Sweet Baby James

As expected, baby #3 comes and immediately I am behind!! He is about 7 weeks old now but I want to back up and tell his birth story.

It was Tuesday April 8th and, as usual, I was feeling done with being pregnant. Moving, walking, breathing were all hard. I still had two weeks till my due date. Cole was getting ready for work that day and said, "Just in case you are thinking about going into labor today, don't. Wait till tomorrow after I give my last final." After that he would have a week off between semesters before he would need to be back teaching. "Oh okay," I said knowing nothing of the sort was going to happen. The day was usual and that night I had a Relief Society activity. The activity ended and I was walking over to a group of sisters to chat before going home. On my way over there I felt an involuntary small trickle. I had never gone into labor on my own, so the thought of my water breaking on its own, possibly somewhere out in public, was terrifying. So I immediately became paranoid that this is what was happening. I quickly reassured myself that this was likely not the case, because previous doctors have commented on how unusually tough my water sacs have been. But I was still a bit paranoid and therefore forwent my conversation with these ladies, walked right past them and headed straight home. When I got home, I checked things out and still wasn't convinced until it happened again. Now I was starting to freak out a little. My friend Beth was my night time person to call in case anything happened during the night. By now it is about 10 pm. I called her to put her on stand by. She said she was just walking home from the activity and about to pass my house and could stop by if I wanted. She came in, I called and talked to a nurse and we decided it was time to go to the hospital. Now I am really freaking out thinking that I might be in labor! We got to the hospital and sure enough my water had broken and we were going to have a baby! It was about midnight when we got settled in my room, phone calls made and the epidural pumping away.

 My last babies came progressively faster so I totally expecting a fast delivery. But I made very slow progress. It was an awful night. So uncomfortable, can't sleep, anxious about the upcoming delivery, no idea what to name the baby, etc. Finally about 7am things started happening. I was all the way dilated and they called to wake up the doctor. A few hard pushes later and he was here! He was born still in his water sac. Part of it had not broken all the way. Cole saw James flail his arm inside the sac which broke it. Then he started crying. A beautiful sound! He was born at 7:09am and was 7lb 10 ounces, 20 inches long. And he had a small amount of hair. I was hoping for a red head and it kind of looked red but I didn't know if that was what I was seeing or just what I wanted to see. (Since then he's grown some hair and it is definitely red!! Woo hoo! Got my red head.)

Cole went and picked up the kids at Beth's house and brought them to see James. Such a special moment when the older siblings meet the newest one.

Then Cole took Cade to school and took Rylee to campus to give his last final. Cole's parents were on their way up from Utah to stay with the kids and help out for the week. Bringing James home was so fun and a little surreal.

He has some very loving siblings who love him very much!

Since then there have been lots of ups and downs. James has been a great baby. He even sleeps a little at night! Nursing has been the biggest frustration. I thought since I had done it successfully before that it would not be a problem. Wrong. I had cracks, bleeding, mastitis, thrush, and a baby with a small mouth. I went back and forth from pumping to nursing, whichever hurt the least at the time. For a while I would cry at every feeding because the pain was so bad. After 5 weeks of dealing with everything, things finally started to heal and look promising. Now at about 7 weeks I am able to nurse without a problem. Luckily through all of this James has been very flexible. He likes to nurse, he takes a bottle well, and he likes his binky.

First bath at home in our beloved pink bathroom

When he was a couple weeks old my mom came out for a week to help. Super helpful! She took this cute picture of him.

Now we are getting back into the swing of things. Going places with the kids, grocery shopping with all 3, making dinner, and being a family of 5. Sometimes it is a piece of cake and sometimes I am stressed out of my mind! But we love our baby James and are so glad he joined our family.