Hunter Blake

I tried to prepare for it from the beginning. I knew this baby wouldn't come on his due date. I even tried telling people it was the first week in August instead of being specific. I tried to plan for the 8th of August instead of the first. But my cousin's baby came 3 weeks early, and I hoped. The last week in July I started making final preparations: setting up the changing table, cleaning the house for my mom's visit, I even did all of the laundry and then some. Then the first of August rolled around and nothing. The 2nd, 3rd, 4th, nothing. My mom decided to come on the 4th so she could be here when we needed her. I thought maybe the fifth. Nope, I got to go to church like normal-see? Here I am on the fifth in all my pregnant glory. People stopped me all the time to tell me how cute my pregnant belly was, but I it was getting old. I really wanted this baby to come on his own-it was so much easier that way! We set a date, the 10th, just in case he didn't come on his own. The 10th was so far away though, surely he wouldn't wait that long!

The birthing tub

The morning of the 10th I still hadn't gone into labor, so at 7:00am we checked into the hospital. The midwife leaving her shift came in early to break my water and get things started. (She was awesome for staying) Then we walked. And walked. And walked. Theron's new fitbit tracked us walking 6 miles by the end of the day. Around noon we got hopeful as my contractions seemed to be coming regularly at 6 minutes apart but we walked some more and they went away. At 2:00 I was in despair. "Most women go into labor on their own within 12 hours of having their water broken," the nurse told us. I wanted to cry.  Finally we asked to have the midwife come and start pitocin. I had been holding out because they kept telling us it would make the waterbirth more complicated, but we decided it was worth a shot. I got hooked up to pitocin at 4:00 and walked some more. I think I went around the hall 4 times before the contractions were too painful. We were waiting for active labor to get going before I got into the tub, and by 5:00 Theron insisted they start filling it up. I was able to get in around 5:30. My midwife monitored me for a few minutes, then headed out for a break. As soon as she left I knew I needed to push, so she had to run back to the room. (Later, the nurse manager told us she said, "I'm having a baby!" as she ran back and the manager couldn't believe it because she had just seen us walking around)  As ready as I was, I was not REALLY ready to start pushing. I didn't want to do it and resisted until I decided the harder I pushed the sooner this would all be over and I could hold my baby boy. At 5:50 p.m. Hunter Blake entered the world.

Starting to pink up. The midwife kept commenting the the beautiful umbilical cord.

He was a huge 9 lbs 3 ounces, but only 21 inches long. He was so heavy!

Logan & Lydia were very cautious when they came. Logan wanted to know about everything everyone was doing and why I still had a big belly if the baby was out.

My mom surprised at how heavy he really was.

First bath- apparently he loved it!

In the NB onesie I made for him. It barely fit.

The first few nights were a little rough, but we figured out he likes to be swaddled in the bouncy chair and he sleeps all night except to eat. He sleeps a lot still and only eats every 4 or 5 hours. I would worry, but Logan did the same thing and still got nice and fat. Logan & Lydia adore him and Logan especially likes to announce when "the baby's eyes are open!"