Yea for Yannick! We're Nuts for Nick!

BBC3 has arrived!  3 weeks early to the day.

April 14, 2011  11:49pm
~ just 11min shy of being a tax day baby.  For the record, I did ask if we could wait, and they basically said no.  They thought it would take longer to push.  I started pushing at 11:40, and 9 minutes later, our little guy was here!
Yannick "Nick" Arthur Counts
6lbs 7oz, 19.5" long

The story:
I had had contractions on Sunday night for about 5 hours that did not lead to anything but extreme exhaustion.  They did, however, make me finally get organized...I finished packing the hospital bag, writing out instructions for whoever would stay with the boys, cleaning up a bit, etc.  The contractions seemed better when I was up and about.  I finally went to back to bed and they stopped at 5am.  Monday, while exhausted, proceeded with no further excitement.

Wednesday night/Thurs morning, 3am, same thing...contractions start, and I get out of bed and busy myself...thinking this just might be real this time.  Turns out I was right, but it took a long time to get there.  I had an ultrasound & non-stress test scheduled for 10am, and thought I'd wait until then to see what the deal is.  I had asked Art to stay home with Wyatt (he originally was going to the Y with Cheng and Jong) until we found out of I was "really" in labor.  BUT, wonderfully, Carolyn (mom of Zach's preschool classmate) offered to take Wyatt home w/ her when she picked Zach up for school.  Relief!  So off I went to the appt.  The nurse basically said she did not think I was in labor (by this time the contractions had slowed/stopped) and that I was "not a good candidate for early labor, given my other two children were 10 days late, and 5 days late"  She called my OB to chat about it, and she said I could run upstairs if I wanted to and have her check me, or just wait until my appointment the next morning.  I figured, hey, I'm here, in the bldg, my kids are taken care of, might as well.  So off I went upstairs to get checked.  Turns out I was about 2cm dilated. She sent me home telling me that I need to be on "modified best rest" so we could get another week or two further along.  I headed home to obey her marching orders.  Carolyn graciously offered to keep the boys for lunch and bring them home around 2pm for a nap.  So nice!  So I made myself a quick lunch, and sat on the circle chair watching Netflix for an hour.  Then, around 1pm, my water broke!  Uh Oh!  Panic!  My dr office was to reopen from lunch at 1pm, but I still had not been able to contact them by 2pm.  I finally called the hospital, and they said to come on in.  So Art came home, while I arranged for people to watch Zach and Wy.  Our orginal plan was for someone to stay with them for 2 days at our house, but she had to leave town due to a death in the family.  After a few calls, we finally had a plan in place:  Zachary and Wyatt would stay with Carolyn until after dinner.  She would then bring them home where Lorrie would stay the night with them.  Her husband Brian would come over at 7am so Lorrie could go to work.  Then Stephanie W. would come get them at 11am so Brian could go to work.  Art would hopefully be able to get them from Stephanie's later in the afternoon/early evening.  That taken care of, I finally felt comfortable going to the hospital.  I still believed that this might not be "real" and they would send me home.

I got to the hospital around 3pm, and they checked me out, found out that my water had broken, and that I was still around 2cm dilated.  The contractions were starting again, but very slight.  Once the Dr. said "you will not be going home...you're going to have this baby", Art called his parents to ask them to come a 2 weeks earlier than they planned.  We also called my parents and let them know BBC3 was coming.  I brought a baby name book w/ me to the hospital, since we were still not decided.

I asked the nurse if I could have a room with the big hydrotherapy tub - not available, then if I could have a room with a regular tub (instead of just a shower) - not available.  So I was pretty bummed, b/c I had planned on using the tub to help ease labor - hoping to do it w/ no epidural again (like w/ Wyatt).  Turned out to not matter in the least because they had to hook me up to an IV so I could get pitocin.  My OB came in and said "what did you do??".  :)  The nurses and my OB were really pushing for me to get an epidural, and I kept saying I wanted to wait and see if I could do it w/out.  I had asked Art "why do I feel like they are bullying me into getting an epidural??", THEN I FOUND OUT WHY...Pitocin is a bear.  The contractions, which were bearable became unbelievable.  They were 1 minute long and 1 minute apart, and very hard...as hard as when I was in transition with Wyatt.  I thought for sure I was about to have the baby, but they checked and I was only at 4cm.  Epidural please!!  Ahhh, much better.  The Dr. had to adjust it after 20min or so, because I had a "hot spot", an area about the size of an egg where I could still feel the contractions.  That was very strange.  With the epidural doing it's magic, Art could concentrate on important things: dinner.  Curtis W. was very generous and brought Art Chipolte.  We checked that the kids had made a successful transfer to our house with Lorrie, then it was time to rest (I'd been up w/ contractions on and off since 3am).  Fast forward to 11:30pm.  The Dr asks if I'd like to "try" pushing, and I said "let's wait until I REALLY feel like I have the urge".  10 minutes later, they said he was right there, and I should give just one push to see if it does anything.  I sort of asked if we could wait until after midnight, and they basically said no, we need to do this now...and that it would take some time; he'd surely come after midnight if we started now.  They were wrong.  9 minutes of pushing and he was here.  Poor Art, had a rough time during the pushing and ended up sitting down for a bit.

After they got him all cleaned up and finished taking care of me (including removing a cyst - gross!), they gave him to me, and we got to spend some time with him.  They did his foot prints, and gave Art a cool "tattoo" of his 3rd son's feet.

One on each arm - Art chose his very appropriate DaU shirt

foot tattoo

Required post birth picture where the mom looks just horrible!  I had been up for nearly 22 hours at this point, yet the nurse thought I'd love a picture of myself. :)

Proud DaU

Our little splotchy baby - so so tiny!

The peditrician pronounced him in good health (he had some very healthy sounding screams!) and I tried nursing for a bit.  No luck, but we were pretty amazed to be holding our newborn, and he did not get whisked away to the NICU.  I was a little freaked out honestly.  We spent some time with him, and then I sent him to the nursery...I was just so so tired.

I woke up at 4:30 in the morning and called the nurse for some Motrin, and she informed me that our boy got admitted to the NICU due to respiratory issues.  Sigh.  Of course he did.  He had some fluid in his lungs and was having labored breathing.  I tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't, so I made my way down to the nursery to see him.  The setup at this hospital was the best of the 3 hospitals we've been in w/ babies.  I only had to walk down the hall about 30 feet to visit him...so much nicer than having to go to another floor.  After I saw him, I had trouble going back to sleep.  I was waiting for Art to wake up so I could tell him the news.  He was so excited when he had called everyone telling them that we would be bringing him home with us!  I was afraid he'd be so disappointed.  I called Art's parents around 6:30am and said they did not have to rush b/c our little bit would be in the hospital for at least 3 days for antibiotics.