Our Little Man

  Little Man is finally here!!! He arrived on Friday, July 20th at 7:32 pm. He weighs 7lbs. 8 oz. and is 20.5 inches tall. He's absolutely perfect and is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life!
  I didn't want to put very much about his birth story or a bunch of pictures on facebook (there are a few, but not a ton) because I feel like my blog is a better place for all of that, so here goes:

  At our doctor appointment on Wednesday the 18th we decided that it was best to induce rather than let him sit for another week and wait it out, since he was already a week overdue and I was only just over 1cm dilated. After the appointment we went to the hospital on to check my fluid levels and since they were great, we were okay to wait until Thursday to start part one of the induction. So on Wednesday night I decided to put in a last-ditch effort to induce labor naturally and went mini-golfing with our friends the Hancocks and Reschkes. I made it through 14 holes before I was too exhausted to keep going, and just sat on decorative rocks waiting for everyone else to be done.

Me. Amy, and Nicole (with Dan photobombing)

 Since I was 9 months pregnant, of course I was hungry after all that walking so we went to Roll-Up Crepes and I got my favorite crepe (banana and nutella-yum!). I also saw the biggest jar of Nutella I've ever seen in my life! ...and I was really excited about it.

   We went back to the hospital on Thursday afternoon to start part one of the induction. I received two doses of prostin, the synthetic form of the hormone prostaglandin that thins and opens the cervix, at 4pm and 10pm and was planning to return to the hospital at 7am Friday morning to receive Pitocin, which makes the uterus contract. I only made it to 3am before the uterine surges became really intense and I started feeling back labor. I put myself in a few positions that are meant to mitigate back labor, but by 3:10 it was too much for me so I woke Jeff up, we grabbed our bag and left for the hospital. I utilized the breathing techniques I learned in Hypnobirthing on the way to the hospital and while we were waiting for the anesthesiologist to come in with the epidural.
*Quick Side Note* At this point, many of you mothers might be chuckling, shaking your heads and saying "Epidural? I told you so!" which is totally fine. :) Things didn't go exactly as I thought they would, but I want to emphasize that I'm still extremely grateful for everything I learned in Hypnobirthing. I learned how to help myself be calm, how to be an active participant in my/my baby's care, and most importantly, I learned how to take the fear out of childbirth. It was crucial to my satisfaction with the experience that the fear was removed from it. So as things progressed and I received the epidural, waited out the dilating, felt some back pain, and started pushing, I didn't feel afraid. That, to me, is priceless. *End of Side Note* 
  So after I got the epidural, which was at about 4am, I was much more comfortable and able to sleep for a while.

The very last picture of this pregnancy! Woohoo!

   We were really lucky to have several fantastic nurses taking care of us and seeing to all of our needs. We had one nurse that kept checking on me throughout the day that seemed a bit annoyed with us, but we found out right as she was leaving that she had had a migraine her whole shift, so we were able to forgive her surliness. :)
   Since my O.B. was in the office seeing her other patients, they had the on-call doctor come in and break my water (which I didn't feel thanks to the epidural!). He determined that there was meconium on the amniotic fluid (baby poop basically, in case some of you are unaware), which meant that as soon as Henry came out, he would need to have his lungs suctioned to clear them of meconium. I'm glad that we were aware of this a few hours in advance so we could prepare ourselves. After 2-2.5 hours of pushing, Henry came right out and the lung suction began. If I hadn't had the opportunity to prepare myself, I might have been really upset that the NICU nurses took Henry from me after I held him for literally 5 seconds, but because I already knew what needed to happen I was okay. Jeff was able to stay right with him, and the doctor talked me through what was happening as she was helping the placenta come out. The nurses cleared his lungs, but his breathing was really rapid and wasn't slowing down, so they took him over to the NICU. They let me hold him for 5 more seconds (not exaggerating in the least), and took him away with Jeff by his side. Fortunately for me, Jeff was lightening-quick with the camera so we have two pictures of me and Henry before he was taken away to the NICU for the night.

After the doctor and nurses took care of me and cleaned the room up, they took out the epidural and had me rest (alone, which was weird) for a couple of hours. It was strange and surreal to be in the quiet, dark room by myself after all of the commotion. I was a bit sad that I couldn't be with Henry, especially because I wasn't even sure what he looked like after only seeing him for two 5-second stretches, but I kept myself calm and rested until I was allowed to go and see him in the NICU.

This is when I finally got to see what Henry looked like. I was speechless when I saw how beautiful he was.

  Since Henry's breathing didn't slow down enough, they didn't let us take hm back with us for the night. But since I probably would've taken him to the well-baby nursery anyway because I desperately needed to rest, it wasn't super disappointing. I just felt sad that he had to be in the NICU with all of the screaming babies for a night.
  We got him back on Saturday morning and spent the day resting and introducing him to his family.

Grandma and Grandpa Pyfer were so excited to meet their first grandchild!

Our Little Man was really alert when he met his grandparents.

Henry meeting his Grandma Glover.

Henry and uncle Patrick.

Henry and Grandpa Glover

Grandma Pyfer couldn't get enough of Baby Henry

Aunt Heather, who had her own baby 6 days after Henry was born.

"Pappy Pyfer" brought Henry a Harley-Davidson outfit that he wore home from the hospital.

  Henry even got to meet some of our friends!

It was so surprising to me how alert he was when Nicole was holding him!

He wasn't as awake for Dan unfortunately.

It was so great to have our friends come visit!

  We took him to the nursery on Saturday night so we could sleep (since we knew we probably wouldn't be getting tons of sleep once we brought him home), and on Sunday morning I actually woke up before Jeff Beatty! Since that NEVER happens, I took a picture:

 It has taken me a while to get used to taking pictures of Henry. I had to make a special effort to take pictures while we were in the hospital because all I wanted to do was hold and stare at my baby. So here are the pictures I did take:

Some nurse with cute handwriting made this card for Henry. His birth weight and other info are on the inside of the card.

  Once we were home for a few days (and my mom and sister were taking care of cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc.) I started taking pictures again.

This is Henry's "bird face."

His eyebrows are so expressive, and he looks fascinated by what his hand is doing!

If he's hungry and I don't feed him right away, he tries desperately to get his fingers into his mouth.

Look at those beautiful eyes!

He just loves to move it move it.

He's just so tiny!

We usually try to keep him swaddled because his arms are always flailing around.

He gives me this look all the time-especially when I'm trying to feed him.

I love this smile! Even if it's just because he's gassy, I'll take it!

Not angry, just yawning. :)

Look at those tiny feet!

   I'm really grateful that we've had such a positive experience with childbirth and having a newborn, since it would be a shame to only have one baby when Henry is this beautiful! I can only imagine how beautiful our little girls will be!
*Side Note* Please don't misunderstand me and think that I've completely forgotten how hard my pregnancy was and that I'm anxious to jump right back in again. This is most definitely not the case. I'm looking forward to having more children, but not for a long while- a few years, at the very least. As worth it as Henry is (and believe me-HE IS), I'll need some time before I'm ready to be pregnant again, and I'll want to wait until Henry's not a baby anymore. *End of Side Note*
  I love our little Henry so much and feel so blessed to be his mom. It's amazing and still a bit unbelievable that this little baby grew from a collection of cells into a tiny person that we can hold in our arms. It seems miraculous that he looks like me and Jeff, and even though we look so different, the combination is perfect. I'm so happy that he is ours forever, and that I get to see him grow into an even bigger little man.