The baby

I've let an entire month go without posting the details of Teig's special day. Month #1 has wound down and we are already midway through week #5 of this beautiful baby's life. It is already going too fast. I thought by the third baby it would not be quite as intoxicating to stare into his newborn face, but it still is. I just get lost in the hours of watching his every expression and his absolute purity. With each of my children I have worried that they would not come out as handsome as my first. Luckily, neither child will have to compete with Eirik as they are both equally endowed with good looks. In fact, when Teig came out I gasped when I saw how very much he looked like Eirik.
Speaking of seeing him for the first time; it is about time I get down to writing the story of his birth.
Some of you will want to skip all the details below. I make the blog into a book for our family history.. so here come the details:
Wed. Aug 4th I was induced. Yes, you read it right. Despite all my reasons and concerns and even after writing here that I would NOT get induced, I still did. I decided that having my parents here to watch the kids for 2 days straight while I was in the hospital was a pretty good reason, along with my Dr's promptings, to schedule the day. We got there at 6:30, started the oxytocin at 9:30, contractions started quickly, then the doctor broke my water. I had 4 times as much fluid as most women do for some reason and as the water came out the baby started swimming and his head rotated way to the left, then way to the right and we lost his heartbeat on the monitor. My doctor, who is very calm and reassuring, quickly called for anesthesia, an ultrasound and a lead and told the nurse to "FIND THAT HEARTBEAT". I knew I was moments away from an emergency C Section. I thought, "Great, this is what I get for getting induced!" Luckily his head rotated back down to the right position and we found the heartbeat and got a good lead on him. Phew.. that drama was over. The contractions got hard fast. I did a good job for a while.. and then I just didn't. My hands went into tetany. I was sobbing and hyperventilating. I knew I was supposed to relax. I knew all the imagery. I knew the right breathing. I just couldn't do it. It was so fast. I told Paul, "I am in my right mind, I will not regret it later, I want an epidural right now." They came fast and in about 12 minutes I had so much medicine gushing into my spine in a big fast cold wave that I was almost immediately numb. I don't like feeling numb. My doctor assured me that we would be able to "turn down the epidural" to the amount of "numbness" that I wanted. Well, that's not exactly true. After the initial dose, you are numb for a good two hours. After I realized that I really could not feel ANY pain I was kind of bummed. That probably sounds dumb, but it's almost a let down. From a level 10 intesity accompanied by tons of drama and excitement.. to a 0. No intesity and no pain. It felt like such an interruption of the process. I asked the nurse to turn off the medicine so that it could wear off and hopefully I could wait to deliver after it had worn off a bit. We actually got bored waiting and we turned on the TV. Isn't that weird to be in "labor" and be bored. That's just not right. Right on schedule, at about 2 hours, the medicine started to wear off. I got such an intense pain in my right thigh from the baby being on a nerve that I had Paul massaging it as hard as he could. He showed me later how hard he was squeezing and I could not bear it for more than a second but at the time he could not do it hard enough. That was the worst part, but I was grateful that I could feel the contractions so that I knew when it was time to push. It only took 3 pushes and he came right out. There is no way to write in words the euphoric feeling of seeing him for the first time. After doing it two other times I was not prepared to feel so much the third time. I had so many mixed feelings throughout the pregnancy. I was so worried that I would not be able to connect to another boy since I sort of had my heart set on having a girl. Those feelings that I had been so anxious and worried about for so many months all completely disappeared the moment I saw his face. I could not smile big enough or love any bigger than that moment. They put him right on my chest and I swear my heart grew like a balloon. People talk about a "swelling" feeling in your chest. That's what happened. When I was pregnant with Joren I was worried that I would not love him as much as I loved Eirik. I had a dream where I experienced that feeling where I could feel my heart expanding. It is amazing that our hearts can grow. It is amazing that there is room in our hearts for so much more than we think there is. With each child the JOY just gets bigger.
Here I am in that great big moment of love..











I hate being in the hospital room. A 24 hour stay is too long for me. I was on the edge of my bed packed and waiting for them to let me go home hours early. (Not that the nurses weren't excellent. And the hospital was great. I just wanted to be home.)
Little Teig is .. so far.. a textbook easy baby. He nurses, burps, nurses, poops, sleeps. He rarely throws up and rarely cries. This week he has started looking in our eyes more and wanting to be held more, which I have no problem with.

The boys love him and Eirik likes to hold him (for about a minute a day),
but there are no real jealousy issues.

Once Joren said, "put Teig down!" but that was it. I keep telling people that this is the easiest it is ever going to be having 3 kids. It is a really magical time. Having two other kids helps me realize how fast it really goes and I think that has helped me have more patience and to really just enjoy the moments.