Bathed the kids and got them to bed then headed off to bed about 9, having not slept well the night before due to all the contractions I was anxious to get a good night's sleep. About an hour later however any hope of that was dashed to pieces. I'm pretty sure I had fallen asleep or was at least close to it when I felt the surety of oncoming labor.... my water broke. About 30 seconds later Trent came into the room and I told him. He rushed in to wake up the kids to get them ready to go while I called the sweet ward member who had offered to watch them for us when the time came. By the time we got everyone's bags together and all of us out the door it was after 11. The Anderson's (who had offered to watch the kids) had just had an early Thanksgiving dinner with a bunch of family so it was quite the gathering at their house when we stopped by to drop off the kids. I didn't even get a chance to say good-bye to Ethan, he disappeared with some of the kids shortly after we got there. Brother Anderson took Kiari and was able to quickly rock her back to sleep, and we were off.
We checked into the hospital at midnight but before being admitted they wanted to make sure that my water had in fact broken and that I was officially in labor. By the time those diagnostics were done and we were settled into our room it was nearly 2 a.m. Even though my water had broken my contractions were very strong at all so the first few hours we were both able to rest. About 5ish they started me on pitosin to get my contractions moving so that I could actually start to dilate past a 2. Around 6 I went ahead and got my epidural going, I was planning on getting one so I figured why wait.
We had a really sweet nurse when the night started and then we got a new nurse at 5 and she was absolutely wonderful. She was older and originally from Scotland so she had this great accent and was so incredibly sweet, I loved her. She took really great care of all of us.
Finally, around 11/11:30 I was dilated to a 7 and Sonia (our nurse) figured my body was finally taking over and that the baby would be out around 1. Even though I was dilating and thinning out he still was dropping like he needed to so she had me start giving little pushes to help him down. It worked and the doctor was called. The doctor actually had to tell me to stop pushing because the baby was almost out and he didn't have all his gear on. Then at 1 o'clock our little man made his entrance. He was totally holding his breath which was actually a good thing because he had all sorts of stuff in his mouth that he would have otherwise inhaled. So after a few minutes of cleaning and assessment I was finally able to hold and nurse him for the first time. We knew he was going to be a good eater when he latched on right away and started to nurse. He was perfect and Trent and I were/are thrilled that he decided to come as early as he did. We've both been feeling very ready for him to join our family.
A couple hours later we were situated in our post delivery room and once we got word from the Anderson's that Kiari had woken up from her nap, Trent left to get the kids. At this point no one in our families knew that the baby had been born, it was really important to Trent that Ethan and Kiari get to meet him before we started making calls and spreading the news. Ethan was all smiles and kept asking if he could hold the baby. Kiari was a little sick and so we wanted her to wear a mask if she wanted to hold him. She wasn't interested in the mask but didn't seem too crushed when we said she couldn't hold the baby without it. I suppose she thought he was pretty neat but she wasn't nearly as enthralled as Ethan was at the time.
Every Sunday night we have a family conference call with Trent's family. Each sibling will take a turn giving any updates and then the parents will do the same. It was fun to hear everyone's reaction when Trent said that he was holding a brand new baby boy. Given that Enoch was just under 2 weeks early no one was expecting that kind of an update! Trent's dad kept saying, "well that was unexpected!"
Shortly after getting off of the family call Trent gathered up the kids and then headed home to get everyone to bed. The three of them came back the next day when it was time to bring me and baby Enoch home. I think it was closer to 3 o'clock on Monday that we left the hospital and it felt so great to have the 5 of us back at home together.
Hard to believe its already been nearly a week since our little man made his arrival. If he had decided to wait until the actual due date I would still be pregnant. Needless to say I'm grateful that he seemed about as anxious as we were. It has been a wonderful week in so many ways. I'm so grateful for how well Ethan and Kiari (especially Kiari) have adjusted to having a baby in the house. I knew that Ethan would do really well but I didn't quite know what to expect from Kiari. What's interesting is that her temperment almost seems better than it was before. Both the kids have been really great little helpers and they both love holding him. Kiari looooooves to kiss his head and Ethan will talk to him about all sorts of things. In fact, when Ethan first met Enoch at the hospital he was up on the bed with me and leaned in really close to tell Enoch something that was obviously pretty important. All of a sudden I hear Ethan say, "We have a Father up in heaven, His name is Heavenly Father and we have a brother, His name is Jesus." Sooooo sweet.
So all is well in the VanderSloot house here in Denver. I'm doing great. Enoch's doing great (man does this kid eat!). Big brother and sister are great. Trent's actually dealing with a really obnoxious cold but other than that is great. He's one proud papa.
Life is pretty much beautiful.
And did I mention that we have an amazing ward? We feel so incredibly blessed and very well taken care of.
Enoch (middle name here) VanderSloot
Sunday, November 7, 2010 1 pm
7lbs 10oz, 20in
2 comments:
He's a perfect fit to your family. Can't wait to meet him.
I love how sweet Ethan and Kiara are with Enoch. It is very obvious that they love him!
Post a Comment