Hi girls!
Matthew will be 3 weeks old tomorrow, so I thought I better blog a bit before I forget too many of the details surrounding his birth! For those of you who like all the juicy details, here you go...
My mom arrived here on March 4th for a 2 week visit with us. We all assumed she'd have the better part of the 2 weeks with Matthew. The best laid plans of mice and men... So she flew in on Sunday the 4th, and Monday I woke up miserably sick with a serious cough, high fever, sore throat, etc. I was extremely nervous about going into labor feeling that way. I knew there was NO WAY I could make it through labor as sick as I felt. So though I was dying to have Matthew in my arms by this point, God was taking good care of me in not letting him be born til I felt better! That was Monday the 5th. All week long I spent laying around and getting better. My mom and I made a curtain for baby's room, hung out, etc, all the while getting more and more and MORE anxious to give birth since the days with her were ticking away. By Wednesday the 7th (the day before my due date), I was feeling pretty bummed because my doctor had to head out of town the next morning. I was sad/mad that he would leave town ON my due date when he knew how much I wanted to have a natural delivery and how I was concerned about getting pushed by someone else to have a c-section.
You know---- I should really trust God more! (Forgive me, Lord!) I was pretty worried about ending up with a C-section here just because even my doc kept being like, “oh my—this is a biiiiig baby”, etc… Well, my doctor ended up leaving town the next morning. No baby yet. That was another added stress, because I didn’t know the doc that he was leaving me with. Well, on Monday the 12th, 4 days after my due date, I desperately called and scheduled an appointment just to check on the possibilities of being induced. My mom was only here for 6 more days, and that time was ticking away! So, on Monday night, I had an appointment with the doctor—a LADY!!!! (YAY!)—that I was left with. Dr. Teresa Zamora was wonderful! She made me feel totally at ease with the fact that I wanted to have this baby naturally, etc. And—she was a girl---- rubbed my tummy, etc…. all that girly kind of stuff that the male docs just can’t pull off so well! Ha! So—I just felt like Jesus took such good care of me and – in the absence my wonderful midwives in Albany- I still had a woman doc! That was great! So anyway, she stripped my membranes for a good couple of minutes and said I was 2 cm. We came home and from that point on (8 pm or so) I started having contractions regularly. Steve and I went for a walk for an hour or so, and during the walk my contractions were about 3-4 minutes apart. We called Teresa at about 10:30 to tell her I thought I was in labor but that we were staying home for a while longer. My contractions were about 3 minutes apart and fairly strong while I was out walking, but then when I came back home (I was tired!), they slowed back to about 10 minutes apart. So—I went to bed (sitting up to keep baby’s head pressure down! Haha don’t know if that makes any sense or not, but I did it!) at about 1 am and slept between contractions until about 4 am. I was definitely waking up for the contractions-- they were quite intense. At 4 I told steve that I thought maybe we should start getting ready to go because I thought maybe the contractions would get closer together when I wasn’t just sitting in bed. So on the way to the hospital I already started feeling a really slight urge to push (oops! Maybe we waited a bit tooo long! Ha). We got to the hospital at 4:55 am, got me in the birthing room and I was checked---- I was 5 cm. The doc wasn’t there yet, and I could tell things were moving quickly. She got there maybe at about 10 after 5 and told me she’d check me again at around 6:15 (inside I was thinking, “I’m not going to make it to 6:15!"). Meanwhile, since I was at a teaching hospital, there was a student standing over me asking me questions like, “How do you feel? How are your contractions? When did your labor start?” etc. I was in transition at this point! So I finally yelled, “I can’t answer this crap right now!” (Oops- a little rude!). He kindly left me alone. Haha!
Thankfully, my mom was there too, because Steve was dragged down to the first floor to check me in. I was saying, “NO! You can’t go right now honey!” But the med staff said, “You HAVE to have her checked in before she has this baby.” He kindly agreed to go, but after 5 minutes of the process, he finally said, “My wife is about to have a baby!” And he left them mid-process! While he was gone, I was already starting to have an urge to push and noone was in the room except my mom! She ran out to the nurses station to tell them I wanted to push. So then everyone started rushing in, and Steve came back in somewhere in there! The med staff threw scrubs at Steve and my mom to put on. As I was trying to go from my side to my back, I was already starting to push. As I started to push, my water broke and then probably within 3 minutes or so, Matthew made his grand entry into the world at 6:05am! I tore (of course), but the whole thing went wonderfully well! Labor sure is INTENSE when you go that fast! Phew! I didn’t have an IV, or monitors on or anything! Yay! Matthew weighed 9 lbs. 2 oz (just an ounce bigger than Tyler!) and was 21 ¼ inches long. (We think that all of the med students and everyone were pretty surprised at how quickly I went... especially when about 70% of the births are C-sections. All of the medical staff was wonderful! I felt really really well taken care of. So- it was a great Mexico delivery experience! )
I was able to hold Matthew for an hour or so before they took him off to the nursery to bathe him and all. What magical moments those first moments with your child are! I always want to freeze my children's faces into my mind so as to never forget that angelic gift, and yet somehow they grow up so quickly and my memory fades...
I'm LOVING being a mommy to a newborn again, and as crazy as it sounds, I already envy people like Sue Pak Bae who are going to be giving birth any day now. What a miraculous experience. It's intense for sure, but absolutely exhilerating.
Oh - a couple more details. Matthew has lighter brown hair than Ian and Tyler had when they were born, and a little less of it. He has pretty blue eyes that seem to be lightening more and more each day. He is already filling out and putting on his little "chubby suit" as we like to call it.
He seems to have Ian's wider nose over the bridge of his nose, but really beyond that, I don't know who he looks like. His light brown hair has a hint of red to it. His hair combined with his coloring makes us think he looks like a ruddy irishman--- that's good, since his middle name is Irish! Thank you Jesus, Matthew is a really easy-going baby. God certainly knows what we can handle! With two other active little boys, it's a blessing that Matthew is laid-back. Oh ya, and at 1 week he already weighed like 9 lbs. 12 oz. I wonder what he weighs now at 3 weeks?!...
Oh, and since I hadn't shared his name with you before he was born, I'll tell you about his name. :-) Steve really does get set on names and can't seem to leave them, so that's what happened in part, anyway. Steve really like Matthew early on in my pregnancy. For me, it was a pretty average name. But-- it grew on me. But what probably sold it for me was the fact that the two Matthews that we know well are both really amazing people-- one being Steve's cousin Matthew Killinder, and the other being Matthew Jett--one of our best friends in the world from our time in language school in Costa Rica. Matt Killinder is the kind of person that you just love being around. He's warm and funny and loving. He also has an incredible servant's heart. And Matthew Jett is also really fun to be around. There's never a dull moment with him around. He's a people-person-- the kind of guy that just draws people to himself and makes them feel totally at ease. He's got a super compassionate heart and a deep love for Jesus. He's not afraid to be exactly who he is. We love all of these traits in these two guys, and we'd be delighted for even a few of those traits to be a part of who our little Matthew is! And the Braedon part-- well, I've always liked the name and just finally convinced Steve this time around that we should use it. :-)
Matthew- "Gift of God"
Braedon- "Brave"
Thank you for walking on this journey with me! I'll try to post every now and then! Please keep me posted on your lives as well!!!
With love,
Heather
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