Aaron James Herrington was born at 2:34 AM, Monday January 30th, 2012.
Weight: 6lbs, 10 oz
Length 18.75 inches
Baby Aaron made quite an entrance into this world! Here is the story!
Sunday evening I began having mild to moderate contractions at about 11:00PM, but they were very irregular, 7 ½ minutes apart then 2 ½ minutes apart, then back to 5 minutes apart and so on, so I was pretty sure I was in false labor. I had two bouts of very painful false labor with Rosalie, so I figured I might have some this round as well! I did all of the things you’re supposed to, in order to stop false labor: laying on my left side, drinking water etc, and honestly thought it was working, so David and I went to bed. After about 15 minutes, the contractions were a little too painful to lie down with, so I went downstairs to draw a bath. Well, I never got that far. I started having a little bleeding, not a frightening amount, just enough to pretty much convince me this was looking like the real thing, so I called David down and we discussed it and decided that with my history of short labors and really fast transition, that we should go ahead and call my parents to come over. They got to the house around 12:45 and Dad stayed with sleeping Rosalie and Mom, David and I headed to the hospital. Since around 12:15, the contractions had at least been bad enough that I couldn’t talk through them. We got to the hospital just before 1:30AM. I filled out some paperwork and went back to triage.
The nurse in triage couldn’t get my name entered into the computer, and they wouldn’t check me until I was “in the computer”. I let them know that my last labor was only about an hour and a half. but I guess that doesn’t matter if you’re not “in the computer” then they just risk it J. Anyway, someone came and helped her enter my file in the system and they checked me, and I was at 8 cm, 100 effaced. They pretty quickly got me into a room then, as my contractions gradually worsened.
(This is the only picture we had a chance to take before the big event)
I was still signing papers when the contractions got really bad, around 2:25. I had about three horrible ones and after the second one I told the nurse that I felt the baby was moving down. She smiled and nodded and continued going about the arrival procedures, IV, monitors, etc… After the third one I told her that I was pretty sure I had pushed a little, for like half a second on that one. So she asked if I wanted her to check me again and I said yes. I was at 9 cm with a bulging bag of waters. She said I still had a little work to do, and I asked if I was still allowed to pee…. She said “Sure.” So my Mom followed me into the bathroom and within about 4 seconds I sat down started peeing, my water broke and Aaron’s head was out! During that four seconds, I tried to stand up and screamed “HE’S COMING!!!”, my Mom held me up while the Nurse dashed in and caught him out of mid air, placed him on my chest and said “Congratulations Mama!” like it was the most normal thing in the world! I squatted there for a minute asking over and over again if he hit the floor, and was he okay, to which the nurse replied that no he was fine and it’s really not that big a deal and it was definitely not the first time she had ever done that…. I can’t say I’m sure that she wasn’t just trying to make me feel better! So before I even got to the bed I just kept saying “This is SO weird!” “Why don’t I ever have normal stories!?”
(Just after getting into the bed)
So after that Mom and the nurse helped me walk to the bed and I met the on-call Dr. (my Dr had been paged, but clearly if Dr. Price couldn’t make it from three rooms down, Dr Franz wasn’t going to make it from home!) She stitched me up and we all lived happily ever after! He is so far the sweetest, calmest boy and I love him so much! Everyone thinks he looks like someone different, I just love the way he looks! Rosalie loves him to death and SO FAR hasn’t shown any jealousy.
(Rosalie opening her present from Baby Aaron)
(Reading the book he got her)
(Holding Baby Brother for the first time)
My Postpartum experience has been SO different and SO much better with this baby already! When Rosalie was born I tore badly and lost a LOT of blood and had complications healing, and all in all wasn’t able to do much more than survive for the first couple of weeks and it took me months to completely recover. This time around I wore jeans home from the hospital! JEANS! I wasn’t in those for weeks after Rosalie!!! I’m so glad that it went better this time, because I was really worried that I wasn’t going to be able to play with and snuggle adequately with Rosalie during this transitional time in her life, and I was really worried about that!
So… It was a dramatic delivery, but really it basically went quite well! I’m so grateful to my nurse, who managed to catch a little slippery baby in the blink of an eye! I plan on taking her some cookies or something!
Aaron sleeps and eats like a champ! The only time that he really fusses is when he gets his diaper changed, and how can you blame a little boy for that when he just got circumcised! Rosalie loves to hug and kiss him and sing songs about him, little Baby Aawon!
Update:
First Pediatrics visit, Aaron is an ounce up from leaving the hospital (6 lbs 5oz. SO TINY!!!!))
Rosalie’s Two year visit she weighs in at 25 lbs, 14 ounces, 35th percentile and measures 33 inches putting her in the 25th percentile! Both are healthy and happy!
