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| Luke James 04.07.2012 3:32pm 8lbs 10oz 21inches |
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| His big sisters are in heaven!!!! |
I'm finally back into the blogging world!!!!!!! The days are flying by and blurring together and we can't believe Luke is already 2 weeks old!!! Although it seems like he's been a part of our family forever! He is doing great (especially through the nights!!! He'll eat and go right back to sleep!) and all of us are just so in love!!! I'm painfully sorting through the million pictures I've taken in the past two weeks (between my phone and camera!) and will hopefully keep the blog updated over the next week or so. We've already taken our first Family of Five plus doggie trip down to Austria this past weekend (Hailey was off on Friday), so eventually, I'll get a post up about that too!!! And I had a post that I was working on before I went into labor about my final days of pregnancy and the whole German experience, so I'll do a little backtracking too!!!
Luke's Birth Story...
After being out of town for the past 6 weeks, Leevi finally made it home on Friday afternoon after skipping out on the final hours of the last day of his exercise...he was given
direct orders from General Hertling (he is the commanding general of the US Army Europe!!!) to get home! We went to the hospital at 5 am Saturday morning (I had officially been contracting since about 3am Thursday night, but no pain and no time regularity)...at that point the contractions were about 10 minutes apart and stronger but not too painful BUT I had Kailee's birth in the back of my mind and was curious about my dialation since I had been contracting for so long. I was only a diappointing 2 cm at 6am but they didn't send me home and they set us up in our post delivery room and we slept! At 12:30 we went back to the labor room and the contractions were stronger but still far apart and no progress in my dialation (BOO!) We started talking "natural induction" methods and decided on drinking a Contraction Cocktail (I'm bummed that I didn't get the English translation of what is was, but I will when I go back to my dr in 6 weeks) It had champagne, some type of oil (guessing castor?), and some type of nut and they served it in a shaker! :) The nurse said anywhere from 1-4 hours I'd either be progressing in the contractions or in the bathroom! :) We were told to come back in 2 hrs and I was going to get in the jacuzzi tub and they were going to add some oils. Leevi and I went and had lunch in the room and then sat out in the new van playing around with the features :) The contractions were getting more painful but not much closer. At 2:30 we decided that Leevi should run home to get the things we'd forgotten assuming that it'd be a long night and now was a better time than later....it'd be less than a 30 min round trip. As he was getting ready to leave, I had two pretty strong ones close together but told him it was probably because we had just walked up the stairs from the car and told him to still go and that if the baby decided to come in the half an hour that he was gone, then somebody is really playing a bad joke on us! :) I wandered back to the labor ward but both rooms had the doors closed so I didn't want to interupt and I wandered back to my room and rung the bell for a nurse to see what I should do. At this point the contractions were definitely painful but not ridiculous and were only lasting about 30 seconds. A nurse took me back to the labor room and hooked me up to the machine to check for contractions. She also checked for dialation and I was already 7 cm! I called Leevi (a little after 3) and told him to hurry up. The only thing he had grabbed from the house was his toothbrush and he jumped back in the car. At 3:18 I called him again and asked where he was (he was in the parking lot) and I told him to RUN! I was literally holding my legs together until he got in the room! I wouldn't have made it one more contraction. The nurses were scrambling to get the room set up and find the midwife! I lost it for a bit (not as bad as with Kai, but I still swear my body went into shock with her!) and I screamed and thrashed for a bit and then Leevi said I went into a trance. I remember being really limp and I had my eyes closed the entire time! :) Leevi was holding my head, two nurses were up on the table with me ramming on my stomach and the midwife and a nurse were down below. I pushed for 10 minutes and we had a baby! The pain was crazy but only for probably the last 15-20 minutes, so I suppose I can't complain! :) I guess I can handle having babies without any drugs if they are as fast as Kai and Luke!!!
