Our second son was born August 27, 2009 - ten days after his due date, and weighed 9 pounds, 10 ounces at birth. He arrived at 10:08pm after about 18 hours of medication free labor - the birth story is long and I've promised myself that I'll write more specifics later, but suffice it to say right now, his birthday was an amazing blessing filled with one particularly specific answered prayer, a lot of incredible pain, and the perfect outcome - healthy baby and momma!
What a chunk! I include this picture because it proves he had rolls, even at birth. When he was placed on the scale, the nurse read out the metric weight and then made a mistake on the conversion. I heard her and sat there moments after the birth thinking "REALLY!? I just delivered a 10 and a half pound baby??!" oh no, just 9 pounds, 10 ounces!
After some additional excitement in the delivery room and a midnight pizza ordered into our postpartum room, Jack and I snuggled and slept all night with him tucked under my arm, smelling delicious! Introducing him to Brooks the next morning was one of the best moments of my life. Brooks could not have been more excited to meet his little brother.
Our growing family in Vandy hospital...
This pose, with his fist up by his face, was how he spent several months in the womb. All of our ultrasound pics of him have his little hand curled up next to his cheek and he slept in this same position for weeks after birth.
Coming home from the hospital to my parents' home was an incredible privilege. Having extended family there to help with Brooks and to love on me and Eric and the new baby made those first few weeks so much easier! Eric's parents came to Nashville the day after the birth to see all of us and stayed for several days of visiting and good baby cuddling time.
I love this picture of Jack sleeping in my mom's arms. This is peace.
Nashville had an incredibly mild summer, and the whole family got to enjoy naps on the back porch, including the new guy!
Jack even had his own spot right off of our guest room! Mom and Dad purged their cedar closet and made the room into a cozy little nursery for us.
Having the extra hands with meal prep and laundry, etc allowed all of us to enjoy more moments like this one... Brooks checking out his baby brother - what an incredible blessing!
My wonderful birth doula, Gaylea... she was just such a gift! If you're expecting and are considering hiring a doula, I urge you to do it! Her support was such a help to us, especially as we were trying for a low-intervention VBAC.
Jack had a very smooth transition to life out of the womb, with only a few truly sleepless nights, and only about 10 days of nursing challenges. Once he was past that hump, he continued gaining weight well and started sleeping... like a baby!
During all this time, our precious son still didn't have a name! It took us eight days after his birth to finalize his name, and oh my goodness, what a saga!! In the end it was the Vanderbilt vital records department representative who pushed us to make a decision - she informed us that we were holding up the delivery of all birth certificates of all the babies born in the month of August. We had to give her a name by 3pm or we'd face the logistics of legally naming the child on our own. Ok! ok!
John Frederic Wallace Wheeler - welcome to our world. We couldn't love you any more than we already do.
5 comments:
Wonderful account of Jack's arrival. I love the sweet baby photos. I enjoy reliving those special days via your blog.
What a summer! What a baby! What a gift!
Oh SC! I just love your postings and getting a small glimpse into your wonderful life. The picture of Jack and Brooks lying together is precious! Such sweet boys. Thanks for sharing!
This brought back a FLOOD of wonderful memories from this special time. I put this summer at the top of the list of all time great family experiences. Yes it really did top Italy and Egypt for me.
gbread
I loved seeing these pics and hearing the story after having seen you only days before Jack's birth. He is precious! I'm so glad that you were able to have so much support around the time of his birth! What blessings babies are, and I think we get to enjoy them more when we have help. :)
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