Lucas's Birth Story

It's hard to imagine that almost six weeks have passed since the birth of our third son. Time goes so speedy during those first few months of life. Lucas's birth was sandwiched in between so many goings on that sometimes I forget it even happened...not that he's here...but that his arrival and subsequent recovery even took place. But here goes my retelling of events, as best as I can remember in my sleep addled state.

We'd been very curious all along as to what was going to happen with this birth. Sammy was born via c-section, and I was very keen on at least attempting to birth our third son vaginally. As the months and weeks crept closer to our due date, I started reading books about natural childbirth and watching videos online. I didn't really consider attempting the entire labor and delivery sans epidural, but I wanted to see how far I could go without medication, as I had heard it ups the chance of a successful VBAC.

As 38 weeks approached, I was sure I would have the baby any day. Sammy came at 37 weeks on the dot and I was surprised I had made it even to 38 weeks this time. Then 39 weeks came. And I started to panic.

We were moving to California on July 5th. My due date was June 24th. I was hoping against hope that baby would come sooner than later so I could have more recovery time before heading west. After discussing our options with our doc, we decided to schedule an induction for the 24th, but I was SURE I would have him before then.

Nope. Talk about the longest week of my life. I tried everything. I mean everything. That baby wouldn't budge. So on June 24th I laid in my bed in the wee small hours of the morning waiting for the hospital to call and tell us when to come it. It was birth-day. And I was out of my skin with excitement.

We made it to the hospital around 7 a.m. Because I had had a previous c-section, the only form of induction my doctor would allow was AROM (artificial rupture of membrane, or breaking the water). When they checked me in at the hospital, I was at about 2.5 cm dilated and having virtually no contractions. I was worried that breaking my water wasn't going to start labor. If nothing happened, it meant another c-section for me.

Around 8 a.m. Dan decided to run grab some breakfast. About 5 minutes after he left Dr. Saunders came in to break my water. We thought it wasn't going to happen for a while so when I called Dan and told him the doc had just gotten things started he rushed back.

Contractions started almost immediately. They were hardly noticeable at first, and I walked around a bit to get things moving faster. By about 9:15, I was started to feel the contractions more and more but they weren't unbearable. At this point I was dilated to about a 4.

"This natural childbirth thing is a piece of cake," I thought cavalierly to myself.

And then the fun really started. Around 9:45 my contractions started coming about 1 minute apart and were intensely painful. I thought I was dying. I've never experienced pain like that in my life. I would lay in the bed nearly screaming through each contraction while Dan pushed on my knees to apply counter-pressure. I wanted to burn every book I'd read on labor pain management. They were all full of crap. There was no happy place. Just pain. Blinding and mind-numbing pain.

Around 10:15 I demanded an epidural. Dan, being the incredibly supportive man he is, reminded me that I wanted to go natural as long as possible and that I just had to make it through one more contraction. He was amazing. But at that moment, I sort of wanted pull out all his chest hairs with a pair of rusty tweezers.

After over two hours of this, a nurse finally came in to check on me. I was only at a 5.

"To hell with this natural childbirth thing," I thought to myself.

I looked the nurse squarely in the eyes during an intense and long contractions, and, while taking a break from screaming at the ceiling and cursing all things man and nature, begged her to get the anesthesiologist. She ran out the door and in less than 5 minutes that blessed angel of mercy pushed her cart of goodness over to the bed and doped me up, around 11:45 a.m.

My previous epidural experience with my other vaginal delivery, Eli, wasn't so hot. I got the shakes and was super nauseous for most of the labor. This time, nothing. I just felt happy. I could still move my legs and felt the pressure of the contractions, but no pain. Thank you drugs. I love you.

About 30 minutes after I got the epidural, around 12:15, I told the nurse I kept feeling like I needed to push. I thought this was silly, being as I couldn't actually feel a whole lot in the pelvic region anyway and I had only been at like a 6 the last time she checked right after they put in the epidural.

"You're at an 8.5," the nurse said. "Let's call the doctor."

I was stunned. Apparently the epidural allowed me to relax enough and baby just sort of slid himself down the birth canal.

Dr. Saunders came in at 12:20. He checked me. I was at a 10 and ready to have the baby. A contraction came, I pushed, and baby's head crowned. Another contraction came, I pushed, and the doc delivered his head. Another contraction came, and little Lucas joined our family.

Joseph Lucas Garfield was born at 12:29 p.m. on June 24th. He weighed 8 pounds and 4 ounces.

After he was delivered, Dan cut the cord and Lucas was hoisted over to the lights to get checked out and weighed. Dr. Saunders checked me out and said there was no tearing. I was incredible relieved; this mean recovery would be much easier.

Lucas was screaming bloody murder while they weighed him and toweled him off a bit. The nurse asked me if I wanted to put him against my chest to warm him up. They unpeeled him from his blanket and set him down on me. He immediately quieted and looked up into my eyes. I cried big, happy tears of both joy and relief. My little boy was here. Our little son, the third installment in the Big Happy Crazy Book of Garfield Offspring, was here.

