Mombie

I posted in a previous blog that my brain wasn't functioning quite right when I was pregnant. I was really looking forward to being able to think straight again, but as it turns out, your brain is still mush after you have kids. In fact, it may be more mush now than it was before. While I was pregnant I forgot things, I once left the key in the door of our apartment, and I once added an extra zero to my tithing (thankfully I realized it before we left church that day), but now I still forget things, can hardly get entire sentences out, and the other day I drove down the wrong side of the road... into oncoming traffic. Now, granted this was in a construction zone where I got confused, but still... yikes. I'm a total zombie, or mombie as it were. Thoughts of my little baby consume me, and plus there's that lack of sleep thing that is catching up with me. Some days I'm more alert than others, but I'm pretty tired a lot. I've also just started working again. Yes, it's from home, but it still requires my time and brain. I'm just glad I don't have to worry about going back to an 8-5 type job. I do it when I want, where I want, and how I want (mostly in sweats, obviously).

Seeing as how I'm still trying to figure out how to budget my time with a baby, this blog will probably not be super long, but I am going to try to wrap up my birth story in a short, hopefully ungross package. So here it is...

I went into the hospital on Wednesday, Dec. 16 to be induced because I was overdue. I was already dilated to a 2 when I got there. They gave me some kind of cervix ripening gel (that should be the grossest thing I mention here) to get things going. After that I dilated to a four and then from there, things really picked up, so of course I asked for my epidural. Once that was in, it was pretty smooth sailing for a while. My contractions were really picking up and by about 8pm I was dilated to an 8. Unfortunately, I got stuck there. So for about three hours, the contractions got closer and closer together until they were about less than a minute apart. The nurse even came in and talked to me about what would happen during the birth and all that jazz, so I thought we were going to get going pretty soon. But then when the doctor came to see if I was completely dilated he discovered I was still at an 8 and the baby was "sunny side up." I asked if I could move around to try to flip the baby, and he said that was ok, but that his recommendation was to do a c-section. When he said that, my heart dropped. My mom had 5 c-sections so I knew how painful they were and I didn't want anything to do with them. But after moving around, the baby still didn't flip, so the doctor said he would give Brett and I a minute to talk it over, but again, his recommendation was a c-section. After everyone left the room, I cried for a while and then asked Brett for a blessing. He gave me a blessing, we said a prayer and then we decided to go through with it. Yadda, yadda, yadda... Wesley was out at 11:54p.m.
He was only 20 inches long, but he was 9lbs. 1.7oz! The doctor said that because of his size (which they didn't know before) that I probably would have pushed forever and still ended up with a c-section. So there you go.

After that, we were in the hospital until Sunday night. It was a ROUGH few days for all involved. Brett couldn't sleep, I was in the most pain I've even been in, and Wesley had to have an IV put in and spend time in the NICU because they thought he had an infection because he was breathing really rapidly.

Here's poor, exhausted Brett trying to get some sleep.

My parents and sister came out and helped us pack up the apartment and take care of the baby. A week after he was born, we packed up the car, stopped at the doctor's office on our way out of town to get my staples out, and drove home. We stopped in LA Wednesday night, and then we were home on Christmas Eve. It was a whirlwind of events. Then Brett had to make that 10 hour drive again just a couple of days later to get the rest of our stuff. (We only brought home some stuff, he went back to clean up and finish moving us.) All-in-all, December was a stressful month for us.

Here's us at Brett's graduation (my due date - hence, I am huge in this picture)

Wesley on Christmas Day - 9 days old

We're in AZ now for the time being. One day we'll move again, but this time it will be a more permanent move. We both love little Wes and can't get enough of him. Being pregnant was one of my least favorite experiences, giving birth was the most painful thing I have been through, and motherhood is one of the scariest things I've ever done... but they are all the most rewarding. When I got home from the hospital and eventually checked out Facebook I saw that Brett had updated his status to say something like, "Tired. Hungry. Poor. Never happier in my whole life," it made me cry. We're both so happy with our new little addition.