When I was 12 weeks pregnant, my Dr told me she would induce me. Sold. I had never been induced before, and the thought of being able to blow dry my hair (vain, I know), and not go into labor in the middle of the night like I had with my first two, thrilled me. We planned for Friday, February 4, 2011 (my due date) to be the day of birth for our little bundle. Dave's director at his residency program would only give Dave the day I delivered, and the next day off. I preferred to have Dave be at home with me and not at the hospital (meals delivered, awesome nurses, a towel warmer in the bathroom...I wish I could have stayed longer!) but his director wouldn't budge. We chose Friday so I would come home from the hospital on Sunday, and Dave would have Monday off and return on Tuesday.
At 38 weeks my Dr asked me to call her to remind her to schedule my induction. I was told I would receive a confirmation phone call. No call. I called the next day to remind again. No call back. I called the next day. I'm sure they were so annoyed with me. Finally after 4 days they called me back and told me my induction was scheduled for Thursday night. I kinda threw a fit. I thought the only reason I was being induced on Thursday night was because the office had forgotten to call and schedule my induction (I did have to call and remind them, a lot) and Friday morning was full so they scheduled Thursday night instead. My inlaws had already booked their flights and were scheduled to come in on Thursday night. Looking back it wasn't that big of a deal, but at the time I wasn't in the emotional state to be messed with. I was told Friday morning, I was planning on Friday morning, and I didn't like that I would have to rearrange all my plans. Pregnancy hormones...gotta love them. Anyhow the poor receptionist puts me on hold and all of a sudden my Dr is on the phone. My Dr explained it was hospital protocol for the patient to come in the night before the scheduled induction date so they can start with a cervical softener and have the patient sleep with that all night and have the baby hopefully in the morning. Oh. I felt dumb. Oh well.
So on Thursday, February 3, I went to the gym to spin (my ankles were killing me and that really helped them feel better. That and my awesome compression tights), showered, Mandy and Colby come over and brought things to keep us entertained at the hospital, and cleaned my house. I packed up Audrey and Joshua (as I was buckling Joshua in, my neighbor came out and asked when I was going to have the baby. "Now," I said. She was shocked and asked if I was in labor and I should have said yes but I didn't), picked up Dave from school at 5, we headed to the airport to pick up my inlaws, went to dinner, and then they dropped us off at the hospital at 8:00. Clockwork.
On the way to the airport I turned around and my sweet kids were holding hands. When Joshua saw me pull out my camera he tried to pull away. I love these two.
Loved this parking space at the hospital.
In the parking lot we said a family prayer, and that is when I started to cry. I was so sad saying goodbye to my two little babies, knowing their little lives were about to change so much.
Walking into the hospital, with an ugly cry face. Notice the snow on the car next to us. More details on that later.
In the delivery room, all checked in.
The next day...
Friday February 4th was a snowy day. My in-laws and kids woke up to this in our backyard, six inches of snow. School was cancelled again! Five days within a two week time frame! They had lots of fun playing in the snow while Dave and I were at the hospital.
11:30 am: Dilated to a 4. Broke my water
1:30 pm: Started epidural. Halla-freakin-lujauh. Dilated to a 5.
3:30 pm: Dilated to 7 cm. The baby's heart rate was dropping dramatically during contractions so they had to do an amniotic infusion and put me on oxygen.
Talking to my sister, Melissa, on the phone.
The Doctor lived about 40 min away and couldn't get to the hospital due to the weather. We had to slow down the pitocin, finally just turn it off, and lay me flat to stop me from having the baby before she could get there. I didn't care who delivered my baby, but for some reason they were making me try to wait until my Dr could get there. Finally she arrived at about 6 pm, and it was time to get the party started! Dave had turned the radio on in the room and I remember Billy Joel's "Piano Man" playing while I was pushed. Random.
Falling in love with our second son. This was my first time holding him.
Just like our first two, baby #3 was born with the cord wrapped twice around his neck and was having a hard time breathing. The NICU team came down to do some suctioning and work with him and finally he got the hang of breathing. After things calmed down a little bit, Dave went right to work trying to find a name for our new little man. We checked into the hospital at 8:00 pm on Thursday night and had Austin at 6:33 pm on Friday. We had almost 24 hours to come up with a name in the hospital, but I had a hard time concentrating or committing to anything. Why talk about boy names in case it was a girl? Or vice versa? The nurses would bring in print outs of the most popular names, and Dave had an app for baby names. Once we knew it was a boy I was ready to discuss names. Still didn't decide on anything.
Going upstairs to postpartum.
Dave and I had promised Audrey she would be the first to know if the baby was a boy or a girl. We didn't want to tell her on the phone either. I am huge into seeing people's reactions to things. With the weather being so bad, all the freeways were very icy and lots of accidents were happening. I delivered about 35 miles from where we live, and since it was already dark, and the temperatures were dropping, no one felt safe having our family drive in to see us. Texas isn't good at handling snow and ice storms and the roads were a mess. At about 4:00 pm, when it was started to get even colder, Dave and I had talked about what we would do if I didn't deliver soon and if Audrey couldn't come to the hospital that night. Dave said, "We aren't going to be those lame people who wait and don't tell anyone what the gender of the baby is." Well, that is exactly what we ended up doing. We felt so badly talking to our families and just saying, "The baby is here and safe! We will have to tell you tomorrow what the gender is!", but a promise is a promise. Our nurse kept saying, "That's right. You keep your word to your girl. And someday when she is 16 and tries to lie to you then you can remind her of when you kept your promise to her."
