Max’s Birth Story

May 1 2016

The morning of induction day.  Up bright and early at 5:30am to shower, shave, wash my hair – feeling calm one second and anxious the next.  Nervous for how the day would go.  Feeling guilty of having an induction set (regardless that there were health reasons) wishing I would go into labor naturally.

 But, alas, gotta do what you gotta do – Dan finished getting ready, bags were packed, grandparents slept over and were ready to take care of the big kids + we were out the door.

For some reason, being in labor and giving birth is hands down my favorite thing on earth.  It is surely the most emotional day(S) of my life.  Nerves, excitement, worry, happiness, pain … so much to process in just a matter of hours.

  10 months of growing.  10 months of nurturing and watching your every move.  10 months of anticipating this new piece of your family.

The excitement starting crawling in the closer we got to the hospital.  I couldn’t even eat my breakfast as my doctor made sure to tell me to do,  my stomach was so full of butterflies.

 Our nurse, Mary welcomed us into the room and got us situated.  Hooked me up to all of the monitors and discussed the plan of the day.  I needed at least 6 hours of antibiotics to protect Max during delivery ( reason why I was induced ) – so that s where we would start.

The medication was started, and we laid down and settled into the day.

Well, wouldn’t you know within 30 minutes or so the contractions started.  consistent, but mild contractions.  Mary was thrilled, she was excited to see that my body was going into labor all on my own.  I was so happy – it was time to sit back and attempt to enjoy the ride.

10:00 am –

The contractions are uncomfortable, but completely bearable.  I’m a freak and I love contractions, that is until they get to the point where your clawing the bed and crying.

I was so so happy I was at 3cm and the contractions did not back away.  I look up at the t.v. and to my surprise, Father of the Bride came on.  Folks, if you don’t know this by now, it is my all-time-favorite movie.  I just grinned ear to ear and Dan laughed.  He knew that would help tie over the hours – sure to follow, Father of the Bride 2.  Come on, what a perfect day.  I teased Dan for months on how badly I wanted to name this baby George because of my love for the character George Banks.  So the fact that this movie came on while in labor was just hysterical.

Daddy caught a quick snooze.

Hours passed – 12:00pm rolled around and the contractions were picking up in intensity.  The nurse checked me and I made absolutely ZERO progress.  She said I had quite the stubborn cervix, which I knew because that is exactly why both boys needed pitocin to get things rolling.  Since the medication was given fully by the time they checked me, they started pitocin.  I was thrilled and relieved they were going to help it along.

Nothing happened for a while – the contractions were getting really painful and they kept checking me every hour on the hour and I was making zero progress.

Out of the blue around 4:00 things got really intense, really fast.

I was checked, and I jumped from 3cm to nearly 6cm.  Just like that –

We were prepared for that, with Owen and Brody I went from 3cm-10cm within an hour.  So, it was an insane rush of “GIVE ME THE EPIDURAL BEFORE IT’S TO LATE!” moment.

Listen, kudos to you natural birthing babes.  Really, you rock.  But since there was no t-shirt, or glass of champagne waiting for me at the finish line I decided I’d rather not feel my who-ha ripping into pieces.

My OBGYN is the best around.  Literally the friendliest and thoughtful doctor you could ever ask for.  She hung out in the room, preparing for this labor to just progress just as rapidly.

Well, it didn’t.  This little stinker was going to make us wait.

The dear nurses that coached me along the entire day were on edge waiting for his arrival, and their 7pm shift was coming to an end.  They tried their best to hold out – but I was stuck.

Stuck at 9cm for an entire hour folks.  That’s where it gets scary.  His heart rate kept dipping time and time again, I remember telling the nurse I didn’t care how he got here, just to get him here safely.

And then, there it was. THAT feeling.  The feeling like a watermelon is sitting on your bottom and the urge to push was finally, finally here.

Dan did not want to watch anything this time around, not even hold my leg.  I was okay with that – even though I am one who loves to have a mirror set up to watch the entire process.  It helps keep me focused, keeps my mind off of the pain and gives me a visual as to how close I am.

