Paul's Arrival!

I have failed to update my blog this past week, but for very good reason! Paul Alan Dancer was born last Wednesday, January 13th at 9:04am. What a wonderful week it has been with our sweet new son at home.

Here's the somewhat shortened scoop on what went down last Tuesday night and Wednesday morning....

Last Tuesday afternoon I had a doctor's appointment, I was 40 weeks and 3 days preggo. At every visit my doctor measures my belly (she's measuring the height of the uterus and it should correspond with how many weeks along you are). I should have measured close to 40, but I measured 36. She was concerned that maybe the amniotic fluid level had gone down so she did an ultrasound right then. Sure enough, she could barely find any amniotic fluid. Paul was moving and kicking and his heart was beating well so he wasn't in any distress. She said we needed to get the baby out soon to prevent a cord accident (when the baby's own body compresses the umbilical cord), so I needed to go to the hospital that night to be induced. I was scared, distraught, I couldn't believe what was happening! She was so kind as I cried right there in the office and we discussed what the plan would be. She was very open to trying some natural ways at starting labor without the use of Pitocin due to me having a c-section scar.

So, home I went, crying the whole way, made some tearful phone calls and tried to get myself together... we were having a baby one or another and I was in shock! Once home we hurried around getting Josiah off to a friend's house to stay, I scarfed down some food... cause they never let you eat once you get to the hospital, and off we went. By that time I was already feeling some contractions due to a 'sweeping' (I won't go into detail of what that is, LOL!) my doctor had done at the office before I left.

Here I am in the labor and delivery room. My last preggo picture!

I got hooked up to the monitors, and lo and behold I was having regular contractions every 5 minutes, wooo hoo! Unfortunately, I couldn't go walking or anything, I had to be on continuous fetal monitoring to make sure baby Paul was doing ok. Once my doctor got there she did another 'sweeping' and we started doing a natural form of Pitocin induction... I had to do 2 minutes of nipple stimulation (yes, you read that right, nipple stimulation causes the release of your body's own pitocin into your bloodstream. who needs modern medicines when you can make your own. ha ha!!) every hour 4 times an hour. My body responded beautifully to it and I began have regular contractions that were getting stronger and closer together.

My doula showed up about 10:30pm and that's when the contractions started getting strong. She was wonderful at helping me get into positions, doing back massage, and helping me to relax through the contractions. I am so glad she was there! I was really wanting to try to go without any pain meds or epidural, but at 3am I cried for the anesthesiologist to hurry and get there, I wanted that needle in my back ASAP! When my doctor checked me a 3am I was only 5cm dilated and 90% effaced.... and my contractions were coming hard and fast and I was exhausted beyond words. I could no longer handle them or relax through them. I was done. Once I got the epidural I felt much better. We were all able to rest a little. Even though I had the epidural, I could still move my legs around and change positions in the bed, and I could still feel when I was having a contraction, I just couldn't feel the intense pain anymore.

Around 7:30am I felt a weird sensation and asked the nurse to come check me. Sure enough I was fully dilated and his head was coming down!! I started pushing at 7:30 and he was born at 9:04am! They put him on my belly right away and he was just perfect! Tears of joy were overflowing. It was a wonderful experience.

This picture was taken shortly after he was born.

Sooo handsome! And he looks a bit like his brother, except he has brown hair and is 2 lbs lighter.

He also had a smashed nose. Pretty stinkin' cute if I say so myself! After a week, his nose is finally straightening out.

Sleeping on daddy. Sleeping is something this boy likes to do. Mommy and Daddy are SOOOO thankful that he likes to sleep.

3 tired boys

Our first photo of the 4 of us, the night we came home from the hospital.

Justin doing his cute baby talking.

Josiah thinks it's cool to suck on pacifiers now. Silly boy

He's so sweet.

Brothers together picture! Paul is madder than mad and Josiah is just confused.

My mom arrived the day after he was born and she has been an enormous help. She has cooked, cleaned, done laundry, entertained Josiah, and gone above and beyond helping me out. What am I going to do when she leaves? Moms are the best, especially my mom. She's Super-Woman. :)

I have this neat thing called a Moby Wrap. I tie it up on me and put the baby in and he is snug as can be and I can have 2 free hands. I used it a lot when Josiah was a baby because he never wanted to be put down, so I would strap him in and go about my day doing laundry, housework, and usually carried him in it at the grocery store too. Paul will probably get to spend a lot of time in there too!

Sleeping, sleeping and more sleeping.

Josiah loves his brother already and has been very sweet to him... hugging and kissing him. Here, Josiah thinks Paul is so funny because he has the hiccups.

Paul hated his first bath, he screamed and turned bright red all over!

Look at Josiah's face! Priceless!

Thank you for your prayers. In the midst of the chaos of the beginning of labor, God continually gave me peace. He allowed Paul to be born perfect and healthy and for that we are so thankful and grateful. I can hardly believe I'm the mom of 2 boys now! What fun the future holds for us!!

(It took me like 3 days to finish this blog post!! Yikes!)