had it too with Brad, but not me or Russell).
By 6:15am I'd survived all I could and we talked to the doctor about an epidural. She felt good about how my labor was progressing and was confident an epidural wouldn't stall or slow things down at that point. The anesthesiologist put an epidural in soon after and it was as glorious as I had remembered. Seriously amazing.
Kolby and I took some time to rest for awhile, then about 8am his dad had arrived with breakfast tacos so he went to the waiting room for a bit. My mom came in and we chatted for a few minutes then I called the nurse in because she had told me to call her when I started to feel pressure. Having an epidural, I couldn't really tell what I was feeling--and with Beckett I couldn't feel anything at all--but I thought I could feel something this time so I went ahead and called her. The nurse checked me and said it was time to push! She left and paged our doctor and my mom went to the waiting room to tell Kolby.
Here's where the story takes a bit of a crazy turn. Samuel clearly wanted his birth to be one that we'd always remember!
So I'm in the room by myself for a few minutes. And I'm feeling
something but again it's hard to tell exactly what because of the epidural. All I can say is it felt kinda like I imagine it would feel if you were numb but also had a baby making its way into the world. I pressed the call button for the nurse and in walks Kolby. I told him I was feeling something and had called the nurse. He said, "Yeah, your mom told me. It's time to push! That's crazy!" I told him, no, that I'd called the nurse AGAIN. Something was going on. The nurse walks in and is putting gloves on when she lifts up the sheet and matter-of-factly says, "the baby's here" while pressing a code pink button which triggers an influx of nurses and doctors into the room. Apparently Samuel had gone ahead and delivered himself just past his shoulders, and then the nurse pulled him out the rest of the way with just one hand because she didn't have a chance to put her second glove on.
That's right, folks. So much for the pushing. Apparently having 9 pound, 98th percentile head size U.S.S. Beckett paved the way and Samuel just followed the signs.
I guess my mom must have walked in with the nurse and somehow had the presence of mind to get out her phone, because we have almost the whole thing on video and it's as funny as it is surreal. Kolby is half laughing half crying, and my mom is telling me that everything is fine and also laughing. I wasn't nervous but was definitely eager to hear the baby cry before hopping on the "isn't this so crazy/funny" bandwagon. Thankfully as soon as the nurse rubbed his back he let out a big cry, and all the nurses who had flooded in started wishing us congratulations-- and I immediately felt at peace and ready to hold our little one. The nurse held him up to Kolby and asked, "What is this? What do we have?!?" and he looks then turns to me and says, "It's a boy, it's a little baby boy!" The gender surprise thing was a little anti-climactic because we were both absolutely certain it was a boy (me because my pregnancy was so similar to Beckett's, and Kolby because he wanted another boy) and also because we kinda blew right past that traditional moment of "OK, it's time to push. We're about to find out if it's a boy or a girl!" But the birth was plenty exciting as it was, and we were both thrilled to have a second baby boy in our arms!
Everything from that point on was dreamy. The nurse placed Samuel on my chest and he was totally calm and totally alert and just looked up at me for the longest time with his eyes wide open. The nurse kept asking if we'd like her to clean him up and weigh him and I kept saying no, wanting to freeze that moment as long as possible. I felt so good-- completely different from the anemic la-la land I experienced after Beckett's birth. Kolby and I just stared at him for the longest time. How amazing it was to have brought another little boy into our family!
And now, some pictures!
This is a screen capture of the video my mom took and is a picture I'll cherish forever because the look on Kolby's face pretty much sums up the whole birth story.
Samuel looks like a gunky newborn here but I also love this picture because I got to enjoy this moment of us looking at each other for a really long time and loved every second. He was so alert!
First posed picture :)
Beckett meeting his little brother!
Samuel meeting his grandparents
Spending some brother time together
Family of four!
Proud parents!
I love this picture of them sleeping because it captures a lot of what a caring dad Kolby is. He has Samuel strapped to him with a blanket so he won't budge if he doses off, is holding the swaddling blanket down so it won't block Samuel's face, and has the nose sucker bulb thing at the ready.
Me and my boys!
Beckett was our best little hospital visitor
We left the hospital after just one day because we were all feeling great! Some last pics before peacing out.
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Welcome to our family, sweet Samuel!
