But back to the story at hand. My pregnancy with Arthur was my hardest pregnancy so far. I experienced severe back pain throughout the pregnancy; it got so bad in the final months that some days, I couldn't even walk around the house. Thankfully my mom came to help out and arrived a few days before I was due, so she took care of Emerson and Jane while I tried to rest.
By the time his due date was approaching (March 15), I was reluctantly considering being induced, even though I'd been induced with both other kids and really wanted to go into labor on my own this time. I was also miserable and in SO much pain. We decided to schedule an induction with my OB for Sunday, March 20 (at 40 weeks, 5 days), but I was hoping that I'd go into labor before then.
Saturday, March 19 rolled around, and still no labor. I had made peace with being induced for a third time, but then my wish was granted around 9:00 p.m. that night, when my contractions started getting a little painful and very regular! From the time those painful contractions started until Arthur was born, I never went more than ten minutes without a contraction, usually less than four minutes. According to my handy dandy contraction timer app, things started to get more intense around 11:00 p.m., and by 1:00 a.m. on Sunday, we were headed to the hospital. Andrew had tried to go to sleep around 10:00, but I angrily woke him up at midnight, very upset that he was sleeping through my pain, haha.
After being checked in at the hospital, I was informed I was only at 4 cm (I have low pain tolerance, okay?! Ha), but I was admitted because I was clearly in labor (and in a lot of pain). My contractions were steadily getting more and more painful, and since I already knew I wanted an epidural, I requested one as soon as we got into our labor & delivery room. At this point we also discovered that we had the same wonderful labor & delivery nurse that we'd had when Jane was born two years ago!
By the time the anesthesiologist got there and administered the epidural, it was around 3:00 a.m., and I was dilated to 5 cm. I got some relief soon after, but it didn't take effect on my right side at all. After shifting around and upping the dosage, I was still feeling all the contractions on my right side, so the anesthesiologist came back and adjusted things, and it was finally working on both sides by 5:00 a.m.
I was dilated to 7 cm at this point, so we basically just needed to wait until I was fully dilated. My OB was getting in around 7:00 a.m., so we hoped he'd be able to be there. Our nurse dimmed the lights in the room, and Andrew and I were able to shut our eyes and rest until about 6:00, when I felt my water break. We called the nurse at 6:30, and she told me to call when I felt like pushing. (They don't like checking dilation after your water has broken because of infection risk.) I wasn't sure I'd feel the urge to push with the epidural, but around 7:00, I was definitely feeling pressure! So I called our nurse, she checked me, and she said something like, "Oh boy, the baby's right here! Let's see if Dr. Harder is here!" He walked in a few minutes later in his street clothes to check on me, then he left immediately to get washed up. As soon as he got back, I was ready to push. About two minutes later (five pushes), Arthur was born at 7:38 a.m.!
He had a perfectly round head (hooray for quick birthing) and was cute as could be. After I'd had some skin-to-skin time with Arthur, the nurse weighed him, and we were all surprised to see 9 lbs, 6 oz on the screen. The nurse even weighed him again just to be sure, but the second time we got 9 lbs, 7 oz! Our babies have been getting bigger and bigger - Emerson was 8 lbs, 3 oz; Jane was 8 lbs, 13 oz; and now Arthur at 9 lbs, 6 oz. Please don't let that be a real trend!
Grandma Stitt brought the kids by to visit later that day. Emerson's Dash costume was a big hit.
The big kids have loved their baby Arthur from the beginning!
Adjusting to three kids (who are each less than two years apart) has been an adventure, that's for sure. Arthur has been a really good sleeper from the start, so now that he's sleeping a solid 11-12 hours at night, survival during the day is a LOT easier.
At four and a half months, Arthur sleeps through the night, smiles and laughs, loves being held, and only really cries when he's hungry or tired. He has super soft peach fuzz on his big round head and almost no eyebrow hair to speak of. We love our happy Arthur boy!
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