Holy Contractions

(The day before I had him and the last picture I was supposed to have with my long hair)
Tuesday I had my last doctor's appointment. All went well and I was on my way. We didn't check anything. Why would we when we would be having the baby in a couple days anyway.

The last week and a half, I have been sleeping on the couch. My heartburn was getting bad and I would always end up there anyway. At 5am, my back and hips started hurting. I really thought that I was just sleeping wrong and tried to move around and adjust but nothing helped. Then I started feeling cramps in the front and I sore lower back. What is going on? A little bit of time goes by and I started to think that I may be having contractions. I'd never had them before. I didn't know what they were like. They were about 5 minutes apart from the very beginning. I remember reading in the doctors office the day before that if your contractions are 5 minutes apart or less to head to the hospital. So what did I do, I waited until about 6:30am when Jeff woke up. I wanted him to get sleep and I really didn't want to make a big deal of it, show up at the hospital, to only be turned back. The contractions hurt when they happened but didn't at all when they were gone. The contractions were also totally bearable, just uncomfortable. So I called the hospital at 7am and asked what I should do. She told me to wait around at home for an hour and if I still feel the same to head to the hospital. After an hour I still felt the same, so we got ready for the hospital. All that we needed to do was get Gunnar up and most things were in the car at that point. The thing that irritated me the most was that Jeff decided to whip out the ironing board and iron his shirt for the day because it was wrinkly. The irritating part was that it was a t-shirt. Geesh...so we waited for him to finish and headed out. By the time we dropped Gunnar off at Heidi's work and got to the hospital, it was 9am. They checked me in and hooked me up and almost wondered why I was there because I wasn't in really any horrible pain. They eventually told me that my contractions were indeed 3-5 minutes apart but my doctor will need to come in and check me to determine what to do next. We waited another 1.5-2hours for him. He eventually showed and checked and the looks his and the nurse's faces was hilarious. It was total shock. I was already dialated to 5cm!! They were amazed and I was amazed. We were ready to have a baby. The contractions continued to get more frequent for the next hour and a half that we waited for surgery. The oddest thing is that I could not feel most of them and many of them were supposedly more intense than the ones that I felt earlier. It was weird. I didn't even have pain meds. I think the worst part of prepping for surgery is the IV. Can't stand getting those in. They hurt and then it stings for a while afterwards. I can put up with the spinal block better than that. The surgery went really well. Way more relaxed than Gunnar's which was an emergency given his circumstances.


Brecken came out right away talking and making noise. The first thing that everyone noticed immediately were his big chubby cheeks. They are pretty chubby and kissable. Jeff was able to cut the umbilical cord and all of that great stuff. In the recovery room, the nurse asked how we spelled his name. Jeff and I realized then that we both had different ways of doing it. Oops. We hadn't talked about that. I liked Breckin, Jeff liked Brecken (spelled like Breckenridge, the ski resort in Colorado). We both felt our ways made sense. We took polls. All the girls in my family felt my way looked right and the guys felt Jeff's made sense. We decided to go with Jeff's version. Really only because if we didn't Jeff would probably spell it wrong over and over again. So really for Jeff's sake. I just keep looking at it on this board in my hospital room trying to get used to it. I will probably end up calling him Breck most of the time anyway. Jeff and I also immediately noticed that he did not have a nose like ours at all! It looks like my grandma's Hawaiian nose-wide and flat. We'll have to watch and see what changes it makes. The other big thing that I noticed was his mouth and how much it looked like Gunnar's. It should be fun to watch him grow because I can see bits of my side and Jeff's side in him. Unlike Gunnar who was all Jeff, no questions asked.

He is one healthy little baby. He has no jaundice, has been consistantly going poo and pee and eating super well. I am really excited about it because Gunnar and I struggled with nursing. He has taken to it for the most part and it is all practice from here. At night he sleeps for 2-3 hours and then eats and goes right back to sleep. Hopefully he keeps up with that at home. Gunnar did really well at night too as a baby and still sleeps well now. We may have two good sleepers on our hands.

Gunnar has been really fun to watch with him. He is super excited about him and wants to hold him when he visits. Surprisingly, he holds him really well and sings to him and rocks him. He giggles often when he looks at him. Wants to know all sorts of things. We were pretty sure that he was over his pregnancy until he brought it up two different times at the hospital. Hmmm, we'll see how long that continues to last.

Brecken had his circumcision this morning and did super well. The pediatrician said that he slept through the entire thing and didn't even bleed at all. He started crying when they put on the diaper and that was it. He ate really well when they brought him back and then was out like a light. He'll probably eat and sleep a good long portion of the day.

I love that I am a mom to boys (right down to the dog). They are so cute and fun and I was excited to see Gunnar's excitement. We have had awesome family support. Our first day was a busy one with visits from every family member. We were even able to Skype into my dad in Texas so he could see Brecken. That was really neat and I am glad that he was able to see him just hours old. My sisters are awesome! I don't even know where Gunnar is most of the time but I know that he is well taken care of between the two of them. They have just taken over and cared for him which means so much to me. It has been a huge relief not having to worry about him. He also loves his aunts and uncles which makes it kind of fun for him.

Anyway, I better get back to doing nothing really. A shower sounds great and cuddling the little guy sounds great and just getting rest before we leave tomorrow sounds really good. Life is pretty good right now.