The Birth of Baby Blake

June 20, 2011. This has been the day that I had been looking forward to for the last 9 months. Yet I was still surprised that my due date actually became my delivery date as well, and our precious Blake David Decker was born! Here is his story:

It was last Monday and I had just a few things left to do around the house before my mom was to fly in late that night. I was just busy doing laundry and things when I noticed contractions starting around 9:45 that morning. I was on and off the phone with my mom and mentioned my contractions were getting a little closer but I was still talking through them fine and really wasn't in much pain. I was even able to capture these last minute belly pictures in between contractions too.

Finally though, around 11 am I called Luke at work and told him that he should probably come home just in case and that he should take me to my midwives first and they could tell me if I was ready enough to go to the hospital. By the time he got home and we were ready to leave it was 12:15 but then I realized that my midwives were closed from 12-1 for lunch, so we would need to wait. However, my contractions were starting to take my breath away and looking back we probably should have just tried going straight to the hospital, but I figured we still had time.
It did work out though because it gave our babysitter a little more time and then they were able to meet us at our house to watch Jacob just in time so that Luke and I could leave to go to my doctor at 1. I was just grateful that this part all worked out well since I had stressed about what to do if my mom wasn't there, but thank you to the Loughes!
Anyway, we get to my midwives right at 1, which is also connected to the hospital, and they get me in right away. Finally, the midwife who I had spoken to on the phone earlier, who didn't sound convinced that I was ready, she checked me and was shocked! "Holy cow, you're already between 7-8 cm! We need to get you up to the hospital right away before you have this baby in the elevator!"
Luke and I were actually pretty surprised too. He thought I'd only be a 3 since I had been handling the pain ok and I thought I'd be at a 4 since that is what I was when we got to the hospital when Jacob was born. Regardless, she got me a wheelchair and took me straight up to Labor and Delivery- thank goodness we still didn't need to drive to a hospital!
By the time I got robed down it was 1:30pm. I had told my midwife right away that I still wanted an epidural and was getting nervous about there still being enough time. She told me that since my water still hadn't broke that we could still do it. I did my best breathing through the contractions as they started to get more painful, but started to realize that time was slipping for my epidural, and even if they came soon I wasn't sure I'd be able to hold still enough for them to put the needle in. I still don't understand why anesthesiologists always take so long to get to women in labor!
So I started to panic. My midwife was nice enough to tell me that there was still time and she'd do her best to get the epidural quickly. Well, soon after that my water broke and so then I really started to panic. I knew it was going to be too late to get the epidural and that I'd have to go naturally and I was beyond scared. I never prepared to do a birth like this and I just knew I couldn't do it. And even then my midwife still said there could be time to get the epidural, as long as I didn't feel the need to push. And about five minutes later, I felt the need to push.
It pretty much went downhill from there. I went psycho-crazy and was pretty mean to all the nurses that suddenly rushed in and grabbed me from every side. Somewhere along the lines I even bit Luke's cheek. It was pretty traumatic.
I guess I was lucky in the sense though that it went very quickly and only needed to push for about 10 very long minutes and then he was born at 2:19pm, only 50 minutes after getting to the hospital. The hard part was over- and I was still alive! I could not believe I actually did it. The whole experience was unreal.
They weighed him in at 8 pounds, 9 ounces and 20.5 inches long. Definitely bigger than Jacob who was 7 pounds, 15 ounces. When they were cleaning him up, they asked me if he had a name and I realized that we still hadn't decided. Since Luke had a better look at him, I asked Luke what he thought the baby looked like and he surprised me by saying the name that had been my favorite so far- Blake. So before I knew it Luke was calling people with the news and so the name quickly became official before I had even realized that we had decided. But we each liked the name Blake enough that it was about the only name we'd compromise on, and we had already previously decided the middle name would be David after my dad.
So that's the story! Luke was really great through everything and I was just so glad that he was there and that everything worked out ok in the end, even if it was not the way that I had planned.






Luke got to feed him a bottle after his first feeding since his blood sugar was extremely low, but after the formula he was boosted back up to normal, so that was good.
Luke brought Jacob over later that night so that he could meet his new brother. Jacob had previously been really excited but was a little quiet when he came to the hospital. Jacob had been sick over the weekend before and his fever came back that day so unfortunately he was a little sick so we didn't want him around Blake too long. Jacob and Luke actually ended up being sick the rest of the week, so that was kind of a bummer, and we just had to be a little careful with them around Blake. Luckily though my mom came in that first night though so she was at least able to stay with me at the hospital until I was discharged Wednesday morning.
This picture is a little blurry, but I still thought it was sweet, and we did let Jacob try to hold him for a bit.

Blake in his outfit ready to go home!

Blake has been a great baby so far and it's taken time for it to even sink in that I now have another son to take care of! I've already accidentally called him Jacob several times. So it's all an adjustment and I'm still trying to get into the swing of things but I'm just happy that everything went well and that Blake is healthy. I really do feel blessed. I'll post more soon about how things are going at home, it's amazing how fast time is already flying and how busy I've been now that I have 2 kids! But we are thrilled to have this new baby in our lives and looking forward to the crazy adventure ahead!

Big Baby To-Be

So the day seems like it's getting closer and closer for this baby to come. I'm technically 37.5 weeks right now, so I'm at least officially full term and that makes me feel better if this baby does decide to come early.
Yesterday though I went to the doctor for my normal weekly checkup. First they took my weight and told me that by their records I had officially gained 30 pounds-yay? Actually I thought I had already gained more than that so I wasn't too surprised. But it is weird for me to think that I only gained 20 pounds with Jacob and he was still 7 lbs 15 oz when he was born! Anyway, so then later she measured my belly and throughout my whole pregnancy I've always been measuring right on for the week I was in. So last week I was measuring 36 inches, right where I should be, then yesterday they said I jumped up to 39 inches. Ohh my!
So in one week this baby grew a loooot, which looking back makes sense. This past Sunday evening I was having so many contractions I started packing a bag thinking we might just need to go to the hospital that night. Luckily the contractions stopped when I fell asleep though, but the false labor has already started. And since then, this week I've felt extremely tired again and have been having a lot of pain high in my stomach. My doctor said the baby's pushing his butt up on me though so that explains the sharp pain I've been feeling every time I move, but she said the baby should be moving lower this week.
But since the baby is suddenly measuring at 39 I asked if that meant I could be having my baby next week and she wouldn't say, but she said all it means is I'm going to have a BIG baby and he'll probably be rivialing Jacob in size! So that kind of freaked me out a little haha. Big healthy babies are great, but realizing I could be ready to possibly have this baby next week made me think how soon that was and how I'm not really prepared! But at the same time it would be so great to be done with this pregnancy early.
For some reason though I just feel so much more nervous about everything the second time around, I always feel like I'm forgetting something. And the part that worries me the most about coming early is that my mom won't be here yet and I really don't know what my back up plan is for Jacob until it will be time. So even though several people now have offered to help watch Jacob when the time comes, it's still just a little stressful knowing that I'll need to quickly decide what to do when the time comes and it really does depend on what week, day, or time of day this baby decides to come.
Anyway, I guess I just needed to get this all out and sorted out in my mind, haha. Either way, this baby could be coming very soon, and he should be big and healthy! So for now, I'm just trying to relax and keep this baby in for at least another week, but for all I know he could be right on time, or even a little late like Jacob. I guess I'll just have to wait and see! In the meantime, I'll be thinking about a name...