Birth Day and Birth story

I was contemplating whether or not it's strange and totally TMI to put birth stories on your blog, but as I was looking back to when I had Sawyer to find his baby pictures, I came across his birth story and I was so so glad to have a play by play of his birth! It was so fun to reread it and see similarities and differences between each time I've given birth- so I will put my L/D story here and if you don't want to read all the gory details.... skip to the pictures :)

My doctor is all about inducing her patients. People have all different opinions on labor induction, I for one have been induced 3 times and have loved it each time. She induced me a week before my due date this time so that I would be out in time for Christmas. I went in at 9 am and got the ball rolling. I had my I.V. in and Pitocin started by about 10 am and we were ready to go. One of the resident MD's broke my water at about 1 pm and I got my epidural at about 1:30 pm. I really admire all you who have your babies naturally, I am not sure I could ever do it! I progressed pretty normally I guess expanding a cm about each hour? At 5:30, my doctor came in to check on me and I was about a 6-7 cm and 80% effaced. She had another patient to deliver so my nurse stayed with me for a bit and we chatted up a storm! My nurses name was Jeni and she was FABULOUS!! We talked for the 8 hours about our life stories and she was so wonderful! We have become total BFF's! Anyway..... Jeni checked me a half hour later and discovered the baby was posterior, but not to worry- she was brilliant! She had me flip onto my side in a very specific way and told me that should turn him in no time. She was right! Very quickly about 15 minutes later I was feeling a ton of pressure and lo and behold! I was fully dilated and ready to go. My epidural was perfect! I could feel lots of pressure, but no pain :) and that's how I like it. They got me all ready to go and 4 pushes later Simon entered the world!!! It was so so so so fun that we didn't know what gender the baby was going to be. I can't even describe how amazing and fun it was to see him come out and hear the doctor say "it's a boy!" and see his boy parts confirm it! It was so much fun, I doubt I will ever find out the gender again. Now on to the rest of L/D....... We did immediate skin-to-skin, I nursed him (he was a champ from day 1!) and then went to my postpartum room. My recovery has been so so easy- it's unbelievable how much of a difference in recovery there is when the baby comes out fast rather than takes hours to be pushed out! I took Ibuprofen only for three days and then I didn't need anything anymore. 3rd time was definitely the charm. Breastfeeding has been the easiest this time also, other than having 2 other kids to take care of between the every 2-3 hour feedings. Having 3 kids is a little tricky..... It's not hard I wouldn't say, it's just quite different than having just 2 kids. I had a lot of free time before and now I don't have any! I'm trying to get into a routine and trying to make sure each kid gets quality time, which is the most difficult task.... I wouldn't change it for a thing though! I love each one of my kids and the addition of Simon has been perfect. He's healthy and happy (after 5 days on the bilibed!- BOO!, but the upside to a bilibed is that a newborn has to learn to sleep without being cuddled so he is a 100% better sleeper than he was 10 days ago...) He is a great sleeper and wakes up to eat every 2-3 hours (even at night)- he's calm and a great nurser which is good for me because I'm not the best at breastfeeding and was worried about doing it for the 3rd time! Anyway.... we're all happy and totally in love! Simon looks a lot like Sawyer as a newborn- enjoy the picture overload!