He's here

Okay so I KNOW that Nikolai has been here for almost two months now and I haven't put his information up yet but what can I say... I'm very busy.

So here's the Reader's Digest version of his birth, you know with out all the gory gross parts.

So on Feb 18 at 6 in the morning Tait and I headed into the hospital for an "elective" induction it's call that because I wanted to have it and since there was no "medical" reason for it that's basically what it's called... and I was pretty miserable and whiny that the doctor decided to do the induction YEAH! So we went in and they asked all the standard questions like am I having any contractions or has my water broken anything like htat and of course the answer was no because I was electing to go into labor so they had to start it for me. So I was started on Potocin and the contractions started. Nothing too serious and everything was going pretty smoothly. They checked me off and on for the next 4 hours and I was updating my face book as the day went on, why not right? I really wasn't making much progress I really wasn't dilating very fast and so I figured it would just take me awhile since it was me wanting the baby to come out not the other way around then at around 10 my water broke so I was super excited about that b/c I knew that once that happened within 24 hours this baby was coming OUT! So after that happened the nurse said 'well you are definitely in for the long haul now' so the contractions started getting harder and by noon I wanted something for the pain b/c it was starting to hurt a bit. So they gave me this medication that made me feel super strange. It was like I was moving in slow motion. Tait said I was hilarious when I was on the medication but I just remember feeling really strange. So Dr. Park had come in and out and was waiting for me to get father along finally I was dilated 4 cm which is the turning point for getting the epidural so I was able to get it! Hooray! So they made Tait leave the room, which was new b/c in Indiana Tait was always the person that I could "lean on" when I was hanging forward, but not in Wisconsin. But anyway. Tait was out of the room for a good 45 minutes while they did the epidural and I finally got to 5 cms but it took until 3 pm ot get that far. The nurse came in and kept readjusting my monitors because the baby's heart rate kept going off the chart and they wanted to make sure that things were progressing. I was worried because at that point I couldn't feel the contractions and my fear was that they were stopping and so they were going to have to do a c section. So I kept asking Tait to read the monitor to see if they were going... he kept saying "it looks like it" Then the nurse came back in again and said that baby's heart rate keeps dipping really low when ever I had a contraction so it answered my question about whether I was still having contractions but she showed me on the paper when I had 'large' contractions how his heart rate would go super low. She said she was going to report this to Dr. Park and since I hadn't dilated more then 5 cm she was concerned. Then not 20 minutes later she came back in and said that i needed to be on oxygen to help the baby's heart rate. So she put me on that, then had me do all these different positions on my different sides then she said "well that's not really doing what i need it to do" so she said that she wanted to put an internal monitor onto the babies head to make sure that she was getting an accurate reading, that took forever. but she got the task accomplished and said she would report back to Dr. Park then around 4:00 ish she came back and said that she was very concerned about his heart rate and then checked me again and said that i hadn't made much more progress as far as dilating not 15 minutes later Dr. Park came in, she must have called him. And at this point I was laying flat on my back, oxygen filling my lungs and just waiting. Dr. Park said came in and goes "well you are about 8 1/2 - 9 cm so is she prepped?" and the nurse goes "prepped for what c section, yeah" and he goes "no for delivery he goes she has just a little bit more to go but this is her third baby she should be ready to push and be able to get him out" So he told me I'll be back in 15 minutes so he left the room and she goes "well I thought for certain you were going to need a c section but looks like you are ready to go" so they got me "ready" in whatever fashion that means and then all of these people came into the room, it was like they were bugs or something and all just waiting... then Dr. Park came back into the room nd goes "okay we are going to have a baby in 15-20 minutes at the most" and sure enough 15 minutes later baby Nikolai was born. Now he had some trouble getting out b/c he said his head was in a strange position but once he moved his head he came out really easy. Once he was out I said out loud "well I"m definitely done with this" and Dr. Park laughed and it was all fine. Then they cleaned up me and the baby and I was able to hold the little boy. He was beautiful he was very bruised on his head from where he was slamming against my pelvis but for the most part he was just perfect.

Now they got me all cleaned up and everything then 30 minutes later the girls all walked in Lehna, Maya, and Helen. Tim followed in later but they three came in all smiling. Maya wanted to hold the baby and so did Lehna so I have those pictures. It was very fun to have the girls so excited about their new baby brother.

Nikolai Anthony was 20 1/2 inches and 8 lbs even and he was born at 4:44 pm so he is EVEN all the way around.

I have to say that having a little boy is definitely different than the girls I never got peed on by the girls and I have gotten peed on by this little rascal a couple of times, I'm sure more will happen. He seems pretty mellow as far as personality. He cries to eat and wants a clean diaper to poop in. He definitely fits into this family well. Tait is over the moon about having his little boy and I have to say that I'm pretty happy about him too.

Update since having him he is 5 weeks old so he can smile on his own but we haven't seen him smile at us yet when he's awake. Now when he's asleep he gives the BIGGEST smiles, of course we haven't caught them on film yet! He is trying to hold his head up but he really just likes to cuddle and snuggle, which I love. When he's awake he demands to be held and we have been able to 'trick' him by putting in the swing during the day so you can still get something things accomplished. But he is just perfect. He looks just like his daddy and has my blue eyes. I just can't wait for him to really smile at us that always makes me happy. He is starting to make sounds back which is really fun. The girls ADORE him Maya is over ally adorable to him, so much we have to make sure she is gentle with him. Lehna loves being the big sister and helping out when she can. It's really been wonderful adding another baby to our family and like I said before we are now complete.

Soon more to follow and hopefully pictures.