Since his birth, Lucas has been an angel baby. He sleeps well, eats well, and is very tolerant of his older brothers and their "love". We couldn't be happier with his arrival, and in the tornado that has been our lives since his birth, this baby has been the calm in the storm. I feel like we have our whole family now. All present and accounted for (or at least, until we get stupid and try this again. Please don't ever let me try this again.)

My happy face...pre labor. 

Getting my game on. 

Dan. He was my anchor. I can't imagine bringing this little lives into the world without him by my side. 

Pushing. 

Skin to skin. I was instantly in love. 

Dr. Saunders was so great. I highly recommend him. 

Little Lucas, just a few minutes old. 

Grabbing his hat, because you never know when it's going to fall off. 

Birth is tiring, yo. 

Baby Shower!

In April, my amazing sisters threw me the best surprise baby shower ever. I was so super surprised...I honestly didn't see it coming! We had such a fun evening opening little baby outfits and eating tasty treats. Did I mention it was pirate themed?? Because it was. Super pirate themed. Because my family is awesome. 

Cristy and I being awesome. 

Jody set up all the decor. She rocked it!

Look at that!

Our guests. Ashley, Janica, Cristy, me, Jody, Katelyn, Aunt Lily, Mom

Easter 2014

Easter was such a lovely day for us. Lots of sugar, low sleep, but the kids performed amazingly well. We had dinner up with my family In Kaysville and the boys LOVED the egg hunt. I couldn't help myself and dolled them up in some new duds. 

Eli loved the candy part of the deal. 

My nephew Logan hid the eggs. The kids thought it was wonderful. 

Too cool for school. 

Helping brother.

We colored eggs and had such a great time.

Sammy. So so cute. 

Both of them. Oh how I love my little ones. 

Sammy turns 2!

Sammy turned 2 Dec. 30th. We're still trying to figure out how to really celebrate his big day sandwiched in between so many other holidays. We opted for a fun time at McDonalds with a few friends. In my absolute idiocy I forgot to take any photos of said event. But envision cupcakes, presents, balloons, and more gross happy meal food than a kid could ever want. 

In place of actual party photos, I'm going to dump a bunch of recent Sammy pics. Enjoy!

He's a little bookwork. I love love it. 

Sock hands. We don't get it, but he loves it. Anytime we turn around, he's taken off his socks from his feet and put them on his hands. He calls it "Sock hands". It's adorable. 

The Sammy Face.

He is way into pumping a silly amount of lotion into his hands when I'm not looking and rubbing it all over his hair. This day I made him pose for a sweet bro shot. 

Eating butter. A fine past time. 

Ice cream face. 

He's a total ham. 

Christmas 2013

Soo...yep. It's March, and I am just now getting around to posting about Christmas. We've been super busy though yo. 

Christmas this year was pretty low key. I was still feeling pretty baby sick, and we just stayed around the house and kept things quiet....or as quiet as we can get around here with 2 lively young'uns. 

Christmas morning was great. We took our time opening presents and admiring every one's loot. 

Dan surprised me with an iPad. Eli grabbed it up before I even got my hands on it. 

We bought Eli this awesome race track set. It makes a considerable amount of noise though, so it's been banished up the upstairs. 

Our Christmas stash before the kids came downstairs. 

Yule Pup. 

My elves. On Christmas Eve the kids found a big package on the front porch from Santa's Elves with new pajamas, a DVD, popcorn and some snacks in it. We had a fun night watching movies and munching. 

Happy kid. 

Mad kid. 

Eli turns four!

Eli turned 4 and we celebrated hard. We had sort of a "birthday week", culminating in a fun friends party at our place complete with lots of pizza and birthday cake. I was pretty out of commission so Dan really did the whole thing. Thanks Dan!

Eli tears into his gifts. He was pretty over-stimulated during the whole thing. 

Playdough!

Cake!

Hey...baby baby.

As anyone not living in a cave on Mars is more than well aware of at this point, we are expecting baby #3 in June! Woot. We're pretty sure it's another boy, judging from the dangling apparati present in the 13 week ultrasound. This one's been not super pleasant thus far. The nausea this time around was pretty brutal. November was sort of a blur for me. The only time I was able to leave the house was the have Dan drive me to the hospital for IVs. Dan was a trooper. He wins all the medals. 

I discovered how much I loved the IV therapy group at American Fork Hospital. Those ladies really know their veins. 

This is what I did the other part of the time when I wasn't getting pumped up. Bed bed bed and more bed. 

We got a little peak at the bb around 8 weeks. 

More bed. 

More needles. 

My thrice weekly view. 

And there he is! We are super excited. At 16 weeks things are starting to feel better and we're getting our brains wrapped around the thought of 3 times the insanity coming to a house near you in June!