We've been excited about little Michael's growth over the past several months. Friday was the day for Kim's baby shower, which seemed to be turning into a very big event. Apparently, Mikey decided he wanted to be there himself. On Thursday, January 7th, Kim went into the the doctor's office for a regular checkup. Mikey wasn't due until January 20th, so we were very surprised to find out the Kim was already dilated 3cm! Dr. Crawford told us that he could come any day, or even that night. Sure enough, some contractions started coming that evening and at 2:30 AM Kim's water broke. We talked to the doctor and she told us to go right in to the hospital. At that point, the contractions were still pretty far apart and irregular. It's important to have birth pretty soon after the water breaks, so once we got there they gave Kim a little oxytocin to help move things along.
For the next six hours Kim labored, but the nurses were surprised how quickly she progressed and how calm she was during the contractions. Towards the end of that six hours, though, labor started to become quite painful. At about 8:30 Kim was nearly 7 cm dilated and the anesthesiologist came by for an epidural. We were both very grateful when things started to become less painful. By 11:00 it was time to start pushing. After a lot of very hard work, we had only made a little progress. Mikey was having a hard time getting past the pubic bone. By 2:00 the doctor decided to use forceps to help with delivery.
Mikey was born at 2:33pm and in very good shape. He weighed 6 lbs, 5 oz., which is significantly more than the doctor expected. He also managed to get home from the hospital without losing more than 2 oz. He's 20" long and is noticeably smaller than some of the other newborns at the hospital, but he seems healthy and happy. Kimmie had some tearing (they tell us it's partial level 3 tearing), so we are very grateful for the epidural.
Holding Michael for the first time was one of the most beautiful moments in my life. I felt some of the strongest feelings of love and happiness that I've ever felt. The only comparable experiences I can think of were at baptisms as a missionary, or when I was sealed to Kim in the temple. I know Kim felt the same way.
Here is a picture of our new family soon after the birth:
Throughout the whole experience, Dr. Crawford was just amazing. In fact, all of the people at Adventist were great.
Our first night with Mikey was a sleepless one for Kim. I unhelpfully conked out on the couch as soon as Mikey seemed asleep. Kim had a much harder time sleeping--in fact, she didn't get four hours of straight sleep until we came home on Sunday. She also had a much harder time eating the wretched hospital food than I did. Mikey is an amazingly good baby. He only seems to cry when he has a specific complaint, and it's usually pretty easy to figure out what that is. Although he likes to be held, he seems to be fine sleeping in a bassinet or his rocker. Nursing had a bit of a learning curve, but now Mikey and Kim are doing really well.
One part of the whole experience I didn't handle very well was when Mikey was circumcised. He actually seemed fine with it. When the doctor came to take him away for it, I came along. When I got there, a couple of the nurses suggested I had better sit down for it. Being an incredibly tough military father, I felt it was a bit beneath my dignity to accept. They put a stool in the room anyway. Mikey didn't even cry when the doctor gave him the local anesthetic, and really seemed completely numb for the rest of it. I felt fine during most of it, but as the nurses came to get Mikey to his hearing test I suddenly became very pale and felt dizzy. The nurses thought it was very funny when I decided to sit down rather than follow Mikey into the room where the hearing test was to happen. They even brought my some orange juice to help me recover. Mikey became a little cranky that night, but overall I don't think the ordeal affected him as much as it affected me.
Here's a picture of the little guy after coming home:
We are so grateful for Kim's mother, who is helping us this week, and for our wonderful ward, who has stopped by to bring us a couple of meals. We really feel like this whole experience has been a huge blessing to us. We'll keep you posted with more pictures and videos in the weeks to come.
