My Best and Most Painful Birthday Present Ever

 

My best and most painful birthday present ever... That's what Henry told everyone at church that he was.  :)  If you don't already know it, Henry and I share the same birthday.  Today!  I like to say that I'm still 25 since I gave my birthday to him on my 25th birthday.  He was suppose to arrive by August 26th and I just new he would be here at least by August 31.  Or sometime after September 1st.  But nope, he chose to come on September 1st. It really is pretty special sharing a birthday with someone you love so much though. 

Henry decided to follow in Nelson's footsteps and break his water after we'd finished watching the Rangers game in overtime and went to bed.  I didn't have any contractions to start with this time but since my water broke, we woke up my parents (who were staying with us) so they'd know to keep an eye on Nelson and went on to the hospital.  My mom came up later after things got going good. 

It took a long time, about 19 hours, and was a little bit eventful....  When I finally got my epidural it went up instead of down. You know, like it made my chest and my neck numb but everything from my diaphram down was feeling it all. Wierdest. Feeling. Ever. I thought I couldn't breath. The guy wanted to try to redo it but I wouldn't let him. If you can't get it right the first time, sorry, that's it. No second chances putting a needle in my spine.  The one time that James slipped out to get a bite to eat and some coffee my heart rate went through the roof.  So high they paged a cardiologist and when James came back they had a team of people checking me out and had me hooked up to all kinds of things.  They threatened me with a c-section if things didn't calm down but they did.  They continued to monitor me though just in case.  Then Henry's heart rate kept going dangerously low.  We changed positions multiple times and as a last reslut (again with the c-section threats) they put a catheter in my uterus and turned on fluids.  It worked so that told us the was compressing his cord... putting fluid in helped him get off of it.  Thankfully I jumped to a 10 shortly after and was able to push.  The nurses didn't think the pushing would go so fast but it did.  After one push they demanded that I resist all urges to push until the doctor made it in.  It seemed like an eternity and once she made it in, 2 more tiny pushes and Henry was born!  He was discolored... kind of a grey color... and didn't breath on his own so I only saw him for a split second.  I wasn't even sure what was the matter because they didn't tell me anything but I saw on my mom's face that things weren't quite right.  I learned later he had to be suctioned really good and coaxed into taking his first breath.  Thankfully it was nothing more.  He was passed off to me and I couldn't believe it when I saw him!  He was beautiful.  But he did not look anything like I expected!  He was so different than Nelson.  He had a the smallest amount of blonde fuzz on his head, he was so thin, and just tiny!  If I hadn't been there I wouldn't have believed he was mine. James was the only one of us to mark him! 

Henry was such a sweet baby and I couldn't wait to show him to his big brother!  Nelson was so excited to have him home too.  Until the crying started... LOL!  He was definitely higher maintenance and it took a while for us to get use to him and him to us.  After about 3 months of being fussy, not gaining weight fast enough, and testing my breastmilk, we learned the poor boy was just hungry... combine the high metabolism he inherited from James with the low quality milk he was getting from me and the poor kid was starving!  A bottle of formula a day changed the world! :) 

So.... today is my best and most painful birthday presents 8th birthday!  Happy Birthday Henry!!