Zach's Birthday

I posted a little bit about Zach's birth, but here's the whole story. Like I said earlier, my doctor said he would induce me at 39 weeks if I wanted. I was pretty miserable, and my blood pressure was getting high, and Zach was measuring pretty big, so I went ahead and scheduled the induction. However, as it got closer, I was feeling really nervous about it and had mixed feelings about going ahead with it.

The induction was scheduled for Monday morning (Oct. 15), and on Sunday night, I was about ready to call the hospital and cancel the induction. I just didn't feel like there was a good reason to get induced and that I should wait for him to come on his own. Matt and I prayed about it Sunday night, and right after we finished our prayer, my water broke! I guess we didn't have to decide after all! I'm glad Zach decided to come on his own. What an answer to a prayer, right?

Zach meets Mommy.

Anyway, my water broke about 10:30 p.m., we woke Emily up and took her over to my parents' house. My mom was out of town, but my dad didn't have to work Monday, so he was the best choice to watch Emily. We got to the hospital about 11:30. I was having some major issues. I had extreme heartburn, a fever, GBS, and there was meconium in the amniotic fluid coming out, so I was on a bunch of antibiotics. Zach's heart rate was skyrocketing because of my fever, and the doctors were afraid I would pass on this stuff to Zach as he was being born, so they took a bunch of extra precautions.

Luckily, they were just precautions and Zach was fine. I had an epidural, but I was still feeling a lot of pain, even after pushing the "magic button" so they upped my dose of whatever is in that epidural, and I finally got some relief.

Getting all checked out.

I didn't sleep at all that night because of all the pain even with the epidural, and by the time they gave me the extra dose, it was almost 6 a.m. My doctor arrived about 7:15, and after 20 minutes of pushing, Zach was born at 7:46 a.m. He was a big boy at 8 lbs, 13 oz.

Zach meeting Daddy.

Other than being tired, in the hospital, I was feeling pretty good. Zach got the hang of eating right away, and he slept most of the time. I was alone most of my time in the hospital on the second day since Matt was taking care of Emmy since my dad had to go back to work, and Matt didn't want to call a neighbor or someone. I was almost getting bored in the hospital!

Snuggling.

Once I got home, however, I took a turn for the worse. I was in so much pain, it was awful! I called the doctor several times and even got tested for a UTI and another infection. I didn't have an infection, but Zach's big head sure did a number on me! I am starting to finally feel like the pain is manageable now...thank goodness!

First Bath.

Our neighbors have been awesome! People keep dropping off food and gifts, and checking in on us. Which was really nice, especially with my mom being out of town and the rest of the family being  busy with work/school/whatever. Even now, 3 weeks later, we are still having neighbors come by. I have really been impressed! I haven't even had to break into my stash of freezer meals I prepared a couple months ago.

Washing that curly hair.

Zach has been a REALLY gassy baby, especially at night. It sometimes takes him 2-3 hours to go back to sleep at night. I'm trying to get used to this whole having no sleep schedule again. It's been rough. But at least he's pretty good during the daytime.

Sleeping on Daddy.

Anyway, that's our Zach, and we are grateful to have him here! By the way, we chose his name, Zachary Charles Lively because a) Zach was the only boy name we could agree on. b) Charles is Matt's middle name and his dad's middle name. c) Zachary means spiritual, Charles means manly and well-loved, and Lively means lively! What better qualities could a little boy ask for? Although Matt has started calling him Screech because of his dark, curly hair and screechy little cry. Ha!

P.S. My sis-in-law, Jessica wins for guessing the closest to Zach's birthday...she guessed right on! October 15.