One Month

Yesterday marked Sawyer's first month of life...one of the fastest months of my life! I like Lane's method of documenting Mad's growth so I am borrowing it. Needless to say, it's difficult to get a one month old to look cute on cue. Yikes. Never fear - he really is a cute kid and here's a picture to prove it.

We're all doing very well. Sawyer's growing at what seems like a tremendous rate - he's developing some major cheeks and multiple chins - so delicious for kissing and munching on. The boys are loving him more and more - offering kisses and asking to hold him, wanting to watch when I change his diaper and nurse him. Soybean eats and sleeps like a champ - nursing every 3 hours or so during the day and getting up between 2 and 3 am and 6 and 7am during the "night". I'm getting 5 hours of sleep in one big chunk and feeling quite rested!

I am able to get everyone dressed, fed and out the door most mornings by 10:30am. We've been soaking up every last drop of sunshine and fair weather at the park or playing in our backyard. (Things like mopping, dusting and general housekeeping have gone by the wayside as I figure I can do that in the winter when we're stuck inside :) For the sake of my sanity, I reserve errand running for the evenings or when I have a sitter for the monkeys. It's just too sweaty and too stressful to wrangle all three of them in a shopping cart and keep everybody happy.

Thankfully, we've had lots of help from friends and family and we're feeling like 3 kiddos is starting to be manageable and even quite fun.

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As promised, here is a quick account of Sawyer's birth story...

At around 5am, the morning of August 14, I awoke with a sharp pain in my lower abdomen that quickly went away...but I felt that I had either peed myself or my waters had ruptured. By 8am or so, as I was up and about feeding the boys breakfast, I was sure my waters had ruptured. However, I wasn't uncomfortable and hadn't had any contractions so I decided to continue about the day as planned. The boys and I had a play date with Naomi and Kale to ride the city bus to a park, play, and then ride the bus home. So, we did just that.

The three bus-riders and their "nee-nee"(fruit snacks).

While at the park, I called Matt to tell him that he could stay at work until things started happening and I also called my mom to recommend she come up whenever convenient. We were back home by noon and still nothing happening. Sara came over with Amelia and some raspberry leaf tea that is supposed to help labor along - still nothing. By 5pm, Matt was home, Mom was in town and at the house, and still nothing...so I finally called the hospital and they asked me to come in.
The nurse confirmed that my waters had ruptured and notified my doctor, Dr. Helin. Dr. Helin checked my progress (or rather lack thereof) and found me to be 1 cm dilated. Since my waters had ruptured, I was Strep B positive, and hadn't had a single contraction, she gave me until 5am the following morning to go into actual labor and if not, she would prepare for a c-section.

Matt enjoying a blizzard and preparing for a night at the hospital.

During the night, I only had one pitiful, puny contraction. By 7am, Saturday August 15, I was scrubbed and prepped for another c-section. This c-section proved to be completely different than my last - thankfully. Everyone in the surgical suite was calm and cheerful, telling me what they were doing as they were doing it. I was calm and eager to meet my baby. At 7:51 am, a healthy, pink, baby boy emerged and after a quick examination went right into his daddy's arms. Matt held him by my side as they stitched me back up and as soon as that was done I got to hold my precious little bundle. And I never had to stop holding him. They wheeled us into a surgery recovery room where I was encouraged to nurse my baby while they monitored and checked my vitals and such. My boy and I were not separated until hours later when the nurses gave him a bath. It was wonderful.

Matt and I hadn't settled on a name pre-surgery, boy or girl, so once back in our room we took turns flipping through the name book we had brought with us to the hospital. By 5pm we had happily settled on Sawyer for his first name. His middle name, Eames, wasn't settled on until the following day when Matt relented to my preference for spelling it with an "e". (I wanted his middle initial to be "E"...Sawyer E. Schuyler has such a nice sound to it!)

Since I only had one baby to care for, I sent Matt home to sleep in his bed while Sawyer and I snuggled and slept. For the next two days, I relished the quiet, peacefulness of caring for one baby without the raucous of my two other sweet boys. By Monday (or was it Tuesday?), I headed home to join the rest of my family and start adjusting to our new routine.

There it is, folks, the happy little tale of how sweet baby Sawyer joined our family.