Day #5 - Sam and his surprises

The first couple nights after we got home from the hospital were pretty rough, sure.  But they still had their fun moments and K and I feel like we've started to get a better grasp on this.  The most important thing seems to be having a positive attitude and we're doing our absolute best to keep that in mind.  That brings me to our adventure this morning...

Sam started crying and we knew he had eaten not too long ago.  So it was only natural we checked his diaper next and K found a fairly wet one.  We went about changing him and getting the Vaseline on per doctors orders, when Sam decided to change things up a bit.  Next thing we knew we had a nearly two foot geyser that was putting some of the artwork in the room in danger.  Kristin was so shocked, she stepped back and started laughing.  I did my best to block the picture, but he was pretty much done by the time I really moved.  Sam wasn't done yet, though.  As soon as the pee started to slow down, he began pooping onto his shirt and blanket since we hadn't gotten the clean diaper in place yet.  Whew.  K and I finally stopped laughing long enough to get him clean and all the dirty stuff to the laundry room shortly after.  I think this was Sam's way of initiating us into parenthood.  This little guy is gonna make life interesting...

Welcome Samuel Rhys Connelly!!

So we left off when Kristin and I arrived at the hospital around 8:30.  We hadn't called anyone except K's parents so they could take care of our dogs in the meantime.  No need to get people excited if it wasn't the real thing after all.  We were admitted and waiting in triage by 9:00.  K was now 3cm and the doctor wanted us to walk around for a bit to see if we could keep the labor progressing.  By now, we knew it was the real thing!


We walked from 9:45 until close to 10:30 and K was getting more and more uncomfortable.  Dr. G checked her again and after finding her at 5cm, we were sent to our very own delivery room by 11.  By midnight, K was already getting an epidural and relief finally started to come.  We managed to get a little sleep in the next few hours.  I tried to act tough like I wasn't tired, but I hear I slept way harder than Kristin (yes, my wife who had an epidural haha).  The doctor broke her water around 2am and everything continued progressing just as quickly after that.  By 4:30, the nurse informed Kristin that she was at 10cm and nearly ready to push.  She started pushing at 4:50, Dr. Gausmann was called shortly after, and our little guy Sam made his entrance at 5:22am. 

For some quick stats, Samuel Rhys Connelly was 8lb 7oz at birth and 21 inches long.  He was born with a full head of hair and a healthy set of lungs.  We know that the rest of our lives are forever changed, but we are so so thankful and blessed to have a healthy baby boy to take home.

Sam had visitors galore the first day, but we never felt overwhelmed.  To be honest, everything was still kind of surreal.  We also had so many wonderful family and friends that offered to bring snacks and food anyways.  The first few nights in the hospital were a little rough, but we did take advantage of the opportunity when the nurses offered to take him to the nursery for a few hours both nights.  The real adventure was still yet to begin though!

A few more pictures from Sam's first days in the hospital:

 

FF!

For those of you that don't watch TV with Kristin and I at home, that stands for fast forward :).  Obviously I haven't been great at updating so we're going to go for a quick, one-post update here.

Back on Memorial Day weekend last year, Kristin and I got quite a good surprise.  We had just recently visited my parents and, on a whim, decided to pick up a crib while we were in Ikea.  God obviously had a plan for us because, only a few days later, we found out that Kristin was pregnant.  We took tons of pictures of Kristin's bump (our future Sam) along the way and Kristin kept track of all of this on her blog Little Baby C!

At the end of September we also found out that Kristin's sister and sister-in-law were also expecting in 2013.  It was a wild last quarter of the year, but that's a story for another time.  For today we'll start on Kristin's due date, January 30, 2013.  We already knew she was at 2cm and our little guy was only days away.  However, on that Wednesday, the doctor told us that it was not likely going to be soon.  We scheduled another appointment for Friday (one last check before the weekend), but we were both honestly hoping that Sam would be early rather than late.  After Kristin asked a couple questions Thursday afternoon, an impromptu appointment had to happen that day.  Once again, though, we were told to get comfortable because Sam didn't appear to be ready just yet.

Despite tons of walking, plenty of spicy food, and even a full moon, Monday morning arrived with no Sam and we headed to the doctor office for Kristin's next appointment.  She was checked again, told Sam was in for the long haul, and also informed she might start feeling some cramps for a little bit due to being checked.  About an hour later, the cramps started as predicted and Kristin thought nothing of it.  I (J) had to head to work for a meeting at 4 and made Kristin promise me she was OK before I took off.  Apparently the "cramps" had never stopped and even kicked up a notch around 5pm, though.  By the time I got back around 6:30, Kristin was starting to get really uncomfortable.  My stomach had been a little out of whack for the last day or so.  Kristin tried to downplay her pain for a bit to take care of me, but she had already started tracking how far apart they were just in case.  They probably averaged about 3:30-4 minutes apart and about 35-45 seconds apiece.  We called the doctor to ask a few questions around 8 and Dr. Gausmann did confirm that Kristin just might be in labor.  She said the triage center at Rex hospital was packed so try to hold out as long as possible, but we were in the car with the bags packed within 30 minutes.  We're getting pretty close to present day, but I think I'll end it here for this post.  We'll pick up next time when we arrived at the hospital on Monday night!