Birth Day

Throughout the month of December, I was in no hurry to have my baby. I still felt really good, and decided that I would rather, for the baby's sake, have him later in January, so that his birthday wouldn't get lumped together with Christmas. However, just like it happened with Meili, as soon as January hit, my feelings changed. I felt like a ticking time bomb, my stomach was in a time zone all its own, and because of the time off I scheduled from work, it would be really convenient to have the baby right in the middle of the month-no later. Josh really wanted the baby to be born on his birthday-the 10th so that some of the spotlight would be taken off of him, and that was the scenario that would give him the most consecutive time off work. 

At all of my appointments in January, it was the same story-no progress so far, and I wasn't having any serious contractions that made me think the baby was coming any time soon. I decided that my only chance for relief was the fact that my stomach was clearly SO HUGE. I was hoping that at 39 weeks (the earliest that the doctor could possibly induce me without reason) my doctor would say that I needed to be induced or the baby would be so big I would need a C-section. 

My appointment just so happened to be on Josh's birthday. The doctor walked in and said, "How are you doing?" "I'm fine." Then the doctor quickly said, "Except for the fact that you're still pregnant." I kind of laughed and thought "Yeah... there is that..." Then without missing a beat, she said, "Do you want to be induced?" My words caught in my throat. Is this a trick question? Is there another possible answer to that question that I'm not considering?

I talked it through with the doctor because I didn't want to be in labor for a really long time, or be forcing my body to do something it clearly wasn't ready for. The doctor didn't seem very concerned about either of those things, especially since this was my second. So we scheduled the induction for the 13th.

In theory, scheduling a birth sounds like a really great idea. I don't know if it's great for someone with a personality like mine. Already, knowing that I would probably go full-term, I tried to be super prepared-cleaned every surface in our house, was completely caught up on laundry, made freezer meals etc. But knowing the exact hour that I would give birth meant that I felt like I had no excuse to not be 1000% prepared. Plus, when I read a story to Meili I thought, "This is the last time we will ever be alone together." When I showered in the morning, I thought, "This is the last time I will ever shower uninterrupted by crying." (I'm exaggerating obviously, but it did kind of feel like my last day on earth.)

It also gave me the chance to get really nervous. The whole pregnancy, I was sure that something was going to go wrong. (I don't know why, but that was my gut feeling.)

Because Meili wasn't allowed in the hospital at all (flu season) we asked my mom to come stay with her. The hospital said that we should call at 5:00 on Monday morning, and they would tell us when we could check in. Of course, when we called they said that they had no record of us being scheduled to be induced, and I tried not to freak out. Although I was not excited about telling my mom that she had rearranged her whole schedule and stayed the night at our house for nothing. Luckily they called back about 15 minutes later and said that they went through the scheduled inductions for the week, and realized that we had been listed for the 15th, not the 13th, so they figured it was just an error on their part, and said that we could check in at 7:15. One benefit of scheduled births is that I got to shower and even do my hair before we checked in. (Since it was my last time ever :)

To make a long story short, they got me on pitocin as soon as we checked in and just kept upping the dose until I was finally having some kind of real contractions. The doctor tried to break my water earlier in the day (9 or 10), but she wasn't able to. So finally around noon, they said that she would definitely be able to break my water, so we waited and waited for the doctor to come back, and finally around 3, a nurse asked a different doctor to break my water-because my doctor was super busy at the time. When they checked me again around 4:30 or 5, they said that I was complete, and once the doctor was ready to go, I pushed for about 10 minutes and had the baby at 5:43. 

 All in all, I have very few complaints about the whole experience. Sure, I was uncomfortable. I hate having IVs in my arm, I hate having a rolled-up towel underneath my back, I had heartburn and was super hungry, etc. But as far as delivering a baby goes, I think we had it pretty good.

 I knew all along that this baby was big. My very first pregnancy symptom was being very hungry. I was worried I had gestational diabetes because I had to eat so often, then, the farther I got, the huger my stomach got. Like, I said, it was no surprise to me that our baby was big...

 I was just surprised at how big...

