Just another week, kind of...

While I should have tons of pictures of our newborn, I don't. I only have a story of traumatic week for this child. Monday was his first doctor's appointment, he looks great according to the doctor and I am in full agreement. While there, we had our little guy circumcised. Shawn and I both watched. I know that the choice to do this is purely cosmetic but we have chosen to do it anyway. After the procedure, while waiting for the doctor to come back in we checked his diaper and off fell his umbilical cord. What a joyous occasion other than the fact that now because of the circ, we have to wait for that to heal. So on with the sponge baths- which he hates.

It is Sunday and Hunter has caught the goomba that is going around our house. It started with Hallie being sick, Hayden next, and then Hadley. On Thursday I started feeling a little sick and now both Hunter and I are all stuffed up. This is an issue during nursing as he breathes through his nose. It was not a fun night last night. I was up every 45 minutes but it was even worse for my little angel who couldn't breathe. Shawn is back to work and is on graves so when he got home at 7:00 a.m. I went to the store to get some saline drops to help the poor little guy out. I think that my little irrigation job helped some because at least he is not snoring now.

Hayden and Hadley had a basketball game yesterday. It is sure fun to watch them play. Hadley is not actually on the team but because Shawn is the coach he puts her in every now and then. She is in kindergarten and is as tall if not taller than most of the 1st and 2nd graders on the team. Being the amazing mother that I am, I forgot my camera. I only got one picture of Hadley out on the floor with my craptastic phone camera. Here it is (that's Hadley in the red shorts):

School is still going strong. I'm plugging away. I got to watch a lap-band surgery this past week. It was very interesting and I now have a different view on caring for a patient who just had a laporascopic surgery.

Hallie is starting to have some attention issues. She has not acted out at all towards Hunter. The rest of us are free game though. She started pinching for no reason at all. She'll walk right up to you, smile, and pinch you as hard as she can. We are trying to convince her that negative attention is not the kind of attention that she should want. At night she wants my attention even when its time to nurse. She will sit outside Hunter's room and cry for me. This can be difficult when Shawn's at work because I have no one to help detour her attention and Hunter doesn't exactly fall fast asleep when his sister is sobbing outside his room.

Well, I can't decide if I whined too much in this post or not. Sorry if that's the general theme that came across. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with life and am so thankful for my friends and family who have been helping me out. Until next time.....

Our little Hunter

Hunter Dean Humpherys

01-14-10 @ 11:05 p.m.

8 lbs. 0 oz

20 in.

So its taken me a bit to announce him to the blog world. Hunter joined us after a 12.5 hr labor. Hayden was born by cesarean and I have chosen to have my other kids VBAC. There are certain risks and precautions that go along with that which includes not inducing labor. I was so hoping that he would decide to come early but I guess he had other plans. School started on Thursday so at my appointment on Tuesday I practically begged my doctor to do something to get me going. Seeing how they had already stripped my membranes at the two prior appointments, he decided to give it another valiant attempt- for those of you who have not experienced the joy of having your membranes stripped, keep it that way. Anyhow, I guess I whined enough because the Dr came back in to the room and said that if that didn't get me going, that he had scheduled me to come in on Thursday morning to break my water and use the slightest bit of pitocin if that didn't get me going.

I went straight to my school to talk to my instructors and let them know that I wouldn't be at class that week because I would be having a baby. I have to say that I am so glad that I chose EITC for school. My instructors rock. Not only did they help me fill out my medical leave form, they told me that if I needed longer to just take it and they would help me work it out.

The stripping of the membranes did a big, fat nothing to encourage the child to come. The next day (Wednesday) was a get ready for baby day. I went grocery shopping and bought about 2 months of groceries. I will only have to go to the store for milk and fruits/veggies. I spent a small fortune but that's OK.

Here we are at the hospital

On Thursday I got up, got the kids ready and to school and called the hospital to make sure that it was still a go. The nurse I spoke with said that they were busy and that they would call me when a room was ready. So we held off taking Hallie to Tena's house as planned. I sat down to look over my bags & make sure that I hadn't forgotten anything. The phone rang about 20 minutes later and it was the hospital saying to come in for my 9 o'clock appointment. It had snowed and was slick and we live 40 minutes from the hospital so we didn't get there until about 9:30 did the whole check-in at admissions and finally were up in our room around 10:00. My nurse did her thing, history, start IV, evaluate. I was only dilated to 3. The doctor came in and broke my water at 10:40 a.m. and they started my epidural within the next hour. And the waiting game began. As long as I was progressing on my own, they didn't want to start the pitocin. I progressed, but slowly- about 1 cm every 2 hours, but that's still progression. I didn't feel a thing. Now just because I didn't feel it doesn't mean my body didn't. Around 10:00 p.m. the exhaustion set in. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to push, so I slept. I woke up to some pain in my back which was not being relieved by the epidural pca so the nurse anesthesist (not sure if that's spelled right) came in to give me another dose. He aspirated some blood and it was decided that my epidural had slipped out a bit. He put me on my side and fixed it and that's when the pressure started. It was a good pressure though.

Right before I started to push.. don't I look tired?

Wham bam thank you mam, three pushes later Hunter was with us. The kids obviously won the name game but I like the name Hunter so that's OK. He has been such a good little baby. I'm up every 2-3 hours nursing him but that's just part of having a newborn. He hates his diaper changed and really unless he's hungry that's about the only time that he cries. The kids are in love with this child. Hallie is no longer daddy's girl, she is now Hunter's girl. She lives for the moments that we let her hold him.

Here he is.....

Sister loves him

I started back to school yesterday. It was so hard and there were a lot of tears shed on my part but Hunter did great with daddy and with the bottle that daddy introduced. I have been pumping so there was plenty of food for him. Again, the best instructors in the world, have totally accomodated me in a place to pump and storage for my milk. 15 more weeks and I'm done.


Well, this has been much longer of a post than I had planned. Back to the grind. I hope everyone is well and happy because I sure am.