Colby Cabot

We picked my mom up from the airport on Monday evening.  She was arriving just in time.  I was slightly worried that he would come early and mess everything up but those fears were unfounded.  Ron and Elaine were kind enough to come and stay over so that that Duncan, my mom, and I could leave the kids at home in their capable hands.  I got to bed about midnight and had a terrible night sleep.  We had to get up at 5:00 am to make it to the hospital for 6:15 and I probably slept for like two hours total.  I wasn't nervous...just couldn't sleep.  

Everything went smoothly at the hospital.  Unlike with Brady where I had to sit in the waiting room for awhile (apparently someone had been running behind schedule or something) this time they took us right back. Oddly, or maybe because they had no rooms open, they took me into the recovery area which has other beds in it.  So no privacy.  Most of the time there was no other patient in there so it wasn't a big deal.  Last time the IV had been put in my hand but this time it was on my lower arm and it was so much better.  I wondered aloud why the nurse last time put in my hand and my mom said that you can only work up the arm, not down so if you mess up and you're already at the top, you're done.  So I guess we can say that the nurse started at my hand because she must not have had a lot of confidence.  Ha!  I do recall it was rather painful so I was glad this time worked out better.

The doctor doing the delivery this time was Dr. Whitcomb and the secondary doc was Dr. Moore who was the primary doctor for Brady.  Dr. Whitcomb checked in on me and then a few minutes later, I was whisked to the OR.  The beginning part is done without Duncan there...the spinal and putting in the catheter.  The spinal went fine.  Just a few pinches and some pressure.  No big deal.  After that, we were just left to wait on the doctors to come in who seemed to have disappeared.  During this time, the CRNA entertained me with names people have given their babies.  One name was Raspberry..for a boy! Apparently so named because the mom craved raspberries during the pregnancy.  Then another mom named her daughter A-miracle.  Yup.  Craziness.   

Finally, the docs came in and I had them give me guesses on weight since Dr. Moore had guessed Brady's weight of 7 lb, 10 oz right on the nose.  She guessed 8 lb, 6 oz and Dr. Whitcomb guessed 8 lb, 2 oz.  I was not anticipating having an 8 plus pound baby so I was a little surprised at this but of course, it didn't really matter since I wasn't pushing anything out.  A little time went by in which you smell some burning stuff, typical, and then one of them said that his head was out and you could hear crying.  Thank goodness!  Then he was all the way out and oh, what a glorious moment.  It really is! Like Brady, he immediately started pooping and peeing.  I had my first look and saw a bunch of hair.  His APGAR scores were 8 and 9 and there is such a relief when you see that everything is alright because there is always that little fear that something may not be right.  In the end, both doctors were wrong and he weighed 7 lbs, 14 oz and was 20.5 ounces long.  He was one ounce lighter than Calleigh who remains the biggest of my babies but then she was also six days late and the others were six days early.

The ladies got my put back together and then it was on to the recovery room.  Oh, so to get to the name.  We had finally determined in the last few days that the name would be Colby.  I had "discovered" the name about six weeks ago and Duncan had added it to the list of names that we were considering as serious contenders.  Either Duncan really liked the name too, or he was being very magnanimous and letting me pick again, or maybe he wanted something to hold over me (You named ALL four kids), but whatever reason he had, he did say that Colby would be the name.  We had known pretty much from the beginning that we wanted the middle name to be Cabot which is for the Cabot Trail up in Nova Scotia.  Brady's middle name is Breton after Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia so we wanted both boys to have a meaningful name like that.  Also, since Brady has the double B, we thought it would be nice to have the double C for Colby.  And finally, I was happy that Colby ended with the "e" sound like the other three.  The only drawback was that Colby is a kind of cheese and Cabot is a brand of cheese so we were a little worried that the name was too cheesy but obviously, we set our fears aside.  If people tease him, at least I do like cheese.

Back to the recovery room...pretty much since Colby had been born, we saw that he kept trying to put his fingers in his mouth so it seemed like maybe he was hungry.  As soon as I got him in the recovery room, I started to feed him and he latched right on.  It's amazing how babies have that innate ability to know what to do.  After a little bit, Duncan left so that my mom could come in and meet Colby.  During this time, the nurse gave me my first dose of Toradol through my IV which I would get every six hours over the next 24 hours for my pain.  Thankfully, it worked very well.  

After a few hours, we were taken to our room which was the same VIP one that we had with Brady. Duncan had sent a note to the administrator of the hospital, whom we both know, the day before to let him know we were coming and he had put in a reservation for us so we were very appreciative of that.  After a short while, we got the word that the kids were on their way and that was the moment I was most looking forward too.  And indeed, they were smitten the minute they laid eyes on him.  They all wanted to hold him and Brady was just smiling from ear to ear about his baby brother.  This may change, but as of the time I write this, he (nor the girls) have shown one sign of jealously or anything like that.  I would say Aubree is the one who wants to hold him the most.  She's constantly pestering me.  It's also nice that with Calleigh now being six, I can actually let her hold him while I go into the kitchen to get something knowing that he won't be dropped or anything.  So it's good to know I have that extra pair of hands available if I need them (which I probably will once we're alone).        

