The Night Judah Barlow was Born

I had one of the top 5 coolest moments of my life this past weekend.  Birth is amazing. I've been on one side of it obviously..but being on the other side is pretty great too. Hillary had the kind of birth i've always wanted but have never been able to have.  I try to accept the birth stories the Lord has given me, and i am genuinely thankful to have been given the opportunity to carry my children no matter how they come out.  But WOW.  Childbirth the way God originally planned it...it's like nothing else i've ever seen.  Beautiful. Intense. Tears of Anguish followed by Tears of Joy. The First Breath of Life. Have i said Wow?

We were hoping she could hang on to this baby until Jake could make it home from deployment, but 5 days before his flight, baby Judah decided it was time.  Being her second the labor was fairly quick. No need for induction and all natural...i'm not gonna lie--it was hard work and there were some moments of desperation, but hillary rocked it. 

The pics below are right after Judah was born, Daddy Jake was listening in via skype...oh how far technology has brought us.  Pretty Amazing. 

oh sweet relief 

 

 meeting her baby

L.O.V.E

 Judah Barlow Sweatland

 She did it!

  the coaches get to meet Judah

sweet baby face

 the next day i brought Jack over to meet his brother.  jack picked out an elephant for his brother.  he was a little unsure of the new addition and he may have been more interested in the hospital bed, but i have no doubt, in time, Jack will be a great protective older brother. 

 1 Day Old

The Story of Davis

Part Three: INTRODUCTIONS and HOSPITAL STAY

While technically, you only have to stay in the hospital 24 hrs if all is well, since we had Davis at 9pm, we lucked up with an extra night stay...and then we also lucked up with a short-staffed weekend stay, which means that we didn't get discharged until about 5 that Sunday evening...so needless to say, we were more than ready to get outta there.  

On the first day of his life, Davis made lots of introductions.  

He met Nora, Holden, Nana, Poppy, Grandma and Pop Pop, Hillary and Jack. Whew! What a day!

Nana

Nora was hesitant, but curious of the baby. 

 we bought them both big brother/sister books and gav them to them that morning.  here i am reading it to norabird.  i do think she was more excited that the book was purple than anything else. 

first kisses

 

Holden on the other hand was pretty weirded out by everything and didn't want much to do with his baby brother--or me for that matter.

needing some reassurance

 we had to really convince him to come sit down and see Davis. 

Poppy

 our first family of five picture

Grandma

Pop Pop

Since we did have quite a bit of downtime at the hospital too, there was a lot of time for snuggles and cuddles

putting on his first outfit

styling

 Sunday morning snoozes

my fave

 ready to go home :)

The Story of Davis

Part Two: The BIRTH

About 30 mins after the kiddos left, the nurse and midwife came in to have a talk with us.  When laboring with the twins i never did progress past 8.5 cm--after 6 hrs of sitting (well in actuality, writhing in pain) we were hauled in to the OR for a c-section.  So, the midwife basically told us they wouldn't allow things to get that far, and considering i was still sitting at 4.5-5 cm (which is exactly how dilated i was two weeks ago) after 7 hours of pitocin they were not going to let it go on much longer.  We decided to break my water and insert an internal monitor to really gauge what was happening with my contractions.  

Really that's all it took.  My water broke, and the seriously awful pain and pressure came out of nowhere...like 0-10 in less than 2 minutes.  My plan of making it with no epidural quickly vanished.  I first told the nurses that the pressure was awful and i thought i needed to push, but my complaints were pushed off as they thought there was no way things could have happened that quickly.  

When they left the room, in tears i told mike i couldn't stand pain like i was experiencing if i still had such a long way to go.  So instead we agreed to the epidural.  An hour later...and a very awful hour at that the anesthesiologist finally came to set me up.  By that point i could have cared less what they were going to do to me.  The pressure was so awful i could hardly focus.  

Immediately after the epidural, the pain let up almost completely except that awful pressure was still there and my lower back and the backs of my thighs were still in intense pain through every contraction.  The anesthesiologist didn't think that sounded normal at all and went to find my midwife.  They came back together, the midwife checked me to see what was going on and was surprised to see that #3 was right there and trying to come out.  She basically said "you need to push now".  To which i was like, "yeah..no kidding". I've needed to push for the past hour and a half. 15 minutes later, my 10 lb 8 oz baby was laying on my stomach and crying.  

The pushing was honestly a relief and since i had only had the epidural for about 15 minutes i could still move my legs and feel the contractions coming and work with them--and that made the pushing go much easier--which was one of the main reasons i didn't want an epidural to begin with. That and i wanted to avoid the tearing if possible--but having a 10.8 lb baby really didn't help that situation anyway.   

It was honestly one of the craziest, but most awesome things i have ever done.  Although of course nothing can compare to what it's like to have your first children--in a way this was like the first time for me.  With the twins, so much went wrong--i wasn't even awake for the c-section and then i was in recovery for 36 hours.  That is 36 hours that i didn't even get to lay eyes on the babies i had worked so hard to have and grow.   Of course i was just so thankful to have delivered the twins safely and be blessed with such healthy children, but i really did feel like i missed out on something so awesome and perfect.  With this #3  i really longed to experience childbirth, and be the first to hold this baby that had been growing inside me for the past 9.5 months.   I am so incredibly thankful to have had the opportunity to do just that. 

As Davis was coming out i was really just in shock.  The midwife placed him right on my stomach.  I was able to wipe him off and hold him and snuggle him.  I was able to breastfeed and bond with him for almost 2 hours before they ever even took him away to check him out.  It was the biggest high of my life.  He was so perfect and so big and i couldn't believe that little person was just inside of me a few minutes before.  Totally Awesome. 

The Plan

He's Here!

 Yep, look closely.  Proof (as if you needed any, by his chubby cheeks) that he really does weigh 10.8lbs. We were shocked by the way that he weighed that much.  We had been told a few weeks ago they thought he was around 8 lbs.  so we were thinking with him being overdue he'd be more like 9 lbs.  Surprise.  Huge Baby!

 first bath

 first diaper...although mike and i had already been pooped on multiple times in the couple of hours we had him before they took him away to check him out!

one VERY HAPPY momma