Tanner David Higham!
Dec. 8th, 2009
6 lbs 8 oz, 18 3/4 in
Now that he's been around for a month I can finally get around to writing about how he got here!
I started having contractions on Monday (12/7). In the morning and afternoon they just felt like regular Braxton-hicks contractions, but they were a little painful and fairly consistently 15 minutes apart. I kept track of them all evening and they varied between 5 and 9 minutes, then at midnight- bam! They were all of a sudden 3 minutes apart! This is the first time I've had to keep track of contractions so it was kind of exciting! I actually had to call Tyson's sister Natalie sometime during the evening to ask her if she knew the difference between Braxton-Hicks and real ones...I didn't know if I could really be going into labor yet!
We left for the hospital around 1am and I was dilated to a 3 when they checked me out. After we got all settled into my delivery room at around 2, Tyson realized that he was really really tired, so I sent him home to get some sleep until anything exciting happened. We decided that I shouldn't get my epidural quite yet so that I wouldn't have drugs in my system for tooo long, and so they wouldn't wear off too soon! So I tried my best to breathe through contractions for an hour and a half, and then I couldn't take it anymore! I got my epidural at 4am, and it was sweet relief!! I love those things- they make me feel so happy and like everything is ok in the world. I love drugs! Lol.
The nurse told me that she would come back to check on me around 6, so when at about 5:30 i felt like I had to go potty, I just decided to hold it until she came. I was really embarrassed, because I thought I had peed the bed a little bit, but found out later that my water had broken and that is what squirted out! (Just in case you were wondering!) 6:00 rolled around, and there was no nurse, so I was thinking about texting Tyson to update him, when he called me! I didn't want to disturb him because I knew he needed sleep, so I was just going to wait till someone came to check me. I'm glad he called though, because he needed to be ready to get there. At about 6:15 I knew I couldn't 'hold it' anymore, so I called the nurses station to ask them what I should do about going to the bathroom, so they came in to see how far along I was, and wow! The nurse said "There's a head there!" I was going to have this baby!
So I called Tyson back right away and said "You'd better get here!" It was kinda crazy because when I talked to him 10 minutes earlier I had no idea I was so close, I thought it might be a couple more hours.
So the nurses called the Dr. in and they got the room all set up, and we waited a couple minutes for Tyson to get there. Everything so was chill and relaxed- when Tyson walked in the Dr. said "Well, now we can get started. We were just waiting for you!" There didnt seem to be any rush or excitement. The Dr. actually looked a little bored! Or he could have been tired, I'm not sure. I pushed for about 15 or 20 minutes and we just chatted in between pushes. Some of you may think I'm really weird- I like to watch my deliveries! I requested a "rear-view mirror" so I could see what was going on. I love watching the head get closer and closer and more of it push up every time I push- so fascinating!
Tanner was born at 7:04 am and was so dang cute from the start!
I felt a little sick and threw up a couple times after he was born. I couldn't hold anything down for a couple hours, and I was really bummed because they brought me such a fabulous breakfast! I hate seeing yummy food go to waste.
We didnt know that he would be Tanner for about a week after he was born. We kept going back on forth between that and Charlie, and in the hospital actually pretty much decided on Charlie, but we couldn't commit when it came time to fill out the birth certificate!
When we came home we asked Jeffrey if we should name him Charlie and he said "No! Charlie is a cat! He's Tanner!" (Charlie is Uncle Brock's cat). So that is what kind of influenced us to decide on Tanner.
Now our little guy is a month old and he is definitely part of the family already. The kids Adore him! Jeffrey is always coming up to him and saying "oh, he's so cute!" or "he's so tiny!" and "I want to touch him!" Emily is equally as in love with him. She loves talking to him and giving him kisses. The only thing she doesn't like is when I'm nursing him, she always wants to sit on my lap and gets pretty upset that its occupied. She doesn't hold it against him though, she gets mad at me!
Getting used to 3 kids has been a bit of a challenge- Tanner is a wonderful baby! But having 3 needy voices calling to me constantly is an adjustment.
He is getting so big already- his little cheeks are filling out and his legs aren't as skinny as they were right at first. He has bright eyes that are always looking around, and he can kind of hold his head up. We love our new little guy!
