Along Came Shortcake: A Birth Story

Sweet, fresh baby

I love to read and hear other people's birth stories. And as a mother, I love to tell the story of how each of my children was born.

Such a sad little guy

This time around, I was hoping for another quick labor like I had with Cream. In fact, I was a little afraid of it going too fast. You always hear stories of each subsequent birth going faster than the one before. In actuality, Shortcake's birth more resembled Peachy's especially in the beginning.
I had an OB appointment Tuesday morning, and while we scheduled my next appointment for the following week, my doctor was thinking I would go within a few days. And sure enough, I got home and started to have contractions. I was going around the house getting last minute things done and decided I had better call the hubby to come home. I also called my mom to tell her to be on stand by for the four hour drive to watch the girls and texted some friends to see who would be able to take them in the mean time. Of course when I sat down to take a little rest, the contractions stopped.

I love this one. It is like he is asking us if all of this is really neccesary

My husband decided to stay home just in case and that evening we told my mom she may as well come since it had to be soon. Well, the contractions stopped and started Tuesday night into Wednesday and Thursday. So much for soon. I did a lot of walking over the next few days. I walked at Target, at the hospital (they sent me back home), and around the inside of our house.
We made our way back to the hospital on Thursday around 6:30 pm, after walking for about an hour and taking a bath. This time we got to stay! After being checked in triage, we were put in a labor room and checked in before shift change at 7. (Record time considering the last time, they were still checking us in when Cream was born.)

Obligatory scale picture

I opted for an epidural again and they had the anesthetist there in record time as well. She was good and gave me an excellent epidural. Then we were able to nap/rest until it was go time. The nurse had just checked me and I was at about a 4 when I felt my water break. (New territory for me since it was broken with both the girls.) It wasn't all that much later that I decided I was starting to feel the need to push. Sure enough, I was now an 8 or 9!

Snuggled in with momma

The nurse called the OB on call and by the time he checked, the baby was ready to come. It was fun watching them scramble to get the room ready for a delivery. Once everything was in place, I was told to push and in just a few short minutes, the baby was born! The doctor let my hubby announce that we had a boy! A boy with lots of dark hair! The nurse who was with us was awesome and was excited to see him born before she was off at 11.

With the proud papa

The assembled team had to leave relatively quickly after checking Shortcake out to tend to another birth. (The hospital was hopping that night. I didn't realize it when we went in, but it was a full moon.) It was nice to have bonding time with just the three of us. Shortcake was enjoying his skin on skin time with me and I decided it would be a good time to breast feed. He latched right on and went to town. (Such an amazing miracle!)

Alert!

When they came in to weigh him, I was thinking he might have been 9 pounds. The girls were both over 8 and he looked a bit chunkier than either of them. He was close, but ended up weighing in at 8 pounds 14 ounces. (And thanks to his two sisters who came before him, I didn't even tear this time.)

Love those first few alert moments before the sleepiness sets in

I ended up spending the night in the labor room as they didn't have a postpartum room available for me. The next morning I was actually moved to a different floor of the hospital in an overflow women's wing. The great thing was that this wing had recently been remolded and the rooms was really nice, that and the floor was much quieter than the labor and delivery unit.

Snuggled in at home with mom and dad

The rest of our stay was uneventful. (The perfect kind of hospital stay.) I think since we had been through this all two other times, they let us lay pretty low. We had Shortcake circumcised (more uncharted territory for me) Friday morning. We also had him baptized in the hospital. (Just something that we choose to do with our children.) We did have to stay a full 48 hours since I was Strep B positive and I didn't get the full two doses of antibiotics before Shortcake's birth. So, we weren't home until 10:30 on Saturday night, but other than that it was such a smooth labor, delivery, and recovery experience.

Love how punk his hair looks here

And in the end, it really doesn't matter how long you labor, when you are finally holding your new little blessing. Every time I am completely humbled by the miracle the Lord has granted our family.
You can read Peachy's birth story here and Cream's birth story here and here.