We found out I was pregnant with our third baby the same way we found out with the first two. I peed on the stick and then Brian and I sat on our bed together as we watched two blue lines appear! We were surprised because it was the first cycle we had tried to get pregnant, and our other two babies took longer to conceive. When I entered the dates into my fertility app, it said the due date for this baby would be Christmas Day!
We hoped the baby would come early like our first two babies so we could enjoy Christmas at home with a snuggly newborn. Beginning two weeks before the due date, I kept expecting to go into labor. Every little pain got me thinking labor was imminent. We even went into the hospital with a false alarm because I thought my water had broken. Embarrassingly, it was just a bladder leak, haha. On December 22, I rode side saddle on a horse, dressed as Mary the mother of Jesus. I started doing labor-inducing yoga and going on long walks. But nothing was happening. Finally, as Christmas Eve arrived, I figured it would be best if this baby came late.
On Christmas Eve, we enjoyed an evening with family, came home and put the girls to bed, and quickly set out all the Christmas gifts. We had been prepared for Christmas for a couple of weeks already since we knew a baby would be coming at any time, so thankfully there were no intricate doll houses to construct until the wee hours of the morning.
As we climbed into bed at 10 p.m., I was thinking, "Okay Baby, just hold off for another 12 hours, and then you can come whenever you want."
At about 1 a.m., I got up for my first (or was it the second?) nightly trip to the bathroom. I came back to bed and sat on the edge of the bed, preparing to swing my legs over and heave my pregnant body back under the covers. And then there was a gush of warm fluid. My water was definitely broken. It kept coming and coming. I was quickly soaking the bed.
"Brian," I said, and rubbed his shoulder to wake him. "My water is breaking...Can you grab me a towel?"
"No way!" he said. (About my water breaking. He did kindly retrieve a towel.)
We couldn't believe this boy was actually going to come on Christmas Day!
I wasn't having any contractions yet, but we got up and started getting ready to go to the hospital. We called my parents so one of them could come over and stay the night with Brooklyn and Lucy, and be there for them when they woke up on Christmas morning. For a few minutes we thought about waking the girls up so we could watch them open some presents, or maybe waiting to go to the hospital until they woke up, but then my contractions started coming on strong. It was time to go to the hospital.
We arrived at the hospital at about 2 a.m. and my contractions were about 6 minutes apart. When the nurse checked me I was already dilated to a 5. This baby was coming quick. I told them I wanted an epidural and they said they would call the anesthesiologist and my midwife to let them know I was getting close.
By the time the anesthesiologist came, I was dilated to an 8. That was the furthest I had gone in labor without an epidural. It got to the point where I was actually moaning during the contractions. The anesthesiologist worked quickly and I had relief in about 10 minutes from the time he started. Whew!
The epidural slowed things down a bit so we were able to rest. Then at about 5 a.m., the nurse checked me again and I was fully dilated. Time to push!
I told the midwife that I wanted to see my placenta when it came out since I'd never seen mine before with my other two babies. Understanding that I obviously wasn't queasy about that kind of thing, the nurse also offered to set up a mirror for me so I could watch the baby be born. I said yes! (I got to do that with Brooklyn also.)
Brian was a great cheerleader as I pushed for about ten or fifteen minutes. It was amazing to watch my baby be born! After his head was born, I was able to hold his body and pull the rest of him out (I got to do that with Lucy too), and then they placed him on my chest. What a beautiful miracle baby! Seriously, how can you describe that moment of seeing your baby for the first time? Love at first sight for sure. With most romantic relationships, it takes time to fall in love with someone. But love for a baby comes instantly!
When my placenta came out a few minutes later, the midwife showed it to me. She said it was one of the biggest placentas she's ever seen! (She's done about 4,000 deliveries.) She showed me that it had two sides or lobes to it, so the baby may have had a vanishing twin! The cord came out from the middle of the two lobes and was very thick (just ask Brian--he cut it!). The midwife said our baby was very well-nourished! She pulled up on the cord and said it was like the tree of life, with the veins going into the placenta like roots of the tree. The nurse gave me a glove so I could touch and feel the placenta. (Sorry if this is TMI, but it was really cool!)
The nurses took the baby to do the initial test to make sure he was breathing properly and all that, and they found that his oxygen levels were low. They brought in the respiratory therapist who started working on him. My midwife said she had heard him take a big gulp of fluid just as he came out, so that may be why he was having trouble clearing his lungs. After a few minutes of working with him in the room, the nurses said they would take him to the nursery to get him connected to an oxygen cannula (tubes in the nose) in order to get him to breathe better on his own. They didn't seem too concerned, so I didn't feel too worried about it. I felt that he would come around and start breathing better. A doctor came in and told us that if he didn't start breathing better on his own in two hours, they would have to transfer him to the NICU in Boise. After about an hour, Brian and I said a prayer that the baby would improve and not need to be transferred. As we were praying, the doctor came in and said that the baby's vitals were improving and she thought he would not need to be transferred.
After another couple of hours, he was doing great breathing on his own and they brought him to the recovery room to be with us. Finally Brian got to hold him and we got to really look at him! I thought he looked so boy-ish, different than the girls who looked so alike from the start. And he was so big! He weighed 8lb 11oz and was 21 inches long. The girls were both about 7 lbs and 19/20 inches. I felt vindicated because I kept saying he felt big when he was in the womb!
We spent our Christmas Day snuggling the baby. Even though I had said all along I hope we wouldn't have the baby on Christmas, it was actually super cool. I definitely felt a special connection with Mary, Jesus's mother, as I prepared for this baby to come. (My good friend even gave me a book about Mary and Joseph, which I read in the days just before his birth, called "Two From Galilee", which was fabulous!) Obviously we'll have to figure out a way to make his birthday special and distinct from Christmas, but thankfully he won't care too much for the first couple of years! Our favorite idea right now is to give him his own little Christmas tree to put birthday gifts under, and decorate it with photo ornaments of him each year.
We were the only people in the maternity ward during our entire stay. We finally decided to name the baby Oliver (the runners-up were Landon and Logan). I love having our names be similar. I used to joke about naming a son after myself, and now it's a reality! Oliver's middle name is Edward, which is the same as Brian, Brian's dad, and Brian's great-grandfather.
We FaceTimed Brooklyn and Lucy, who had enjoyed a wonderful Christmas with Grammy, Pompa, and their cousins. They didn't seem to have missed us at all! They were excited about their baby brother, but I think what Santa brought was still more exciting, haha.
We love our sweet Christmas boy. His birth will always be one of my most precious memories!
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