At the hospital...

Because Grant was born just after midnight, we were able to stay in the hospital a few hours longer than usual. Grant and I stayed until Saturday morning. I was really looking forward to being in a quiet hospital room with a sleeping baby, but I forgot about the masses of people equivalent to a clown car that continuously made there way into the room to poke, prod or question. One morning, beginning at six am I had 13 people come in before eleven. (Nurses, aids, my doctor, the baby's doctor, a photographer, the nutritionist, breakfast, housekeeping, etc...) I sent Grant to the nursery both nights so that I could get some rest, however, I didn't bet on the baby in the next room over crying for hours in the middle of the night. I felt so sorry for the mom. I'm sure would have liked to be resting.

Anyway, all in all it was a restful time. I did forget about all of the pain and yuckiness that accompanies the first week after giving birth. So, I was glad to be where they could answer my questions and give me lovely pain medication.

On Thursday afternoon, Jimmy was going to bring the boys to see me. Because of the Swine Flu scare, they asked about the potential visitors. When I told them that Luke had a fever the previous weekend and had a rash that the doctors suspected was from the virus, they STRONGLY encouraged me not to bring him. I knew he didn't have the Swine Flu, but one of the sweet sisters in our ward who is so kind to look after me and check in on me watched Luke so that Jackson could come and meet his new baby brother.




As you can tell, he was super excited and proud.

When the pediatrician came, I talked to her about letting Luke visit the next day. She said that it was perfectly fine and that there was little to no risk of him getting ill or him passing on anything after being symptom free for almost a week. So, Friday Luke came to meet his baby. In all honesty, he was much more impressed with the adjustable hospital bed (until he figured out how to call the nurses station) and the window that overlooked the parking lot and lake.





But we did make introductions and he immediately said "bebe" and wanted to kiss him a million times while making a darling little "mmmmaa" sound.





Jimmy did such a wonderful job taking care of the boys while I was gone. I was really impressed. Now I know that the children will actually survive if I'm not around all the time. ;0)

In between resting and the visits from the boys, a photographer came by to take pictures. She was so good! It took her only a few minutes to get some beautiful shots. She even managed to take a couple of me with Grant that I thought turned out very nice considering I had just given birth, was puffy and swollen and had no make up on. I thought it was so cool to be able to send people to the website to see pictures right away. (You can view the pictures HERE, however they are the same ones that I posted in my original Baby Grant post.) I was able to access the Internet through the TV, which was nice as well.

One of the most curious things for me had to do with the nurses. They were so wonderful and really took good care of me. And the curious thing was that several of their names were names from women in my father's family. Susan, Ann and Geri, specifically. Susan and Ann are my father's sisters and Geri is one of my Great Grandmothers who passed away years ago. We share our birthday and she always called me "Princess D". These were the nurses who really spent time with me and seemed to really care. They really went over and above what they needed to do. Geri was the one that I had the greatest bond with. She reminded me so much of my Great Grandmother. She had red hair and told everyone that came into my room that they needed to take good care of me because I was special. She also brought some of her paperwork into my room to be Grant's first babysitter while I took a shower. They made an impression on me that will make me think seriously about becoming a nurse in my post-stay-at-home days. The names could have been a coincidence, but I really felt like Aunt Ann and Grandma Geri were looking down on me. (And, like Sue was checking in on me from VA, too.)

Grant choked and stopped breathing twice in the hospital. It was terrifying, but the same thing happened with Luke. I knew to pull the emergency button to the nurses who were able to revive him. And, the night before I left to go home Geri suggested that they suction his stomach to get rid of the mucus that was causing him to choke. I was nervous for him to have the procedure done. In the end, I was so grateful that she suggested it, because we have had no problems since.

And so you see, this is how I spent the two days after I had Baby Grant. (If you ever happen to be in Michigan while in labor, go right on over to William Beaumont Hospital in Troy. You are sure to have a good experience. :0)

Labor and Delivery

Although I would rather be sleeping right now, I figure that two weeks is long enough to avoid writing. I'm sure to forget details as time goes on and since I seem to have sleep-deprived-new-mommy-brain these days I'd better get things written down. So, (since I know the anticipation has been incredibly great) here is the way Grant made his entrance into the world...

