Love at First Sight

Luke Aaron Giles

Stats

Weight: 8lbs 15oz

Length: 21 1/2"

Head: 15"

Birth date: February 3, 2010 @ 6:14pm

Our sweet little boy has arrived! And he picked the best day out of the whole year to be born - MY BIRTHDAY! His due date was on February 11th, but because I have babies on the bigger side, the doctor had already had me scheduled to be induced on the 4th of Feb. I had been on bed rest due to pre-term labor issues - so we knew that Luke coming early was a real possibility. I was taking it easy, well as easy as one can with three kids...to let the baby's lungs mature fully. However, there were two days - if we could control it - that we wanted Luke to wait: Hannah's birthday (Feb. 2nd) and my birthday (Feb. 3rd). We wanted him to have his own "special day". The thought of him having to share his birthday with me is pretty neat I thought, but I also thought it wouldn't be so cool for him to have to share it with his MOM (oh the agony) come the teenage years...But, it appears that he had his own idea and thought sharing birthdays with me would be alright.

Look, he has rolls!

Labor was really nice this time around. My water broke in the morning just as I was trying to get the kids ready for school. We scrambled to make new arrangements for kids' babysitters, packed our bags, and made it to the hospital around 11am. Got checked in, and immediately asked for an epidural. Not that the labor pains were any different from the ones I had been having for the last two months, but the way I see it - I paid my dues with the other births and pain wasn't something I really wanted to have to experience...yet again. When the epidural took, I almost cried. It was the first time in 6 months that I was not in pain. Holy cow, sweet relief! Labor lasted 10 hours. When I was "complete", he was still at -1 station. But his heart rate was dropping because the umbilical chord was wrapped around his neck. The doctor wanted to give pushing a try to see if it would help move him down. It did. Had one contraction...and out he came. We were all surprised how fast and easy it went. It. Was. Awesome.

Holding him right after they cleaned him up

We had a few more hours to go until we were to be released from the hospital (and we were excited because this would be the first time with any of our kids that we would be able to go home in 24 hours) when Luke starting having a rough time. Luckily the nurse walked in when everything started happening, saw the signs and took him to nursery. She came back and explained that Luke had asphyxiated some of his vomit into his lungs, which caused his oxygen levels to drop, and that he had to be put on oxygen. He would have to stay overnight to be monitored and could not go home until he was off the O2. The doctor suspected reflux to be the problem, but wasn't sure. Anyway, our stay went form 24 hours to 5 days by time we got everything figured out and got Luke weaned off the oxygen. He does have significant reflux, and we have him on a prevacid compound for that. He has some more tests to check his swallowing reflex coming up this week, but overall he is doing so much better. He is gaining weight and eating like a madman. He is sleeping good as long as we have him elevated. I have learned a lot about what works for him as far as feeding and waiting for his stomach to empty before laying him down. He is not a fussy baby, but the reflux is obviously painful for him and that breaks my heart.

Because the kids were sick, they were not allowed to meet Luke. But they were able to see him at least.

It's amazing how you spend 40 weeks waiting to meet your baby, anxious to see if you will love him as much as your other kids (even though you know you will, there's that fear) or having the overwhelming feeling of inadequacy to be a mom all over again (wondering how on earth people have 4 kids and survive). But then when that child is placed in your arms, all squishy faced and swollen from his own little journey, it all makes perfect sense and everything in the world is right again. All the morning sickness, trips to bathroom for the umpteenth time during the night, the pain, the bed rest, the worry, the labor...it all seems trivial and small and in the end, worth every second. Love at first sight really does happen, just in a different way than I ever expected. I am grateful.