But, I agreed not to.

First push — was an amazing one.  My OBGYN and the nurses were impressed.  Telling me I have great birthing hips, amazing pushes and should be a surrogate.  I laughed.

Second push — he made his way even further down, when my OB said “Didn’t you want to watch” I gave her the speech about how Dan didn’t want to “see all of that” this time around. She looked up at him and said, “Dan, this is her last baby, if she wants the mirror, she’s going to get it.” Just like that she held him in, so I wouldn’t push anymore and had the nurse grab a mirror.

Ah, girl power.  I was SO happy to watch.

A few pushes later and plenty of nurses in the room watching the show, this sweet itty bitty little man came flying at me.

He was peeing in the air as he came towards me, I had to actually dodge the stream of pee.  It was something for the books.

I held onto him so tight – just in that complete stage of euphoria.  There is absolutely nothing like the minutes following giving birth.  You just fall into the deepest transe of peace and happiness.  Ugh, it’s the best.

I felt awful as he was being cleaned up, because I told Dan I thought he was a “little ugly” when he came at me.  He laughed so hard and said he thought the same thing.  Now, were not awful people, he just has these crazy bug eyes flying at us, and the poop and pee may have swirled my vision.  HA.

I remember feeling worried because he seemed so tiny to me, Brody was 8pd 6oz, and Owen 7pd 7oz.  I apologized to him for not stuffing my face with sweets this pregnancy 🙂

He was weighed, 6 pounds 13 ounces, our tiniest babe yet, we just feel so smitten with him.

Maxwell John – Joseph had arrived, and by gosh was he not ugly.

He was the sweetest, tiniest most brilliant little babe we could have every wished for.

I think here I was saying in the classic baby talk “I so so sorry I said you were ugly, you are the most beautiful little boy I have ever laid eyes on.”

There is nothing quite like saying, “I have 3 boys” I have 3 little boys and they have one amazing Dad.

Max has the classic “Thome nose” Big blue eyes and fluffy fluffy hair.  Oh, he was kissed a million times that evening.

His name was a tricky one.  I loved Gage, Dan hated it.  He loved Connor, I hated that.  Max was always a name I adored, and it grew on Dan throughout the pregnancy.  We did not want to offend any of the grandparents by not picking their name for the middle name.  So we did not pick the midle name until the week prior when I went into false labor.

John Joseph is my grandfathers name.  A man I adored – A man that Dan adored just as much, knowing him since he was a teenager as well.  A grandfather who showed the deepest truest meaning of love for family, life and an amazing care taker.  It just clicked, John is Dans dads name – so blending it all together was just perfect.

I sobbed like a baby when I facetimed my mom in (she was sleeping over with the boys at our house) and told her we had Max’s middle name after her dad.  He passed last year, along with my grandmother and it was a really tough year for the entire family.  Carrying on his name just meant the world to us both.

It was somewhat sad that night because it was so late no one was there to visit him until the later the next day.  There wasn’t a rush of relatives with the excitement.  But, let me tell you – Dan and I quickly realized how amazing it was to just be the 3 of us that night.  I stayed up all night long staring at him.  I never wanted to put him down.  Even with how exhausted I was, i just could not stop looking at him and holding him.  I was high from the entire experience.

Brody and Owen meeting Max, no words needed.

Ugh, now I’m crying.  Look how tiny he was.

We always wanted a 3rd baby.  Truth be told, we really never thought it would happen.  We had a rough few years getting Brody + Owens health as much “under control” as we could.  We were fearful that adding another to the bunch was selfish, and we should focus only on the boys.  Now that Max is here, we have quickly learned he was beyond meant to be here.

He has brought so much joy, and filled our house with even more love, as if that was even possible.  He has completed our puzzle – and gives our entire crew so much pride to call him ours.

Max – you are everything we could have asked for, and everything we never knew we needed oh so much.

xoxoxo,

mommy.