Well, it's certainly been a while and we are long overdue for updates. First and most important, Baby Anselm was born (he's already two months old! no, I do not have any more recent pictures, sorry) on April 16th. Yay!
Some of you may know that we opted to use a birthing center instead of a hospital this time and boy-o-boy am I glad we did. All in all, it was a great experience and much more pleasant than the many hours strapped into IVs and monitors and flat in a hospital bed that we had with the other two. I was free to move around as much as I wanted and get relief and help from Nate and our doula, Jessica. And thanks to Jessica, we've actually got pictures to document the whole thing!
I don't remember how I handled the contractions in the hospital, but here's Nate giving me counter-pressure (per instructions from Jessica) on my hips through a contraction.
and then 30 seconds later we're laughing and having fun again.
Of course, being at the birthing center means there was no pain management (other than massages, counterpressure, etc) and I was really fine with that. I had a mantra going through most of labor: "the trick is not minding that it hurts" from Lawrence of Arabia. But not surprisingly, by the time I was pushing, I had remembered that neither Lawrence nor O'Toole had ever had a baby and that message was no longer welcome! I found out later that babies who come out sunny-side-up are MUCH more painful to push out, so I feel a little better about how I handled his birth :) Because, yikes! Really!
Anyway, I checked in at about 10, he was born at 2 and we were on our way home by 9. Recovery was fast, seriously fast! By now, I feel GREAT and now have the long, hard road of losing all this extra weight. :)
The big brother and sister love their new baby and are, for the most part, really good with him.
You can see here the beautiful sleeper Nate built. It hooks right into our bed so he's there with us at night. Things are really good here.
In other news, Nate has finished his second year of teaching and now has summer vacation to spend with us! Lot's of fun ahead, I'm sure! And since we're starting a new outnumbered chapter of our lives, I'll make a new resolution to keep this baby updated more often. :)
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