Two weeks before I had the cute little guy, my doctor had me go in for an ultrasound to estimate the baby's weight. Since both Jackson and Luke were nearly nine pounds and with my Gestational Diabetes diagnosis, an ultrasound is routine during the last few weeks of pregnancy. The estimated weight was eight pounds and eleven ounces. This worried me since babies usually gain 1/2 a pound each week during the last month. So, my doctor decided to "get things moving along" by stripping the membrane when I was 38 weeks. Because of the doctors schedule and other women going into labor (the audacity of them!) I had to wait an extra few days.

Wednesday the 6th I went in and the doctor did her thing. I was told by many people that this was excruciating but it seemed just like a normal exam to me. She said that I could expect some cramping and that if the baby was ready he would come within 48 hours. I did have a little cramping but I was really busy. Luke needed to go to the doctor, we had 6 house showings, etc., etc. I called Jimmy at work and suggested that we go out to dinner since there were 3 groups of people coming to look at the house between 5 and 7.

As we were driving to the restaurant, I realized that maybe the cramping was consistent. I had cramping and/or contractions many times over the last few weeks so if I hadn't had my doctor's appointment that morning, I would have just ignored it. We timed things through dinner and then I decided that we should go home so I could call the doctor. Jimmy put the kids to bed as I called to find someone to stay the night with them. I had to call 4 people before I found someone who was actually home! Our neighbor came right over and she was so helpful, pushing us out of the door. (I did put Luke to bed that night and got really sad because I knew it would be the last time I would put him to bed as my baby.) Anyhow, Jimmy didn't really think I was in labor (as usual) and he thought we would return home in a few hours.

It was nice driving to the hospital with my husband. (With Luke I drove myself.) We got there at about 9 pm and they said that I was about 3 centimeters dilated. The nurses called the doctor and suspected that she would have me walk the halls of the hospital for a few hours. I thought that was a great joke because I was in no mood to walk for hours. Thank goodness the doctor was already at the hospital to do another delivery. She decided that she would just break my water to get things moving faster.

Well, move faster they did. She told me that she would come back and check me in an hour. At the hour mark, I had the anesthesiologist come in to give me the epidural. He put the catheter in and administered some type of narcotic that gave me a about 15 minutes of relief from the contractions but made me VERY itchy. I thought that the whole epidural was done...but I was wrong. After some pain free resting for about 15 minutes I felt some major change happen. I asked when the doctor would be back to check me and wondered why I was in so much pain. (After my epidurals with the other two I couldn't even feel the contractions or the baby being born.) This was VERY different. I felt everything and when the nurse checked me, she got a little frazzled and kept telling me not to push. It took them twenty minutes to find my doctor. (I'm pretty sure she was sleeping, judging from the way she looked when she FINALLY came into the room.) It seemed to me that the nurse was yelling at me every couple of minutes not to push. "You don't want me to deliver your baby," she kept saying. Thank goodness that Jimmy remembered some of the breathing techniques from our classes years ago. He was really helpful in getting me through things.

The doctor came in an hour and a half after she broke my water and I was ready to go. They broke down the bed and I began pushing. I was told that I pushed for about twenty minutes but it seemed a lot shorter than that to me. My jaw was shivering like crazy, which I think really scared Jimmy but I had seen it many times on reality birth shows so I knew it was normal. After little Grant's head was delivered the doctor told me to wait and I said, "NO". So I just got the little guy out.

Jimmy and I couldn't believe how small he was. (8 lbs 7 oz and 20.5 inches long) The nurses couldn't believe that we thought he was small. He was a half pound lighter than the other two and his head was in the 50% range. (The other boys had heads over 100th percentile.)

After he was born at 12:20 am, a man who had been standing there for most of the delivery, introduced himself as the other anesthesiologist who was going to administer the epidural medication and pump. That was news to me but it explained why I was in so much pain!