 9 lbs. 8 oz! You've got to be kidding me. And that was at 39 weeks. I overheard the nurses discussing with each other, "Would he be considered LGA?" I asked, "What does LGA mean?" Large for Gestational Age. I said, "He's 9 pounds 8 ounces, I'll say he's large for his gestational age!" Sure enough, yes, he was, which just means that he had to have his blood sugar monitored, but he was just fine.

 Now I said that the delivery wasn't too bad. Coming up with a name on the other hand? That was something similar to torture! I'd deliver him 3 more times just to not have to come up with a name for the poor child. 

I have said for months that if I were to name him myself, his name would be Grant. Josh was fine with the name, but didn't necessarily love it, and more importantly (to him) couldn't think of a nickname for the name Grant. However, he wasn't coming up with any other options. About a week before we had the baby, Josh said, "I'm really considering the name Kai." (which we had talked about in the past.) I really liked the name. However, taking into account the fact that we have a daughter named Meili, I didn't want to be "those people" who just really like vowels. Also, Kai is a chinese name, like Meili, and I also didn't want to be the white couple that has all the asian children. Lastly, we have a nephew named Kyle, and when it came down to it, I thought the two were just too close. But, like I said, I really liked the name. 

So we debated, and debated, and looked up the meanings of both of the names, and debated, and asked all of our nurses, and polled our families and friends, and debated, and came up with pros and cons lists for both, and debated, and tried to decide which name he looked more like, and debated, and asked our nurses again... I finally determined that we should flip a coin-as any good parents would do. Josh refused. I jokingly said, "Well, since you already won with Meili, I think it's my turn." (Which is totally not true. Josh suggested Meili, but we were both equally on board.) Josh said, "You're right. I think you should get to decide for this one." So very guiltily, I got my way, and exactly 10 minutes before we were discharged, filled out the birth certificate with no turning back. But Josh wants to make sure that everyone knows that I won one in our relationship.

 Here is our very small, but also kind of large, bundle of joy: Grant Louis Anderson.

 Meili was so excited to meet her baby brother. I missed her like crazy, so when we picked her up, I just wanted to hug her, and look at her, but she immediately said, "Where's my baby brother?" She was pretty sure his name was Ariel, and the first couple times we mentioned "Grant," she would correct us and say, "Ariel." But it didn't take too long to convince her, and now she is so in love. 

She has done really well with him so far. (She smothers him only as much as you would expect a 3 year old to smother a baby.) And whenever he cries she hurries to his side and says, "Don't worry. Big sister is here." I was so worried about making sure that she knew that our entire lives don't revolve around the baby, so I kept saying, "How about if just you and I do (whatever, something special)?" But she always adds, "Is Grant coming?" I think we don't give kids enough credit sometimes. She is not as self-centered as I thought she would be.

So far, everyone says that he looks like Josh. When Meili was younger, people thought she looked a lot like Josh but she is looking more and more like me the older she gets. But when I look at pictures of Grant, I feel like deja vu because it seems like we took the exact same pictures of Meili. Here are the similarities...

 (FYI, this jacket was when we actually attempted to put him in newborn clothes-that lasted exactly 2 days.)

Grant

 Meili (although not the best picture of her. This was when she had "old man hair" and Grant is definitely going to have that going on.)

So far, we sure do love him!

For the questions everyone loves to ask... He sleeps pretty well, I think. Meili was sleeping through the night by now, so we have unfair standards. But he usually wakes up about every 3 hours, but for the most part, he goes right back to bed after he eats, and that the important part to me. And he eats like crazy! He eats, and eats, and eats. Again, we have unfair standards, because I believe that still to this day, Meili doesn't know what it means to be hungry. But this kid is hungry all the time! (Which is good and bad. Breastfeeding is going much better than last time, and it's nice not to have to shove a bottle down his throat. But he isn't always hungry at convenient times.)

2 days after birth, he was 9 lbs. 2 oz., and at his 2-week checkup, he was 10 lbs. 11 oz.! Again, Are You Kidding Me? The doctor said, "He's average for a 6 week old." Yeah, that's about what he feels like to me.