Luke's cord was wrapped around his neck so they rushed him out of the room because they couldn't get him breathing. Leevi followed and waited the eternity it seemed to hear that cry (I'm glad I wasn't there to see how long it took). Finally Leevi saw that we had a son and cried and hugged the nurses and came in to tell me! We cried and cried and then Leevi went back to be with Luke. We had just talked on Wednesday about changing the boy name and had it narrowed down to Luke, Caleb, and Gabriel...it had been Gabe for the majority of the pregnancy. I let Leevi choose once he saw him. Good thing he was a boy because we really didn't have a girls name set in stone! We did want Whitney for a girl until Whitney Houston's untimely death! Leevi really liked Gabriella but I wasn't sold on it because it seemed like a mouthful compared to Hailey and Kailee. And we were pretty much clueless on middle names. We are still trying to get used to having BLUE in the house!!! :) Leevi and I have said at least 100 times that we can't believe we have a son!
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| The bird's nest right outside my hospital room window...she didn't leave her nest once! |
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| I love that it was served in a shaker! (My last belly pic!!! Seriously still can't believe there was a boy in there!!!) |
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| Luke's first minutes...the bottom right picture makes us laugh. This is what the nurses dressed him in after his measurements....with his red swollen face, he doesn't seem too pleased with his very first outfit! :) |
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| I've caught him a few times with his hands folded like this... |
On Monday during his first pediatric exam, we had a little scare with his Blood Oxygen levels. The doctor thought Luke's levels were too low and called in a team from the Heidelberg Pediatric hospital. It was heart wrenching watching him scream inside an incubator while receiving oxygen while four doctors huddled over him speaking only in German and the paramedics waited outside the door! The hospital he was born in doesn't have an ICU so the debate was whether or not to transfer him to the Peds hospital in Heidelberg---immediately...by ambulance...without me! I quickly called Leevi at home who called Brandy to rush over and stay with the girls and he flew up to the hospital. By the time he had arrived, Luke's levels were borderline and they decided it was best for him to stay with me vs. be alone. They also took blood (3 times!!!) to check for an infection. We went back to the room to rest and wait for the blood results and he was monitored every 2 hrs and then every 4 hrs through the night. The blood results came back negative and his levels continued to remain high enough.
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| The hospital food was like dining out at a restaurant every day!! I would have stayed longer for that reason alone!! |
My post delivery room...we bought out the 2nd bed so I could have the room to myself (from Saturday to Tuesday it was less than $200 and SOOOOOOOO worth it). I couldn't imagine having to share it and the shower and toilet. And then Leevi was able to sleep in a bed and get meals too. Typically, the German women stay up to 7 days for a regular birth and 7-14 days for a C-section!!! Crazy!!! I was going nuts from boredom and was so ready to get home and be a family together!!! I was actually able to get more rest at home because I could leave Luke with Leevi (and his big sister helpers!) and sleep upstairs.
A bathing center was down the hall....the babies don't get that first official bath from the nurses like they do in the States, but Luke actually was brought to me pretty clean because they had to rub him so much to get him to breathe after the cord was around his neck! I did give him a little wipe down once while we were there....it had basins to fill with water and heat lamps to lay the babies under.
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| The bathing center.... |
Kailee drove me nuts in the hospital room so we kept their visits relatively short!!!!
Finally ready to go home!!!!!!!!!
Our Welcome Home signs!!!!
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| I should have gone back out and retaken the picture of the window...the 2nd day we were home, Hailey held Luke for HOURS and Leevi was able to get all of the yardwork done for the first time this Spring and I tackled the laundry and sorting through the BOY/GIRL clothes (it was really weird putting the girl things away) |
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| Luke's first days at home |
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| This is the reason that most of the pictures on FB are of just Hailey and Luke....if we don't have plans that day (and since Leevi is home to take/get Hailey from school), Kai is usually just in her underwear and doesn't have her hair done! :) |
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| The camera has stayed permanently out and I snapped this series of pictures of what a professional Big Sister Hailey is...Kai was playing Princesses on the floor and needed help getting one of them dressed....Hailey gladly obliged! |
And lastly, an adorable video of Kai singing to Luke some made up song....
