Our sweet, sensitive, thoughtful, energetic, talkative, handsome, loving boy Luke was born. Time really does speed up with kids. It's hard to believe he's already 4. I've never documented my birth experience with him, so I'm going to try and remember as well as I can and write it down before I forget it all.
On Jan 10, 2007 I went to the dr for my 39 week check up. At that point I had zero progression. I wasn't effaced, dialated and he hadn't dropped. I thought for sure he would be very overdue. But, on Jan 16 (the day before his due date) I started to feel a little different. My mom and I were doing some baby shopping at Babies R Us around 2pm and I had to run to the bathroom. I'll spare details, but those of you that have been through it probably know why. I'd read that from this point it could still take several days, so I tried not to get too excited. Then, around 4pm I started feeling what seemed to be muscle spasms that started in my lower back and moved to the front of my stomach. It wasn't painful at all but it was happening just about every 20 min, then 15 or so minutes. David came home for dinner around 5pm, but needed to go back, so I told him not to worry because I really didn't think anything would happen. At about 9pm I went into the laundry room to switch the laundry and when I stood up I had a really really painful contraction and my water broke. When I say it broke, I mean it gushed and exploded. Thank goodness I was on tile floor and thank goodness my mom was there! I yelled for her to come and she got some towels and a robe for me and called David to get home immediately. About 5-10 min later I had another painful contraction and more water and no husband. He got home soon after that and we rushed out of the house for the hospital. When I got into a room at the hospital and stood up out of the chair more water came rushing out, so they knew I would be staying and having a baby soon. We must have gotten to the hospital around 9:30pm. I asked for an epidural right away but my Dr recommended that I try a pain killer first, so I did for about 2 hours and then insisted on an epidural. From the time we got to the hospital Luke's heart rate was doing odd things, speeding up really fast and then slowing way down. We found that if I layed on my right side he seemed ok. I spent the entire labor lying on my right side . . . so the epidural only worked on that side and I felt everything on the left side which was kind of an odd feeling. At about 3:30am I was fully dilated, so the nurses said that I could start pushing. Although, I didn't have that pushing feeling yet (which I did feel with Seth even with a fully functioning epidural). So, I ended up pushing for 2 excruciating hours (much different than 2 contractions with Seth). It almost came to the point of needing to do an emergency c-section, and I have never been so tired in my life, but he was finally born at 5:30am on Jan 17, his due date. That's just like him to be right on time. It was an amazing experience to meet this perfect little boy for the first time. I'm so glad he's mine.
I've sent a family newsletter to our relatives every week since Luke was born, so these are the updates from the week of his birthday each year:
***Well, now that Luke is a week old it's time to start a weekly journal (as it has become tradition in the family to do one :)
This week has been absolutely amazing. Luke is such a good baby. He has brought such a peaceful and pure spirit into our home. I am so grateful for him and the little person he is. Things have been fairly slow around here as we've all been getting settled and figuring out our new roles as parents. Luke sleeps most of the time (of course) but he even sleeps for about 3 hours between feedings at night and he goes right back to sleep after he eats. We did have one rough night where he cried for about 2 hours, but I really think it's because he ate too much. We've given Luke a couple of baths this week and he doesn't protest too much, but I feel so bad for him because I can tell he's cold and uncomfortable. He also had his first tummy time last night and he actually stayed down for close to an hour. David and I just took turns laying by him and talking to him. We've been blessed to have my mom come stay with us until the 29th. It has been so good to have her here. We have also decided to have the blessing on March 4th, so I hope you can all make it.
***We are doing well here in freezing cold Provo. Luke is finally getting over his stomach flu and cold, so that's happy. Sadly, he got his first injury this week though. He dropped a package of 8 cans (from Costco) on his big toe. Thank goodness the toe didn't break, but it got really swollen and he cried for a long time after. He's doing much better now and despite that he's still crawling around and even walking! Yesterday we went to a play group and there were 3 babies a little older than him that were walking around, so when we got home he started walking too. I guess he just needed a little support from his cohorts. Luke is also starting to feed himself with utensils . . . he's at least practicing. He doesn't quite get the mechanics of it, but he sure likes to try. We will be having a little birthday party for Luke on Saturday with some of his friends from church, so that should be fun. I really can't believe he is already a year old. Time is just flying too fast!
***Luke is doing well for the most part. He's had some difficulty with going to sleep at night. I think it's been a combination of not being tired, and not feeling like he's getting enough mommy time (he's been a bit jealous of Seth). So, we've altered his bed time routine to include time with just me and I don't make him take a nap any more (I put toys and books in his crib for quite time) and he's been going to sleep easily and sleeping a solid 12 hours (where it's only been about 10 in the past). Luke turned 2 on Saturday and we had a fun day with him. We had a family breakfast and dinner and we took him to the dinosaur museum. I think he really enjoyed it (considering he cried when we left). He also had his 2 year doctor check up and he weighs 24 lbs 4 oz (10%) and he's 33 1/2" tall (25%). He had to get a shot, but he did really well and really didn't even cry (I think it helped that I gave him candy as soon it was over). He's starting to get interested in letters and colors and his favorite color appears to be orange (he always asks for his orange cup).
***Luke is doing really well and he loves getting to play outside. The weather has been in the 60's and 70's, so we've been outside most of everyday. He likes to go on walks and do whatever daddy does. Luke is full of questions and talks non stop, so we have to be very patient not to let that drive us crazy. He's become very confident this past month. His first day back at preschool he said, "I'm not going to cry mommy," as we were getting ready to go and sure enough he didn't. He just walked right in and sat down. He's also done very well in nursery which has been a struggle in the past. We had a very low key birthday and we celebrated by going to the children's museum and to dinner. We had a little party for him at Omi and Paki's house before we left as well.
***Luke has been doing really well. He talks a mile a minute and has questions about everything! He's been really into birthdays because it's his birthday tomorrow and he was so surprised to find out that some people have the same birthday. When I first told him my birthday was in January too he said, "No mom, people can't have their birthdays at the same time!" But I finally convinced him that it was possible. He went to Sunbeams in our ward for the first time today and seemed to do really well. David said he had a hard time getting him in there but when I picked him up he was all smiles. Luke has become a master staller at bedtime. He has so many great tactics up his sleeve. My favorite one so far happened when we were at my parents house. He came out of his room and told me he had something in his nose. I brought him back to his bed and he said, "my nose hurts, I'm really afraid it's going to hurt forever." I replied that he should try to go to sleep and it would stop hurting. He then shut his eyes really tight and then opened them and said, "I went to sleep mom, it didn't work." This little boy sure makes us laugh.
