Sunday, October 29, 2006

Noah Benjamin Hester

At 1:41 pm on Thursday, October 26th, 2006, Noah Benjamin Hester was born. He weighed 7 lbs. 4 oz., and was 21 inches long. He is wonderful, perfect, beautiful...so precious. We are all doing well and Emma and Caleb seem to enjoy him as well. Thank you all for your prayers, we are so blessed!

Pitocin is from the Devil....

Okay, I know that many times my friends who have had to endure the wrath of pitocin have joked that it must be from the devil. I personally haven't had to have pitocin...Emma was induced, but cervadil and breaking my water was enough. Caleb, well, I didn't even have an IV or anything with that kid...we just went to the hospital and he came!! But this child has (his introduction will be my next post) proved to be different from the beginning. For the last month I have had contractions...ones that get stronger and closer together, and then go away all together. After being a week overdue, our doctor said it really was no longer our choice to wait for the baby to come. He was going to induce. The many jokes and horror stories of pitocin came and haunted me...but I just had to trust that the risks of waiting longer for the baby to come were greater than inducing my labor. (Or helping it along, anyway...)

Well, we got to the hospital at 6 am. Then we waited for a long time. At 9am, the doctor came and broke my water, which Ben and I were hoping would do the trick!! At my request, the doctor gave me a couple of hours to see what would happen. Sure enough, within an hour I was having regular contractions at a good intensity, coming 2-3 minutes apart. YEAH!! I was so excited...then the nurse came in and said that the baby's heart rate was dipping with my contractions, so she had me get in bed and lay on my side. And much to my disappointment, my contractions completely went away. Now, even though this had been happening to me all month, it was really frustrating now because I thought, I will have to start all over again!! Anyway, the doctor had left instructions to start pitocin at 11am, so shortly thereafter the medicine began to drip...Of course I noticed a difference very soon after, and the contractions were stronger and more intense...but the medicine did what it was supposed to do! So just over 2 hours later, our little miracle joined us, and we all survived. Now, trust me, I would not argue with anyone who says that pitocin is from the devil...it's surely not pleasurable!! But just this once, I may have to say that surely the Lord was watching over us, and that His perfect gift to us came in the dreaded form of pitocin. I have to be thankful for it, because without it I might STILL be having contractions that go away and do not accomplish their purpose.

Monday, October 16, 2006

A new cousin and some stitches...

Well, on Thursday evening (my birthday) Scott and Cher-ami went into the hospital to be induced. On Friday morning, October 13th, she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Jackson Rae. Mommy and Baby are doing well, and my brother I think has met his match!!! I had had contractions all day myself, but, alas, they went away and our little guy has decided he is not ready to come yet.

This morning (Monday) we had many errands to run and things to take care of, but wound up spending the morning at the Emergency Room instead. Yes, for the second time, Caleb has had to get stitches. He fell off the piano bench, and about 3 of his teeth made their way through his lip, so he got two stitches. He did very well, and we took the kids for ice cream and play time at the park as part of the recovery! Poor guy...but he is tough!

Monday, October 09, 2006

Caleb's New Words

Caleb has become quite the chatter box!! Here are my personal favorites:
Upon noticing the reflection of several things in the lamp next to my mom's bed, I repeated after him, "Oh, you see mommy?"
And he turned to me and said, "No, I am talking to my grandma."

He gently rubs my belly and tells me, "Oh, baby's getting so big!" (as if I hadn't noticed). And then, "Baby's coming out soon?"

And then he was running around the backyard today saying, "Swiper the Fox! Swiper the Fox!"