We had to refer to Austin as "The Baby" when we talked to people. It was really hard.
Doing a thorough examination.
He passes.
Audrey was ready to take a look.
The baby had to go to the nursery for a check and Audrey and Joshua loved taking the baby for a walk.
By the time we got back Audrey had decided she wanted to hold the baby. After a few seconds she whispered to me, "Mom, I'm glad it's a boy." I'm so glad that she was glad. When I was pregnant people asked me all the time what I wanted to the baby to be. If I wanted a girl, or if I wanted a boy, then I would have found out the gender so I could prepare myself and be excited at the delivery. I honestly didn't care one bit whether the baby was a boy or a girl. When people would ask Audrey what she wanted, she even said, "I don't care! I will love a boy or a girl". I'm just glad Audrey was happy with her baby brother.
My three little ones.
I made Audrey this "Big Big Sister" necklace. She loved wearing it.
Bruce and Marianne. It was Bruce's birthday that day. Happy Birthday! You get a new grandson!
Joshua letting someone else have a turn with Austin and was taking his turn with "Dad's computer" while laying on the couch.
Bruce and Marianne were so sweet and brought both boy and girl signs.
We were trying to decide on a name for the baby, and Audrey loved playing "teacher" and writing down everyone's suggestions. Some suggestions were Elias, Austin, Carson, Anderson, Sawyer, Audrey came up with Alix and Henry all by herself, and Roenick.
I knew in my mind that I wanted to name him Austin. I loved that name when we were naming and then renaming Joshua, but Dave didn't want to have our two kids both having names that started with "A". He didn't want to have to stick to any sort of theme. The night Austin was born, I was feeding him in the middle of the night, and everything was dark and quiet, and I remembered the name. We hadn't even considered it for this baby. I instantly fell in love with the name for this sweet boy and knew that's what I wanted to name him. In the morning I ran it by Dave and he loved it too. We both knew we wanted that to be his name, but Audrey was so excited to ask everyone what name they liked and write it down so we went along with it. After all the suggestions were given, everyone voted and Austin won! Thank goodness. Although Audrey didn't want Austin at first. She wanted Elias. It wasn't until they were leaving to go get some lunch and Audrey said, "Bye Austin. I love it. It just felt right to call him Austin." And then she wrote Austin a little note on the sign.
Mandy and Colby braved the weather in their awesome 4-wheel drive and brought Berkley to meet Austin. These little babes are 10 days apart and they are the best of friends already.
Mandy and Colby braved the weather in their awesome 4-wheel drive and brought Berkley to meet Austin. These little babes are 10 days apart and they are the best of friends already.
Joshua and Seth, also 10 days apart.
Bruce and Marianne took the kids to lunch and then brought them back for more snuggle time.
I have no idea what's going on here, but I love the look on Joshua's face.
Lovin on Baby Austin. His name is official!
Sunday, Feb 6
Bruce and Marianne brought the kids back Sunday morning. I couldn't leave the hospital until Sunday night and I missed Audrey and Joshua, and everyone wanted to see Austin again, so it worked out perfectly!
It was on Sunday that we announced Austin's middle name. We had to vote again on middle names (teacher Audrey), although Dave and I had already decided what we wanted it to be. I knew from the minute I found out I was pregnant that if the baby was a boy I wanted his middle name to be Andrew. My brother Andrew is just about the neatest guy ever (and he married such an incredible girl). I think the world of him. He has 5 sisters and never had a brother (until the brother in laws came). Dave has 3 sisters and no brothers (until our brother in law came). I love that Joshua and Austin have a brother and hopefully will share a brotherly bond and be best friends. I wanted my son to carry on the name of my fabulous brother. I called Andrew on Saturday night to make sure it was okay with him and he was really sweet and said he would be honored. So Austin Andrew it is.
At one point Austin was crying and Audrey held his hand and he stopped crying. Audrey and Joshua were convinced that every time Austin made any sort of peep that all he wanted was to hold their hands. Even after we brought Austin home, if he cried Joshua would run over and try to hold his hand and was so confused why that didn't solve the crying issues every time. I wish it was that simple.
Joshua's blue pinky nail. Nice.
The kids left and I took a nap and Dave did homework. When it was finally time to discharge, we packed Austin in the car seat for the obligatory car seat picture, and then took him out because they let me carry him to the car (in a wheelchair).
He wore the same coming home outfit as Joshua. Dave calls it "hand me downs". I call it heirlooms.
We had to wait forever for the transport people to help us to our car (they wouldn't let us leave without them), but Dave got some snuggle time while watching the Super Bowl.
Finally time to leave!
Also keeping with tradition, baby Austin brought his new big siblings gifts. Both were thrilled.
As always the first night home from the hospital was the hardest. Out little man had his days and nights mixed up, but that was solved pretty quickly. He is a sweet boy and is such an angel baby.
And that's the end.
