Introducing…

Our latest addition, our not-so-little Adam Richard!  He was born on June 9.  He was due on the 4th, but I guess he was pretty comfortable in his Olympic sized swimming pool.  He probably would have stayed in there forever if we would have let him.  Unfortunately, my poor belly was stretched to the max and the rest of me was tired of carrying him too.  My doctor sympathized with me and agreed to induce me.  Seriously, how did I not pop?  That belly is huge!  I went in on Friday night to be induced.  Can I tell you how slowly the day goes by when you know you having a baby that night?  Anyways, after a couple of relatively easy hours I was at a 4 and started thinking that I had made it this far, maybe I could do it without an epidural.  That decision lasted through about an hour of hard contractions.  When I heard I was just a 5, I gave in and got the blessed epidural.  Then they got the Pitocin going (does anybody actually have babies without it these days?) and things started moving along.  I started pushing right around  midnight and he was born at 12:28 am.  We are lucky that he came out so quickly, he had his cord around his neck at least twice.  Even with the epidural, pushing him out was by far the hardest most painful thing I have ever done.  And I delivered Ben with an epidural that didn’t work.  When they put him on the scale I saw why.  He was almost 10 pounds!  I almost died when I heard.  My biggest before this was Carter at 8 lb 8 oz.  Dr. Hasenyager guessed that he was about 9 lb 2 oz, so even she was surprised.  So to all of the well-wishers who asked if I was carrying twins – no, just one really big boy and a boatload of amniotic fluid.  Seriously, this kid had it good in there.  He was so mellow, just checking things out.  He didn’t cry for a while, which kind of scared me, but they assured me that he was fine, just taking it all in.  He met his daddy first.  Then I got my turn.  I let them clean him up a little first.  That little hat kept popping off his huge head.  I love that they waited a little while to put the drops in his eyes so he could check things out first.  Saturday afternoon, he got to meet the rest of the family.  Samantha was super excited.  Sarah was happy to meet her newest nephew.  Sammy was supervising. Ben wasn't sure what to think.  He has gotten used to the idea though and is very helpful with getting Adam his pacifier when he needs it.  He does occasionally get tired of his crying and tells him to “just stop crying!”.  For the most part he is taking it lots better than I thought he would.  Mostly because Sarah is here to keep him entertained, but I am glad there has been no physical violence like I had expected.  Me and Ben have been buddies while the older kids were in school and I didn’t expect him to take Adam’s intrusion very well.  Carter is a proud big brother and keeps saying that Adam is so cute he could eat him for breakfast.  He’s very helpful too.  Honestly, he’s just enjoying all the extra screen time he’s been getting since we aren’t going anywhere these days.  And Mike still isn’t sure what he got himself into, but he knows that there’s no turning back now!  Sucker. 

Adam was super mellow in the hospital.  He slept like a champ, was a great eater and when he was awake, he just liked to look around.  That changed after the first few days, he likes to be held a lot more now, but he definitely got things off to a good start.  Much better than any of the other kids, who wanted to eat non-stop.  He must have been living off the fat stored in those chubby little cheeks.  And here we are headed back to real life.  Life where you can’t have the nurses take him for a few hours of sleep.  Where I can’t just sit and nurse and watch TV without other kids climbing all over us.  Where I can’t just call downstairs for a meal whenever I want one…  Maybe Mike isn’t the sucker after all…

Welcome to our family little man, we are so happy you chose us!