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What a wonderful, wonderful, WONDERFUL week!! My heart is so full I feel like I might burst into a million pieces at any moment. This post has been a lot longer coming than I hoped, but I'm having a hard time dragging myself away from soaking in every second of Parker's already going-by-too-fast life.
So today being my due date and our little one's sixth day with us, I figured I should introduce you all to my precious little Parker. :)
Last Saturday (our sixth anniversary!!), I started having more regular contractions off and on and some of them got pretty painful. Early, early Sunday morning - March 16th - I woke up with the contractions and some major nausea. By ten o'clock that morning I called my doctor, he was on call and he told me to come on to hospital.
I was contracting every two to four minutes when we got to the hospital and they were only speeding up and getting harder. But Parker still hadn't engaged and I hadn't dilated at all - so basically the same story as Nathan. And since we'd been having weekly ultrasounds with Parker, we all knew his head wasn't going to be fitting through my pelvic bone. So, my doctor decided to go ahead and do our c-section that day.
We waited in triage for what seemed like forever because several emergency c-sections came through and even though I was in regular labor, Parker wasn't going anywhere and his heart rate was perfect. Such a blessing!!
My mom and sister came up to the hospital to wait with us and it was so nice to have some distractions to the time passing and the increasing contractions. Then finally around eight o'clock, we were told it was time! I walked (such a surreal walk!) to the OR, climbed up on the bed and got my spinal. It was so much better than my epidural with Nathan! I felt absolutely nothing. It was just the strangest experience as they draped the blue sheets and Jon showed up in his mask and hat. I had to keep taking deep breaths because I kept thinking he's almost here! In just a few minutes, I get to meet the one we've been praying for for so long!!
The biggest thing I had wanted in having another c-section was to have the opposite experience as Nathan's birth. With Nathan, he had been in distress and they whisked him away before I even really had the chance to see him.
It was SO wonderfully different with Parker! Jon got to watch his entire birth and then I heard everyone start yelling, "Look up, Erynn!" and my doctor was holding Parker over the sheet for me to see. I started bawling - he was so beautiful!
They wiped him down and did his Apgar testing and then brought him right over to me. They pushed all the blankets and my gown out of the way and we got to do skin to skin contact for the rest of the time we were in the OR. It was amazing. He was crying while they were wiping him down and when they put him on my chest, I started talking to him and he immediately stopped crying, just kept looking me in the eyes and rubbing my face with his hand. I just cried and cried.
Since we had been there all day and kept getting pushed back, our nurses and anesthesiologist were so sweet to us - they even let Mom and Cayce come in the recovery room with us. In there, I tried nursing for the first time and Parker latched on perfectly right away - yet another HUGE fear I had since nursing was so difficult in the beginning with Nathan.
God was just so good to us through everything - we had the absolute BEST possible experience we could have had!
We didn't even stay at the hospital for 48 hours - I was able to walk that night and by Tuesday, I was walking all the way across the Mother and Baby floor without any problems at all. So thankful for the quick healing - especially since coming home to my active firstborn!
Parker has just been the sweetest addition to our family. He is SO snuggly and so precious. I just love watching his little face and hearing his sweet little noises and smelling his soft head and there has been so much kissing of those chunky cheeks that I'm kind of amazed he still has them. ;)
We are so blessed, friends. Thank you oh so much for all of your prayers for us over these last few years as we have waited and prayed for this precious little boy. He is so loved. It still is so surreal to me. I wake up for nighttime nursings and in the morning and it's always this double take of we have a baby! He's really here!!
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