Lucas Henrik was born at 3:43 am on Tuesday, August 14, 2012. He weighed 7 pounds, 12 ounces, and was 19 1/2 inches long. We are so excited he is here!
Both of the other two kids were born a little early (Gabe was almost 3 weeks early, and Betsy was about a week and a half early), and so with constant contractions and being dilated to 5cm by Monday, August 13th, we couldn't believe he hadn't come yet! So at my appointment on Monday, I finally agreed to have my doctor break my water the next morning. She would be on call at the hospital already, and we would have a day to arrange childcare, and we could end the waiting game. We were supposed to go in at 7am. I had really wanted to go into labor on my own, but this looked like the best option at that point.
Lucky for us, Luke had other plans! I woke up at about 1:00 or 1:30am on Tuesday morning, thinking I had been dreaming about having contractions. Finally, I woke Brad up and told him that maybe just in case, he should go finish packing up the rest of my stuff (toothbrush, etc.). He ignored that for a minute (we had had way too many nights like this already), until I poked him again and he watched me for a minute...and immediately got up to put everything together.
By then, I was convinced this WASN'T real, and that we might as well just wait until 6:30 to go in, when our babysitter was coming anyway. Brad said we needed to call her NOW. It took about 10 minutes to get a hold of her (I finally remembered were supposed to call their HOME number in the middle of the night). I started to help Brad put the sofa sleeper together for her, until I realized I really couldn't do anything. I finally admitted it was probably time to go to the hospital.
You can pretty much see the hospital from our house, but it still felt like a verrrry long ride. I tried to convince Brad to run the stop signs and stop lights, but he was mostly law-abiding. I did at least convince him to park in the fire lane in front of the hospital rather than going to the parking structure. As we got out of the car and tried to figure out which entrance to go in (the regular Labor and Delivery entrance was temporarily closed), two nurses on break walked by. They asked if we needed help, then watched me for a minute and went and grabbed a wheel chair and wheeled us right on up to L&D. That was nice of them!
In Labor and Delivery, they got me into a room fairly quickly (they started to register us, looked at me, and skipped the rest of registration). I got changed, and they tried to start an IV. But I had to keep asking them to stop because I needed to concentrate, and pretty soon I felt like there was a lot of pressure. I decided I was done and didn't want to have this baby anymore. They say that will happen in ALL of the books...and even as I was saying that, it felt like a cliche! But it was all I could think right then!
Brad kept his composure very well, even if I didn't, and between him and this angel of a nurse (she was SO calm!), they kept me breathing. The midwife came in, and after a few reluctant pushes on my part, Luke arrived! Good thing Brad took things seriously, or we may have had a baby in the kitchen. Which would have been fine, but I was really looking forward to the air conditioning in the hospital!
Brad and Luke for the first time, in the delivery room.
Luke right after his bath. He is very blond!
Luke and Dr. Nelson (who didn't get to deliver him after all).
Gabe and Betsy meeting Luke for the first time.
Gabe's photography.
Willing helpers for Brad.
First family portrait.
My nurse Anh, me, and Luke (Anh took most of the family pictures for us. She was great!)
Kids with their baby brother.
Recreating the poses the hospital photographer used, for free (sorry, Our 365!)
Luke and Tammy, the same nurse I had with Betsy!
Betsy said she definitely remembered Tammy.
I got a warm welcome back at home! It's good to be home with our new family of FIVE!
