Introducing: Andrew Gary Nolden

I knew I wouldn't make it to my due date, I just did, and I was right.  So, I had mentioned our lil false labor scare a week ago on Nov 2.  Well it seems that lil Andrew was determined to come on a sunday since he tried again on the 9th and was victorious :)

The previous night we had gone to the Provo Beach Resort for a lil family fun before the baby came-who knows, maybe it was the mini croquet that did the trick.

Later once we were home I had what I was sure were gas/constipation pains.  Either way, it felt way different from the pains I was having the week before and I wasn't having contractions from what I could tell.  We went to bed and I woke up around midnight because of these pains.  I tried to go to the bathroom many times but it never helped.  Finally around 2 or 3 as I was laying in bed awake and unable to get back to sleep because of these stupid pains, I started to whimper to myself.  Well my whimpering got louder and Code woke up.  He, like myself, didn't think it was the real thing, and the last thing we wanted to do was go to the hospital only to be sent home again (our dr said they couldn't encourage labor unless it happened naturally til after 39 weeks, and by this point we were only 38 weeks.)  We were even contemplating inducing on Friday if we hadn't gone into labor by then.

Code tried to talk to me/distract me through the pains, finally around 5 I think?  I told him I couldn't take it anymore and that we needed to go to the hospital.  He quickly called our neighbors and Miriam came over to be with Jake.  I remember Code came up and I was laying on my side on the bed and he put my shoes on me without me getting up then helped me swing up so I was sitting on the edge of the bed when:
 *kersploosh*
It. was. so. weird.  For a split second I thought- did I just pee myself?? there's no way I could have that much pee in me.....OH......."my water just broke".  Needless to say Cody believed me at this point and I'm sure if I wasn't so distracted by my own dripping pants I would have seen a certain amount of panic.  We rushed downstairs-even Code was surprised at how fast I was moving- and into the car.  At some point Code grabbed a towel but we were so focused on getting in the car and going-didn't use it.
Once again the drive over there was awful and painful.  Code ran any light that was in the way and got us there in a record 9 min (luckily there weren't too many people out on the road around 5:30 in the morning.  We once again pullled up right to the doors and left the car parked there.  As we were going up in the elevator and came out to the floor where you have to call in on a phone for them to open, they just opened right away-apparently they heard me coming and didn't need us to tell them we were there to deliver :)
I don't remember much just Code saying "her water broke ten minutes ago" and someone saying, "she's a side-sitter" (apparently I wasn't sitting flat on the chair and it's common when you're close to popping a baby out).  They raced me back to a room and when they saw the puddle I had left in the wheelchair no longer doubted that my water had broken.  Getting changed/on the bed/an IV put in/and checked was all pretty much a blur all while they were shooting questions at Code about my medical history etc and telling me to breathe.  They checked me and I was at an 8.  We got there right ontop of a shift change so they were trying to find the next dr who was still getting changed etc.

I admit I was nervous that I was too far along to get an epidural, and Code told me later that they were worrying about the same thing since it usually takes 20-30 min to kick in and they weren't sure I had that.  They got the anesthesiologist in there (luckily it was pretty quiet around there so he wasn't busy), and he did a partial spinal tap or something-the same thing they do for c-sections so that it'd kick in faster.  Once that set in I was good.  The dr came in (Dr Rees (sp?) and we started pushing.  This time around, prolly cause we didn't have a ton of time for it to fully kick in, I could still feel/tell what was going on which was WAY better for pushing.  (With Jake I was so numb that I had no idea what I was doing and it took FOREVER to wear off).  This time I could kinda tell what I was doing and by the time they were moving me to recovery I was almost back to normal feeling.

I only pushed 4-5 times and then he was out.  There were some NICU nurses on hand cause they found meconium before he was born, but he didn't swallow any so he was all good.  He was born at 7:27 am.  It was kinda cool cause we got to watch the sun come up as we delivered (not that I was noticing that til after the fact).
Andrew was 7 lbs 13 oz, and 19 in long (J was 7 lbs 6-8 oz and 21 in).

They brought him over to have some skin to skin time.  All the nurses were just gushing over him and saying what a doll he was etc.

Everyone was so impressed with how fast/smoothly the delivery went and were shocked when they asked us when he had gotten there and we said 5:30- last night?  no, as in 2 hours ago haha.  My recovery was WAY faster this time too which I thought was interesting.  Like I said, it was so fast and the epidural wasn't a full one, and I only had an IV in for less then a day as opposed to Inducing with Jake where we were there the night before and didn't deliver til the next afternoon.  

The nurses came in to help me go to the bathroom for the first time later that day and were shocked when I swung my legs over, stood up, and headed over just fine.  "look at you!"  I didn't really have a lot of bloating with water either.  With Jake I had cankles and my face was all bloated with water weight etc, but this time I just sorta stayed normal.  After the first day I was pretty much good.  Not to be too gross or TMI, but even my bleeding afterwards was way lighter/not as big a deal as I remember Jake's being, but who knows, maybe it seemed bad with Jake cause it was the first time?

shrug, either way I feel WAY blessed and Great.  We checked out Monday night not wanting to stay another night in the hospital (code tweaked his back in their awful chair that became a "bed".  Plus we were antsy to get home to Jake- that was the one thing that set my hormones off,  I missed him so bad and it felt so weird to be in the hospital with a kid that wasn't Jake-like we had two separate families.  It feels much better now having everyone together :)

Uncle Eric, Aunt Sarah, and baby O came to visit us:

going for a walk:

Jake came to the hospital but was very nervous which didn't surprise me.  He didn't get to see Andrew tho since they were busy getting all the testing/circumcising etc done so we could leave that night.  Jake was really cute tho when he did see him for the first time, and after his nap the first day we were home when I went to get him up the first thing he asked for was "baby brother".  I guess he was making sure this wasn't a temporary thing, that he was still here :)  In general Jake is doing pretty good with the transition.  I think being shuffled back and forth between friends/family and having his schedule thrown off was tough on him, but now that we're home he's settling.  

Jake's going home outfit:  (I LOVE this lil knitted sweater on him and the knitted booties!)

More to come!