It’s been 12 days

He is here!  Sullivan Wade, born September 23, weighing in at 5 pounds 9 ounces and 18 inches long.  He’s a tiny little peanut, and we love him so much.

I’ve got to get the whole story if Sullivan’s birth written down before it fades from memory.  I love that I have a pretty detailed account of both Logan and Camryn’s birth on here, and even though things are totally crazy right now, I know if I don’t get this written down, I’ll regret it.

Sullivan’s birth story really starts on September 20th.  I officially reached 37 weeks that day, and I had an ultrasound appointment with the maternal and fetal specialist.  Three weeks prior, Dr. G noticed on the ultrasound that some of Sullivan’s measurements were falling behind, and she wanted to take another look and see what was going on.  Sullivan was looking great on the ultrasound, but he was measuring small–even smaller than before.  His belly was measuring about 4 weeks behind, and the rest of his measurements were falling off of the growth curve he’d been on since 16 weeks.  He had dropped from the 40th percentile to the 15th.  There was talk of inducing right then, but thankfully everything else looked great on the ultrasound.  Derek was out of town that week, and while I’m sure he would have gotten on the first flight home, I really didn’t want to go into this without him.  After a phone call to my regular doctor, it was decided that it would be best to induce since Sullinvan wasn’t growing inside the way he should have been.  My induction was scheduled for bright and early Sunday morning, September 23.

The next two days were a blur of phone calls, last minute prep, excitement, and tears.  My mom and Derek’s parents drove down on Saturday to be here for the big event.  Saturday night I was pretty much a wreck.  I was nervous about the induction.  My induction with Connor was not a great experience, while my deliveries with the middle two were great and happened on their own.  I was anxious about Sullivan’s health.  Why is he so small?  Is he sick?  I was terrified about the way our family dynamic was going to change.  What if this isn’t a change for the better?  How will the other kids handle a new brother?  I shed a lot of tears and prayed a lot of prayers on Saturday night.  Remarkably, I actually slept fairly well until my alarm went off at 3:45.  I called the hospital to make sure there was a bed for me, partly hoping that it would be full and we could just put this off a little bit.  Nope, it was an incredibly slow night and there was plenty of space.  By 5:30 a..m, Derek and I were all set up in L&D room 3.

At 6:30, they started the pitocin.  The nurse made a comment that she thought we’d have a baby by lunch.  Big fat chance, I thought.  At that point I was 1 cm and 50% effaced.

At 7:30, Dr. K came in and flooded my bed broke my water.  During the pregnancy, I had been diagnosed with polyhydramnios which is a fancy way of saying I had a ton of amniotic fluid.  It’s one of those great medical things that can mean something or nothing.  Thankfully, it seems like it meant nothing in my case except a big mess when my water broke.  It was a this point that it really sunk in that we were having a baby.  Once the water breaks, there’s no turning back.

At 9:00, I got my epidural.  Oh, the sweet relief of the epidural!  I think every labor I go into it thinking I might just go all natural.  And then when those contractions come I realize that is crazy and there is no reason to suffer!   I was about 3-4 cm at this point.  And I felt like sort of a wimp for getting the epi so soon.  I think with my other labors I made it to 5 or 6 before the drugs.

At 10:30. I was 5 cm.  Halfway there!  By this point, my mom and Derek’s parents had arrived at the hospital.  Dr. K and the nurses still predicted he would arrive by lunch time, and I still wasn’t convinced.

At 11:00, Kathy (my sis-in-law) texted that she was on her way and not to push until she got there.  I told her she had plenty of time and I was sure she would make it.  In my mind, we still had hours to go.

At 11:05, they checked me again and I was at 7 cm.

At 11:25, Kathy arrived.  About this time, I started to have some serious pain on my right side.  It had been hurting a little bit the whole time–I think it was a spot where the epidural didn’t work.  It went from a little achy and uncomfortable to searing pain where I had to close my eyes and breath through the contractions.  My nurse said she would check me and I would either start pushing, or they would call anesthesia to get more drugs.   I was almost complete, so close that she thought I could just go for it.  Dr. K walked in, and the next few minutes were a complete and total blur.  I remember thinking to myself that I needed to embrace this moment.  This is it. The last time I will ever give birth, the last time I will ever experience that miraculous moment when you meet your child for the first time.

The pain was so intense.  So intense. I’d never felt the pain in any of my other births.

(Kudos to women who go without the drugs!  Y’all a crazy!)]

The contraction started, I pushed.  Take a breath.  Push again.  Take a breath, slow it down, little push, and there he was, all scrawny and chicken-legged, but perfect and beautiful, out in one contraction and three pushes.  My first thought was he was so tiny.  I’m pretty sure I cried.  He was screaming so loud, and had a full head of dark hair.  I couldn’t believe that he was here.

My nurse and doctor were right.  He arrived by lunch time, at 11:41 a.m.

It was an amazing day.

I need to blog about the kids getting to meet him, and just about life in general now.  But this post has already taken me two days to write, and I only have a little more time until the feed-the-baby routine starts again, then kids will be home, and on and on it goes.  Things are crazy busy.  And some moments are really hard.  But overall, I just feel overwhelmed with gratitude that God has blessed us with another son.  So I’ll end with a few pictures.

This one cracks me up, and it’s the boys’ fave because it looks like Sullivan is rocking out a little air guitar.

I love his little forehead wrinkles so much.

So much hair!

What sign is he throwing here?

Scrawny little chicken leg and loose knee skin.

sweet, sweet boy.  We love you so much!

3 Replies to “It’s been 12 days”

  1. Congratulations Thurmans!!! He is adorable. Megan at first I thought oh my goodness he looks just like Logan…but then in the pics with his eyes open I definitely see a lot of Connor too:) Sweet pictures. So happy for you.

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