Baby Lars

Yay! Baby Lars is here! Actually, he was five weeks yesterday so he's been here for a while, but we are still getting used to having him around.

We named him Lars Welker Daniels and he was born April 8th. Ryan and I both liked the name Lars, and it was Ryan's great-great grandfather's name. Welker is Ryan's middle name. He's named after his Great Grandfather Welker, who was the mission president in Germany when Hitler came to power. Ryan's grandma has some interesting stories to tell about living over there during that time (she was a teenager) including a story about her sister saying "Hi, Hitler" during a parade and getting a Nazi Heil from the man himself in return. Ryan served his mission in Germany and has been told his personality is similar to Great Grandpa Welker, so we felt like it would be nice to keep the name going.

Lars weighted 7 lbs, 11 oz and 20 inches long - so he was a pound bigger than both my girls (Willa was 6.7 and June was 6 lbs, 10.5 oz). I think it was a good weight considering he's a boy and considering that the ultrasound tech measured him at 4 lbs when I was only 29 weeks pregnant. I was preparing myself for a behemoth of a baby, but he was just right. I swear his legs were chunky in the hospital already and he hasn't stopped growing.

 The girls were excited to meet him, but on the drive over June suddenly got cold feet. She's been nervous about being a big sister (translation: she wants to be the spoiled baby of the family). But once she met him, she loved him and has been a great help ever since. She even went so far as to tell me that she decided she would like to be a mommy some day. She's since recanted that and again proclaims that she wants to stay a kid forever.

 Fresh home from the hospital. I love little newborns, but I'm always happy when those swollen eyes recover from the trauma of birth. They just aren't pretty!

 A day or two after getting home from the hospital - holding a baby on the outside like this is wayyyy better than holding them inside your stomach.

 Sweet baby Lars!

So the birth story isn't too exciting. I was due April 22nd, but as I kept reminding everyone, that date was an educated guess since Lars had been measuring further along since my very first doctor's appointment. Plus, since the girls were both born a little early, I was planning on him coming sometime in the beginning of April. The Monday before he was born, I had my regular check up. Since I was now "advanced maternal age" I had to go in every week for a stress test and a ultrasound to check fluid levels. It was so annoying because it took so much time! Lars was pretty chill in there and didn't like to perform a lot of movements while they measured - so it always took so long to get the required number of movements and spikes.

So that Monday the doctor checked me and I was dilated to a 2, but after that check up I started having contractions and some bloody show for the rest of the week. I thought for sure on Tuesday that the baby would come in the next day or two. The contractions were real, but not consistent, but I could tell it was coming soon. Of course, that's how it always is. You think and you plan and only have you have given up all hope of it coming and having control, it happens.

I cleaned the house, made checklists for whoever would be watching the girls, etc. On Friday evening I was uncomfortable and having the same annoying contractions as usual. We went to bed that night and of course I couldn't sleep because those darn hormones totally mess up my sleep schedule towards the end. Instead of tossing in bed, I decided to get up and read a book. As I was reading I realized that the contractions seemed to be pretty regular. So I got my phone and started counting them on an app. They were regularly about seven minutes apart. I went back to bed, but now they were getting painful and it was too hard to sleep. Ryan woke up and I told him what was going on. The contractions had been about seven minutes apart for the past hour and a half, so I thought we'd still have quite a bit of time before heading to the hospital. Then, within about 30 minutes they got really painful and really frequent - like two minutes apart! Since I have gone quickly, Ryan decided he'd better call Rebecca to come over. She hurried over and we rushed to the hospital around 1:30 a.m. with the contractions still two minutes apart and quite painful. In fact, I thought I was possibly transitioning (ha ha, that goes to show how little I know about an undrugged childbirth). I should also note that Ryan got a towel for me to sit on in the car just in case my water broke - he's always thinking.

We got to the hospital, I hurried in while Ryan parked the car. They checked me and .... I was at a measly little three. What?!!! They couldn't even admit me until I was at least a four. However, I was slightly vindicated because as she was getting my info right after they checked me, I was like "I feel some fluid, I think my water broke when they checked me earlier." So she swabbed it and checked me again and not only had my water broken, but I was suddenly at a 4/5 within about five minutes from the previous check. Hurrah! I knew this was going to go fast. They admitted me and hurried me to a room and got the anesthesiologist there right away. I told him that I was super sensitive to the meds and to please give me an epidural-lite. He was pretty good and tried to do as I asked, but warned me that medicine is really more of an art than a science and they can never really tell how these things will affect someone.

The epidural took just as I wanted it to, I could move around and have some feeling but I wasn't totally dead. I rolled over on my side to get some sleep. When I rolled back an hour or two later, the epidural had gone wayyy downhill. One of my legs was normal, but the other was completely dead and numb again. Bleh, it was so uncomfortable again, just like when I had June. I complained and complained about it to Ryan and the nurses, but nothing really changed. Plus, of course because of the epidural, the labor had stalled again. Grrrrr!!! I'm so annoyed at nurses who come in and check the charts and say, "Hmmm, looks like the contractions have basically stopped." It's that dumb epidural every time, I swear! She wanted to start me on pitocin, but I really wanted to avoid it if I could. So the labor dragged out (at least in my opinion, in reality, it was probably moving at a normal speed). There was also another bag of fluid that hadn't burst and a lip on my cervix that was slowing things down.

Long story short, baby boy was born at 8:55 a.m. By the end I could feel the contractions again because enough of the epidural had worn off - but I couldn't move around to better work through them because my legs were still numb. It was the worst of both worlds! But he came out a gray, purple little creature like they all do and then when they laid him on my belly and started rubbing him he miraculously pinked up like they all do and suddenly he was a baby! It's so amazing to me how they pull this swamp thing out and then suddenly it's a baby. He latched on right away and has been a terrific nurser ever since. He is a major rooter and also loved and latched onto a pacifier pretty quick. I was a little hesitant to introduce it because I think it messed June's latch up a little. This time, he never stopped rooting, even after sleep nursing fooorrevverrr on me, so I tried a Soothie and it's been great.

My bum leg stayed in various parts of numbness for an entire 24 hours after the birth. My OB says (and I tend to agree) that the baby can push on different nerves as he comes out and that can cause numbness. Plus, since I was drugged, I might have pushed and not realized I was doing something. But the leg that was numb was also one I'd been having nerve issues with the last few days of pregnancy anyway.

All in all, it was my first time letting my contractions guide me until we went to the hospital (Willa, my water broke, and with June I had massive amounts of sudden bloody show). The hospital wasn't quite as nice or new as the other two where I gave birth, but it seemed clean and I really liked all the doctors and staff. In fact, the nurses were very friendly, helpful, and involved. We came home Sunday around noon, feeling very happy and satisfied and a little sore in the rear (me). What a difference it makes having a third baby while being steadily employed and having a house to come to! There was so much less stress all around. Ryan and I just both felt very happy and blessed with sweet Lars.