Little Man

I'm in a very good mood, and it has almost everything to do with sleep. No shocker there. I know I'm not the only one whose mood can be easily dictated by sleep. First and foremost, Neva slept 8 full hours last night. And Wyatt, who usually graces us with his presence during the 6 o'clock hour, slept in until 7am. It's just so normal. I slept as if, gosh, I didn't have a new baby and a toddler in my house.

When he wakes up, Wyatt calls to us from his room. This morning, I went in to give him permission to get up as usual. He said, "Ma, can you turn on the light? You turn off my radar detector, Ma?" His radar detector is actually his sound machine. Ocean waves. But it has a similar shape to the radar detector in Ryan's truck. It got me thinking about how much Wyatt idolizes his daddy. He refers to the backyard as his office. "Can I go to my office, Ma? Drive my truck?" When he wants a granola bar, it's "I want a cigar, Ma." (And yes, he calls me Ma. Because we obviously live on Walton's mountain.) Looking just like Ryan was clearly only the beginning, and that's a good thing. I tend to think Ryan is a pretty great role model (well, minus the cigars, heh). I'm lucky he's the one Wyatt wants to emulate. As he grows up, he'll learn that rewards come from hard work, that happiness comes from a well-balanced life with family at the forefront, and that no matter how big and tough a man may be, his only true strength comes from God. I'd say my little man is definitely on the right track.

Confessions of a Non-Writing Writer

Hmmmm. So it seems my blog has been sitting dormant for more than four months. A few things have happened since my last post, and I'm almost embarrassed to have to catch up on so much. But here I am with my tail between my legs.

If you do the math, you'll notice that our new daughter must have entered the world by now! Yep, Neva Katherine was born on August 7, 2010. She shares her name with my Grandmama and her birthday with my mom. I guess we take that maternal line pretty seriously around here, heh. She also came a week before her due date, which surprised us all! More on that in a moment...

Neva (pronounced with a long E) is almost 7 weeks old. She is lovely. An easier newborn by far than her big brother was, and already sleeping pretty well at night. And the older she gets, the more she looks like Wyatt. In the looks department, I may have given birth to the same baby twice. And speaking of giving birth, I will now share my birth story. (Edited for public consumption...) If you're not a fan of birth stories, feel free to skip past the prolific italicized section below.

Our kids don't like to be told when to do what. When my son was born 2 1/2 years ago, we instructed him not to come on April Fool's Day. So, of course, he chose that day to enter the world. This time, we told our daughter not to come the weekend of August 6-8. My doula (also one of my best friends) and my secondary support person (my sister-in-law) would both be out of state. Tons of family would be out of town. Very inconvenient all around. And so, naturally, she arrived that weekend.

I felt the first "real" contraction while making dinner on Friday night. I told Ryan, "Hey, this is a real contraction. I remember these from last time! Wow, not a Braxton-Hicks!" And then we went about our evening. They started coming, not too painful, every 10-15 minutes or so, and kept that very slow pattern for several hours. I honestly thought it was false labor, because I was just coming up on 39 weeks, and I figured since Wyatt came 3 days past his due date, Neva would probably be similar. I went to bed around 9:30, I think.


I slept maybe an hour. Woke up to a stronger contraction, and then a pattern of those. Every 8-10 minutes. Stayed in bed for a couple more hours, but couldn't sleep through the contractions anymore. Woke up Ryan around 12:30am. Consistently 7 min apart. They hurt enough that I couldn't talk through them anymore. Rested and waited things out at home for 4 more hours until they were averaging about 4 minutes apart. Off to the hospital! We met my brother-in-law in the parking lot. He took Wyatt, and we were admitted just before 5am.


The BAD news: The doctor on call was the same doctor who delivered Wyatt. The doctor we'd filed a complaint against 2 1/2 years ago. The only doctor in the practice I PRAYED would not be on-call. The GOOD news: I was already dilated to 5cm and 80% effaced. And evil doc only had 4 more hours on his shift.

I didn't just go with the flow this time. I took my birth experience into my own hands, but I did try to be diplomatic about it! Those of you who know me well know I'm not much for confrontation. Evil doc checked me 2 hours after I arrived. 6.5cm & 90%. He said he was going to break my water. I told him not to do it until after I had my epidural. He frowned but said okay. Got my epidural when I was at 7cm, 100% effaced. Then the nurse came in and said the doc wanted her to give me pitocin. I told her no thank you. The doc came in and tried to talk me into it. I asked him if I was contracting regularly on my own. He said yes. (I already knew, b/c my epidural was pretty light and the contractions still hurt.) I told him, "Well then, I don't think I need any pitocin. I'm not in a hurry." I also knew his shift was almost over! So yeah, even less in a hurry.

The new doc came in at 9am. He was AWESOME. Very personable. Asked me my opinion before doing anything. Rad. They broke my water when I was at 8cm, 100% effaced. The contractions got very intense right away, and I was at 10cm w/in 20 minutes! I pushed for another 20 minutes. The doc was there the whole time, and was very thorough in doing everything in his power to prevent any unnecessary damage. Neva was born at 10:43 am. Just over 5 1/2 hours after our arrival at the hospital. I came out of the experience basically unscathed, which was a miracle compared to my delivery with Wyatt. Neva weighed in at 6lbs 15 oz. She was 19 3/4" long.

And that brings us back to present day. Wyatt loves his baby sister. He has certainly tested us, but he seems to take out his frustration on us and not his baby sister. A very good thing. We're enjoying our newly expanded little family. I have my complaints, (I'm sure you'll be hearing about them along the way), but overall, I feel amazingly blessed and complete.