Happy Birthday!

Tristan turned three today. He is such a funny kid. We are always cracking up over his antics My kids are obsessed with birthdays. I try to make their birthdays special since that is a day that they get attention all their own. Tristan asked for a Wiggles, Barney, Cookie Monster, Dora the Explorer (which he calls "Dora to the Explorex"), Blue's Clues birthday party. So, we had Sesame Street and Dora decorations, a Blue paw print cake, and a Blue scavenger hunt. He was happy.

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Tristan's Birth Story
Tristan was due on February 12, and of course, as usual, that day came and went. David had been in some sort of panic mode and had been taking days off from work "in case" I went in to labor. I think he was using me as an excuse! :) So by the 9th day overdue, David was running out of vacation days he could take off and my back hurt miserably, so very reluctantly I agreed to induce. (Although, I actually felt really well the rest of the pregnancy and didn't get my usual feel sick all day for the first three months thing.) My water was also getting a little low. They couldn't get me in until the morning of the 23rd which was the 11th day overdue. If we hadn't forced him out, I don't know when he would've decided to finally arrive.

We got to the hospital at 6 am. and by the time (they took their precious time) we got signed in and all the paper work taken care of it was 8 o'clock and time to start the IV antibiotics which I needed because I had previously tested Group B strep positive. They like for the antiobiotics to be administered for four hours before delivery so they didn't start the pitocin til maybe 10 am. I had decided to go ahead and get the epidural. I also had a doula for the first time. She was very nice, but it was really weird having someone just sit there til I needed something. I started to feel pain in my abdomen because the epidural didn't take on one side, so they turned it up, which of course, made me throw up. The throwing up speeded things up because after only an hour of feeling contractions, Tristan was on his way out! At 1:49 pm we had a Tristan at 9 lbs. 7 ounces and 22 inches. This was my 5th vbac. After delivery I was too nauseous to hold him so they gave me some anti nausea medication. This birth had way more interventions than I prefer, but at least everything worked out fine. We had a gread midwife who has just retired after delivering babies for 25 years. She's a Christian woman and prayed with us after the birth.

The recovery went well although Tristan had jaundice when we left the hospital. They wanted us to come back the next day, which was Saturday, to have him checked out. So we hauled all the kids back to the hospital (40 minute drive to the hospital with the midwives), and had to go back on Sunday as well. I was soooo exhausted and was very thankful that his bili levels had gone down on Sunday, so we didn't have to go back over there. I had a ton of breast pain because of some mastitis I'd had with Brooke. I was in (a lot!) of pain for a good six weeks, at least, when I nursed, but I was determined to nurse, and it all worked itself out.