Obviously I have been slacking on the blogger front .... but I think that I will try now to catch up although my blogging will have a different focus than before! And the reason for that is my wonderful son who was born September 15th, 2011, at 1:16 PM. I will give a shortened version of the birth story for those interested :)I had been working at Casey Peterson & Associates since I returned from Nevada, filling in for the front desk receptionist since Josh & I decided it would be best for me to hold off on returning to school. I had been enrolled in graduate studies in Geological Engineering at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology. Anyway, working was going good, pregnancy wasn't too bad at this point, and I was only a little swollen and uncomfortable. I hadn't even packed my bag for the hospital or had the final consult with our doula even though the date was set. September 14th was nothing noteworthy at work although I did end up staying late and was planning to come in early the next day to help process tax returns for the September 15th corporation filing extended deadline. But alas, it wasn't to be.
I woke up around 5 AM on Sept. 15 to get a drink of water after feeling kind of a funny "pop" in my abdomen. Turns out my water had broken! I told Josh, who decided to lay down for a little bit longer as he had just gone to bed from working on his thesis. I didn't feel too bad right away, so I proceeded to eat breakfast, take a shower, and do my normal work preparations. I figured I would go to work until my dr's appt at 10 AM. I know, I'm a little crazy. We decided to call my doula first to see what she thought - she was concerned since it was 3 weeks early and said I should call my dr. We called the dr's office where the on-call dr was shocked we weren't already at Labor & Delivery. Hmm. Josh at this point had gotten back out of bed and the contractions had started to strengthen. We talked it over and decided to go to the hospital although we had planned to labor at home for some time. So we called our doula and told her to meet us at the hospital. We had to make a quick run over to the school to print off our birth plan prior to going to the hospital, and ended up checking in around 8:30 AM.
I wasn't in triage for long - just long enough to check that indeed, my water had broken and I was getting ready to have this baby! Our doula met us there and we got moved to a delivery room where we worked through the contractions walking, slow-dancing, and generally moving. However when it got close to transition I headed for the bed and didn't leave it! I can't remember when I started pushing or really even how long it took, maybe 1 - 2 hours? The funniest part was that my OB doc showed up and was heading out the door to get suited up when Wyatt came out - he ran over and caught him with his bare hands! I guess he came quick!
Wyatt was 6 lbs 1.8 oz at birth, 19 inches long. There was a little concern at the start about his breathing and jaundice, but the NICU nurses came to check him out and said he was just fine! We ended up staying two nights at the hospital before we were both discharged and sent home.
There are a lot more details to the story of course, but many I am not comfortable posting online for the whole world to see! So call me if you want to hear them or send me an email :) All in all, it was totally unexpected for Wyatt to show up early, but I ended up with the natural, med-free birth I had hoped for and recovered pretty well. 8 weeks out I am finally feeling well adjusted to being a stay at home mom with a wonderful newborn son!
The picture at the top is a photo of Wyatt Richard Brewer at 1 week of age in the "Boys Rule" onesie that was the first thing Josh picked up to dress him in. Here is another more recent photo of Wyatt from yesterday when I was getting ready to take him out for a walk in the stroller - didn't happen because the wind was too cold, but he sure looked cute!
