On April Fools Day we had the privilege of announcing the impending arrival of a fourth family member! Rissa prayed for the baby in my belly, the boy, and we crossed our fingers and toes that she was right and that 'he' would have only ten of each (fingers and toes, that is!) Nine rather excruciating months later on his exact due date, I went into labor. I have to admit, I was hopeful he would arrive on his due date, because since I didn't go into labor until 5pm, that would have meant only a 7 hour labor! SWEET!! However, as usual, he had a plan of his own. In my own words (and chronological order) here is our labor story:
On Tuesday morning I went into work around 9:30 and did all I could to get my paper work and other duties in order enough that someone else could take them over for a couple weeks...since I do payroll, that is no small thing... I had planned to be at work for about 2 hours, and 6 hours later, I finally went home to have a VERY late lunch and afterward mom came down and we went for a walk. I had been having much stronger contractions then normal all day, but they were far apart. The walk did the trick though!!! We hadn't even circled the entire block and I was unable to walk through the contractions. We kept walking and the contractions kept getting stronger and closer together to the point that Todd finally found us in the neighborhood and took me home to get ready to go to the hospital! We got there about 8 at night and the triaged us first and warned we might go home...I warned I would be pissed if they did that. An hour and a half later though, I had dilated another two centimeters and Todd and I literally WooHoo'd and high fived when she said we weren't going anywhere! We weren't anxious to have our little bundle or anything!
We were able to have the exact labor experience we had planned on...all natural, calm and quiet. By 2:30 in the morning I was ready to PUSH but the nurses urged me not to until they could get a second dose of penicillin in me for my group B strep so I did my best. But, once I shifted positions to survive the contractions, my IV ripped out, and my water exploded, there was no stopping the pushing! I pushed four times and our sweet son was born! It was THE MOST painful, beautiful and empowering experience of my life!
We didn't find out gender so we didn't have a name picked out...we had a few boy names lined up and kinda found one girl name we liked...luckily it wasn't a girl!!! When we met him, all of us had the feeling he is a very old soul and even his face just has a look of age and wisdom about it. We named him Duncan Neirin, Duncan is Scottish for 'dark warrior' and Neirin is Irish for 'surrounded by light'. We love the contrast of the names and when he is in the sun, his little bit of red hair just makes his perfectly round little head glow like a halo of light...you could say it surrounds him by light... and since my name means 'light bearer' it has even a little more meaning behind it. He was born at 2:58 am after a total of 10 hours of labor. He weighed 8 pounds, 13 ounces, and was 21 3/4 inches long! I later realized a couple of very cool things about his and Rissa's birth stats... She was born in the 8th month of 2008, he was born in the 12th month of 2012, both were olympic years as well as Presidential election years. She was born on the 15th, him the 5th. She was 2 minutes after the hour (10:02pm) and he was 2 minutes before the hour. He was 8#13oz, she was 2 ounces more, 8#15oz. He was 21 3/4", she was 2" and 2 1/4" less....19 1/4! I am a numbers person so when I figured all that out it made me smile :) I know. I'm a dork.
He is two weeks old now and he is a wonderful baby. He is calm and peaceful and eager to take in everything around him. He has brought more joy into our family than we could have possibly imagined. Rissa has taken to him like a fish to water...she is a little anxious for him to be old enough to actually play, but all in all she has adjusted beautifully to being a big sister. She is loving and kind and shares the attention graciously. We are blessed beyond our wildest dreams!! We still haven't stopped smiling! :)
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