My Little Pumpkin Boy

My little Corde Russell, I am so in love with you. 

Being needed by such a delicate and innocent little human is more fulfilling than I could have ever imagined. 

I love being a mom. Oh my gosh, I'm a MOM. It feels good to finally say that. 

Being a mom has changed me so much in such a short amount of time. It's only been 3 and a half weeks and I feel like an entirely different person.  

I've become a ton more confident. I have never felt prettier, ever. It might be because I've got a handsome little baby boy as an accessory or maybe it's because my boobs are double the size they were last year. (hehe)

Another thing I have come to realize is I LOVE MY HUSBAND. I love him even more than I thought and I miss him. He has been so busy going to school and working. When he's home I have him watch Rusty so I can catch up on sleep. If not that than I am busy doing something else or I'm grumpy from the lack of sleep. I miss him SO much. I want to snuggle him all day long but that's just not realistic. 

Lastly, I am realizing how lucky I am to have the family that I do. My mom was here with me through my birth and more than a week afterwards. Then my mom-in-law was here to help me the following week.  They both cleaned, organized, cooked and stayed up at night to help me with Russell. I don't know how I would have gotten through the last few weeks without them. 

So I Had a Baby

I've been dying to get on my computer and write about my birth experience.

I underestimated the discomfort of post-pardum in every way. It absolutely sucks. I can barely walk, I can barely sit and my boobs hurt SO BAD.

But oh well. It's worth it.

So on Wednesday, December 31 at 9am I went to see my doctor to check if my cervix had dilated to at least a 3. I was planning to get induced the following day, but since I was dilated to a 3 and 80% effaced, I was able to head over to the hospital to get induced about an hour after my appointment.

Corde, my mom and I were at the hospital a little before 11 and I was hooked up to an IV and started pitocin right away.

At about 12:30 my doctor came in to break my water. Weirdest thing ever!!! It felt like I was peeing myself, but the pee was never-ending.

At that point my contractions got massively painful. I knew contractions would be painful but I didn't know they'd be THAT painful.

I will never have a natural birth.

By 3:00 I got my epidural. THANK GOODNESS FOR EPIDURALS.

And by 5:30 I was dilated to a 6 and having contractions about a minute or so apart.

At about 7:30 I started having a fever. I felt pretty miserable and just wanted to get my baby out of me!!  I was shaking like crazy. It was annoying.

Also, every time I contracted, Russell's heart rate would drop and that scared me. He actually ended up being born with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck.

I was getting incredibly impatient.

Luckily, I was able to start pushing about an hour later. I was surprised by how easy the actual pushing part of labor was. It was fast and didn't hurt at all. I only pushed for about 30 minutes.

It just felt like I was pooping. Maybe that's just because on top of giving birth, I really WAS pooping. (hehe)

Little Russell was born at 9:34pm. He weighed 7lbs 10oz and was 21 inches long.

Seeing my baby for the first time ever was completely surreal. I finally got to hold the baby that I had been dreaming of for the past 9 months.

He is so perfect. Plus he literally gets cuter every single day.