Just a few pictures

I meant to write out the birth story today, but just uploading the pictures is making me tired of sitting. ;) So you'll all have to settle for pictures for now.

Just a minute after the birth... I picked up Alex and held him on my chest and rested for a few minutes. He's still attached to the cord.


Getting measured after being weighed:
A couple hours old:


Monsterly long fingernails, thanks to being past his due date:


Two days old, opening his eyes and looking around calmly.

Alexander is here!

This is just a very quick post to say that Alexander Boden is here!

He was born at 3:27pm, at home. He weighed a whopping 10 lbs 10 oz (!!!!!), was 21 inches long, and had a 15.25 inch head circumference. Much bigger than we anticipated, but everything went great!! We are both doing very well.

I'm supposed to be laying down as much as possible for 2 days to promote easier healing, so I'll get around to writing out the birth story and posting some pictures in another day or two.

Maybe today!!!!

I woke up and had to use the bathroom shortly before 7am today. When I got back in bed, I felt almost wide awake - TOTALLY unusual for me at that time of day. After several minutes, I had a rather strong contraction. Also unusual - most of the time my contractions have been strong-ish only in the evening. I had another one or two before Jesse left for work an hour later.

I got up just after Jesse left for work and scrounged up some food for the kids. Used the bathroom again...this time, I noticed bloody show. Went back to my bed to lay down and ponder all of this, and had a couple more contractions before I got up again.

Long story short: From about 7am - 10am, I've gone to the bathroom at least six times to "check", and there has been bloody show each time. I've had contractions about 15-20 minutes apart, generally nice strong ones. Even when I've been up and walking around, or taking a shower, etc. Plus I had this general sense of crampiness, like my bowels want to empty out.

I called and gave heads up to Jesse, the midwife, and my visiting teacher who is planning on doing childcare for me.

We went to the chiropractor. She did the normal adjustment, but also went ahead and hit some accupressure points on my feet as well, that might encourage labor.

Had a couple contractions on the 10-15 minute drive home. Used the bathroom again, and yup (too much info!!) , bowels are definitely loose. I've had several contractions since then, surely closer together than 15 minutes.

So unless this baby is a born practical joker, I'm thinking labor has started.
Jesse is home for lunch and I'm going to start timing these things for real, instead of having just a vague idea of when I'm having contractions. I haven't decided whether I'll let Jesse go back to work or not.