I was so worried that there would be issues with the baby because of things I was exposed to early in the pregnancy. (Specifically, I was injected with radioactive dye for a bone scan.) As they were checking the baby over, Jimmy told me that he was perfect...not even webbed fingers or pile toes like our older boys. He seemed to be just perfect. By the time everything was finished up, it was about 3 am. We slept for a few hours and then Jimmy left to go be with the big boys while Grant and I hung out and rested in the hospital.

The experience, although much more painful than my other births, was wonderful in other ways. I felt an immediate bond with the baby, something that took weeks to develop with the other two. Maybe it was from being alert and not medicated. Maybe because the delivery was so short. Maybe it was because I've done this twice before. I'm not sure, but it was lovely to feel excited to have him and to just want to cuddle him and get to know him.

And so this is how we got to meet our newest little one, cute sweet Grant. We are so happy to have him.

Mother of the Year

Check out my new honor!

Important News Update

Baby Grant

Grant Alexander Wilkins arrived Thursday, May 7 at 12:20 am. He weighed 8 pounds 7 ounces and is 20.5 inches long.

Here are some lovely pictures:

Baby Grant

Life is funny...

This weekend has been full of last minute baby preparations, eleven house showings, a sick (and VERY clingy)one year old and a few comical events.

My husband works with the young men at church. One of the fourteen year-olds has been asking to come over and watch a couple of Disney shows and make a sandwich called a Fluffernutter. (I've never had one, but they look disgusting.) Anyway, I was impressed that the hubby went to the trouble of picking up the lad, Googling the sandwich recipe and purchasing the ingredients. Jackson was pretty excited to have someone come over too.

So amid several Realtors walking through our home and interrupting the "party" this young man tried to watch his television shows. (Things are a bit more complicated because he is blind and wanted to find the shows himself, however, we have a different cable company than he does and we didn't know what networks were on what channels which made him pretty frustrated.) In addition, he was so mean to little Jackson! In his words, "Jackson, I came here to watch your tv and that's what I'm going to do!" I thought he also wanted our company, but at least we knew what he had in mind. I had to talk to him about being nicer to Jackson and he tried to be more friendly. After he gave up on tv, he wanted to set up the satellite radio that he brought to show us. Well, we scanned through the menu several times only for him to get more and more upset. Why? My husband said it best: "I get the feeling that you are trying to access a channel that your parents have blocked and that you are trying to crack the code." So, I'm pretty sure this young guy had a plan to come over, watch tv that his parents didn't approve of and listen to the radio station that his parents had blocked. I'm not sure why he thought we would be the perfect family to pull one over on, maybe that is just how we come across. This post doesn't express the humor of the situation, but when it all came together I found the chaos SO funny!

Later in the day, we were sitting outside and I was looking at the millions of dandelions in my yard. We don't want to pay to have them sprayed or buy spray ourselves because we aren't going to be here much longer. But, what an embarrassment! We are seriously the only house on the block with a yellow lawn! Jackson picked a couple up to blow them and I said something like, I will give you $50 if you pick up all of them. Well, I was only joking but I should have known that that kid would be working for hours to get that money! He really did work hard, but in order to get him to come in for bed, I told him that I would count them and give him $.25 for each one. Of course, I wasn't about to count all of those, so I told him to count them. I heard him get to one hundred and then the numbers drastically changed. From the deck I heard; "Mom, what comes after 99 Gagillion?" Yes, he did work hard, but he's NOT getting THAT much money!

As for our housing situation, it is like doors are slamming all around us. Maybe I'm not supposed to be worrying about this until after the baby comes. It really is becoming comical to me or I could just be delirious. Two realtors who were going to show me around ended up canceling on me, a house I was going to see was rented 5 minutes before I saw it, another house had an offer placed on it. The final straw was when I went to an open house to find no one there. It turns out that the Internet listed it on the wrong day and it was the day before. I guess the Big Guy has the perfect place all mapped out for us...or maybe we are just supposed to move back to Maryland?

Now, hopefully, I'm going to go have a baby that doesn't weigh in at 10 pounds. When I return, my only hope is that we won't be homeless! (I guess we won't because we do have a couple of tents :0) ) So, the saga drags on...