Introducing Matthew!

Matthew Joseph was born January 28th, 2010 at 12:28 pm. He was 9 lb. 2 oz. and 20.5 inches long...

Yeah you read that right 9 lbs! That's a whole 2 pounds heavier than his sisters! And you wonder why I was so unbelievably HUGE! Wanna see proof? Okay... I only ever do one bare belly shot with each pregnancy. Here are my three shots from my three kids.

Me the day before labor with Lilia. I had gained 50 pounds throughout the whole pregnancy. I gained that weight EVERYWHERE. Not just in the belly.

A few years later, here is me the day before labor with Lacey. I gained a grand total of 27 lbs. Yet the belly was darn close to the same size...

And this was me the morning of Matthew Birth. I have gained a grand total of 43 pounds. ALL in the belly!

I WAS HUGE! And NO WONDER I was so miserable! Not at all surprised that he was two pounds heavier than his sisters, huh?

So- on to the story. As you can tell from my last post, I was pretty worked up and angry on the 27th. I wanted Matthew here. And I was tired of being pregnant. And I was miserable. Well- I stayed up late that night (even knowing I MAY be induced the next morning) because to be quite honest, at that point, I wasn't sleeping well at night anymore. I was lucky to sleep in one hour stretches. I figured, "what's the point of going to sleep- I hurt more when I sleep..."

I finally conceded and went to bed at 12:30 that morning. Two hours later I woke up with a contraction. Then another. And another. I got up, used the bathroom, got a glass of water, drank it, and sat on the couch waiting to see what happened next. I started tracking my contractions and found that I was having fairly easy contractions (nothing too hard or difficult to breathe through) every 2-7 minutes. They were spastic in a sense of not really being regularly spaced, nor were they getting closer together. After timing them for an hour and a half and talking it over with my friend (who is totally amazing and let me wake her up with my concerns), I decided (at her suggestion) to call the on call doctor and see what she wanted me to do.

When the doctor called me back, I told her all the info above and she asked, "How far along are you?" I said, "41 weeks" she said, "OH!" I then went on to explain my fears about not being on an antibiotic long enough cause of the Group B Strep, and that I was scheduled to be induced later that morning though probably wouldn't get in because I was 5th in line, etc. And that blessed woman, do you know what she said? "It sounds like it's either false labor, or pre-labor, but since your doctor has you scheduled for induction today, AND because you are over your due date, come on in. I won't send you home- congratulations on bumping yourself up the line!"

And so I called my friend back, who graciously agreed to come sleep on my couch until my mother in law could get here (she lives an hour away). I then called my MIL and told her to come on down, and of course called my mom just to keep her in the loop... I went and woke Joe up at 4:30 and when I told him I was in labor, his exact word(s) were, "BAH!... Do I have time to take a shower?" Hehehe... I love him! All in all, we were on our way to the hospital at around 5:15 am. By 6 I was at the hospital. The whole time, Joe kept saying, "You sure aren't acting like you are in labor. You're too calm!" (I was remarkably calm- or relieved... whatever you want to call it...)

They started me on a very low pitocin drip at 6:15 or so just to kick the labor up a notch, and at 8 my doctor (who was now at work) came over and broke my water. It was all downhill from there. This time around, when I opted for the epidural, I happened to mention that it makes me sick and the nurse gave me a little baggie (via IV) of anti nausea medication... LOVE HER! That made all the difference, and I was feeling good! I kept telling the nurses that he would be born before 12:30 because that's when Lil goes to school and I REALLY wanted to be able to tell her before she left. The nurses were skeptical, but I was pretty insistent. :)

Around 11:45 or so I was dilated to 9 (10 = time to push, for those who don't know) and was NOT progressing. At 12:10 the nurse came in, checked, sighed and then said, "Hmmm... you are at like a 9++ but it's not QUITE a ten- there is still a bit of cervix that's too thick. Tell ya what, give me a tiny tiny push and lets see if that does the trick." Sure enough, I pushed a tiny bit and viola! I was at a 10! She called my doc, who came back across the parking lot to the hospital. Matthew was born quick, (as were both my girls) though not as quick as Lacey. It took around 5 minutes of pushing to get his shoulder unstuck and out, but he DID get here eventually, and though I did have minimal tearing, I would say it wasn't so bad when you consider both his and my size! When the doctor finally managed to free the stuck shoulder, he said, "WHOA! He has got to be around 9 lbs. 2 oz!" And amazingly enough, he was absolutely right! I had me a BIG BOY!

Unfortunately, though I WAS right, and he WAS born before 12:30 (at 12:28) it was too late for me to tell Lil. She found out as soon as she got home from school though!

Sadly, about 3 minutes after Matthew's arrival, we got a call from my MIL. Joe answered and said, "How'd you know to call now?" to which his mom said, "What? Oh! Is he here? Great! But that's not why I called..." Turns out, that Lacey was jumping on her sister TOP bunk of the bunk bed and she fell and hit her nose on the wood railing. She wanted to know if we wanted her to take Lacey to the instacare... Poor girl needed three stitches on the bridge of her nose and has two black eyes as well as a scraped chin. Combine that with her goose egg from her trip at Walmart the day before, and she looked pretty beat up! (I only tell you this part so the pictures of her with the baby don't freak you out).

Speaking of, here are some pictures! Enjoy!

Me holding him for the second time- the first being when he was still attached to the umbilical cord...
Daddy's turn

The next day- he liked peaking with only one eye at a time.

I know he looks like he is laughing, but it's really a yawn.
My kiddos

Headed home...