“I knew you before I formed you in your mothers womb. Before you were born, I set you apart.”
~Jeremiah 1:5
Wow. What an amazing past two weeks it’s been. We’ve had a refresher course in this whole baby thing, and thank God. It has been easy, thus far. Minus the no-sleep thing. I think thats just always a given.
So let’s back track a little to just about 2 weeks ago. (If you don’t want to read the birth story, skip down a little ways. It’s not graphic, but you know. Just because.)
On Friday January 3rd, 2014 the next chapter in our lives was getting ready to begin.
January 3rd, 2014. 3 days past my due date. I was so uncomfortable.
4:30 in the morning, I was awoken to some sharp, not-so-pleasant pains that were steadily occurring about 30 minutes apart… within a half hour, they jumped to 4 minutes apart and were steadily getting stronger. I waited until about 630 to wake Chris up. “Honey, it’s time.” I said to him. Apparently, my voice didn’t have enough urgency in it, because he rolled back over in bed, and said “5 more minutes…” Eventually, he woke up and we got moving. Thankfully, my mother in law had came to stay with us the night before so when David woke up that morning, we explained to him that daddy and I were heading to the hospital because today, finally, TODAY, a new little brother was coming. “Mom”, he said “I’m going to miss you. But I am so proud of you.” (don’t cry, dont cry…) “I am so proud of Aric too.”, He said. I could hear the concern in his voice. My little 6 year old, didn’t really know what to expect, but he saw mommy in a little pain, and knew this was serious. “You will be the first one to come visit, okay bud?” I hugged him tightly and we headed out the door.
7:30 am – I was expecting to get to the hospital and be at least 5-6 cm, after all, that’s how it went with David. My body progressed so quickly the first time, I thought for sure this time would be just the same. But, I was wrong. After being hooked up to all the machines, and waiting to be seen – contractions were steady, 100% effacement, but only 3 cm. STILL. A few hours passed and the contractions continued to get stronggerrr. I caved around noon and asked for a little pain medicine, IV stadol. Just to take the edge off. People listen to me, Stadol is no joke. You can still feel pain for sure, but it makes you loopy. Drowsy, and HOT. As I laid in the hospital bed, the medicine started to kick in, and I began sweating. Not like a brisk job sweating… like I had just did a triathlon in the Mojave desert sweating! My husband, mom, and dad all sat in the room with me, and humored my request of turning the air down. Mind you, it’s January. It’s cold out. AC is not something they were liking as they all sat huddled in the room under their jackets and cuddled up for warmth, while I still laid in the hospital bed, rambling to myself about something on the tv… and sweating.
230 pm – My doctor arrived, and said I was about 7 cm and they were going to break my water to try and “speed up the process”. The doctor left the room, and the nurse had me turn on my side to try and relieve some of the pain from the contractions. The stadol had wore off by then, and she was preparing another dose when all of a sudden the most intense pain ever occurred. That baby was on his way.
From about 245 pm until delivery, the little stinker was having a hard time getting out. I could hear his heart rate dropping each time a contraction occurred, and I tried to focus and just get through it. They began to prep me for an emergency C section. “Alright sweetie, two more, we need this baby out! We are gonna let you push on your own when you feel the contraction okay?”
And sure enough, two more, Boom. Baby Aric was born. 3:16pm. (15:16* by military time, as they keep in the hospital… this will be significant later.)
A healthy, beautiful, baby boy. 8 lbs, 6 oz… 20 and 3/4 inches long. As our doctor looked over his chart, she said to us “His birthdate is so cool! He was born 1/3/14 at 15:16… so, 13-14–15-16!” (and as an added bonus, we were in room 17.)
Our first week home was pretty easy going. Aric is a good sleeper and eater. He sleeps for long stretches in the middle of the night, which is awesome for us, because that means we are only about half zombie right now. Little by little though, Aric stays awake a little more each day and sleeps a little more each night. But as with every child, this wont be the routine for long.
David is doing well with the whole “big brother” thing. He is so in love with his little brother and so anxious for him to be bigger so they can play. I hope he still feels that way a year from now when Aric is in his room trying to stuff all of his toys in his mouth! 
We do want to thank everyone for all the phone calls, emails, texts and so on. We feel so loved and are so blessed by all of you. We start each day a-new and through the late nights, dirty diapers, spit ups, fussiness, we still get to fall in love with both our little guys over and over again.
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