The hospital stay went fine.  The nurses were fantastic as usual.  They were very attentive and if I ever needed anything, they were at my side in a matter of moments.  Mostly what I would need from them was help with the IV.  I had the IV still hooked up for the first twenty four hours and that darn thing would start beeping all the time.  Most of the time it was because it would get a kink in it, probably from the position my arm was in, but other times, it would go off for some unknown reason.  Duncan knew how to get it going again for the former reason but for the latter reason, we would have to call for help which did get a little tedious.  It was also frustrating when it would happen during the middle of the night.  The only other little negative about the stay, like last time, was the food.  It was very convenient being able to get your menu and call in your order but the taste of the food and the service left much to be desired.  It actually got to be a joke because literally every meal, they would forget to bring something whether it be the condiments, the butter, or what have you.  The one time they forgot the butter for my mashed potatoes, which I had been dreaming about for like an hour.  I called the number to ask for butter to be brought up and they said it would be 45 minutes.  Good grief!  At any rate, the hospital is in the business of healthcare and not food so hey, I'll settle for the top notch care :)

One thing that happened to me this time that was different from my other post-birth experiences was that my left arm and hand had this tingly feeling to it.  I noticed it within a few hours after the delivery.  My arm/hand felt like it had been asleep.  The middle and ring fingers were tingling like crazy.  It would come and go but it was more there than not.  It wasn't painful but it was very annoying and I found that I couldn't write and I couldn't cut my food.  They had the anesthesiologist come and see me and he thought it most likely wasn't anything to do with the spinal since it's not connected in any way to the arm but could probably have happened because of how my arms are spread out during the delivery.  Dr. Dukes came by in the morning and confirmed that was likely the case and that it would go away but could take one to two weeks.  Geesh! It has gotten a lot better, thankfully, but I'm still feeling it now and then.   

   

Because we pay each night to be in the hospital, I knew I wanted to get out of there on Thursday morning so we only had to pay for two nights.  The one holdup was getting the circumcision done which happened late in the morning and then we were out of there.  

Things have been going great at home.  Of course, it helps that I've had my mother here and my dad just left after a quick three day visit.  The first few nights Colby ended up in bed with us...not a preference of mine by any means...because he wouldn't settle into the bassinet, swing, or rock-n-sleeper.  But the last three nights he's slept in the bassinet just fine.  He has been a very calm and easy baby so far (knock on wood).  He rarely cries and goes right back to sleep after his middle of the night feedings (which average every three to four hours).  We took him on Friday for his pediatrician visit.  He had dropped to 7 lbs, 5 oz upon discharge and was now at 7 lbs, 6 oz.  This eight ounce drop from birth weight is to be expected, of course. Nonetheless, you can't help but question a teeny tiny bit about whether you are producing what you need for him.  My milk did come in on Friday which I knew would help.  At least, I think this is when it came in.  It's funny because with Calleigh, when my milk came in I was so engorged that I had to use ice packs, etc but with Brady and now with Colby, I could barely even tell the difference.  There was almost no change in the milk producing machines.  So odd.  Maybe it just gets less noticeable with each successive child.  

The doc was a little concerned about jaundice so they did some blood work which fortunately came back negative.  However, she wanted us to come in for a follow-up visit on Tuesday just to check things.  Easier said then done!  I waited in the waiting room for nearly 45 minutes and was almost ready to walk out (we waited for a long time on Friday too).  This was our first time at the new pediatrician office and I was NOT impressed.  The doctor himself ended up retrieving me from the waiting room since apparently a nurse had called in and to his credit, the doctor was very nice but my mind was already made up.  We are going back to our old pediatricians.  Yes, it may be a 35 minute drive but there is usually very minimal wait and plus, we really like them.  They tested Colby for jaundice which was again negative.  Also, the good news is that he had gained six ounces since Friday so that confirmed for me that things were going well with nursing.  

As for me, the recovery is getting better every day.  When my c-section was just about over, the CRNA had said she needed to get going because there was some other patient crying for an epidural.  I had a little smirk on my face at that thinking "I'm so glad I don't have to deal with all that."  But indeed, that lady gets the last laugh since no doubt, she was back to "normal" within a couple days.  Meanwhile, I had to struggle to get out of bed here at home and if I sat too far back in my nursing chair, it's almost impossible to get myself up from that position.  The abdomen just hurt too much.  I did get some Percocet for the pain but you quickly realize the downside as other, ahhh, problems, occur from taking it.  Ones that  make you terribly uncomfortable.  So I had to stop taking it on Friday afternoon and thankfully other problems were remedied therafter.  I could still take Motrin but I've stopped that too a couple of days ago because I didn't need it any more.  So yes, I'm on the mend.  I got the staples removed yesterday.

In other exciting news, my brother Rick and his wife Ana have moved here from Maryland so Ana can pursue a nursing degree at Adventist University of Health Science.  They are living on campus which puts them about 25 minutes from us and we are beyond thrilled to have them living nearby.  I haven't lived near immediate family since moving to Florida 15 years ago so this is truly exciting.   Plus, it will be so nice to have the kids get to know their aunt and uncle so well.  Brady already insisted that Uncle Ricky put him to bed the other night so it's working out great so far!

I think I will close here and just do some pictures.  

Oh, I do have a couple of quotes I've kept in mind that I wanted to jaunt down.  Two Sabbaths ago when we were at church, the pastor was having the closing prayer and Price (one of the almost 2-year old triplets) was in front of us and started crying.  Brady says loudly, "What is that guy crying about?"

Calleigh was telling me that Braelyn loves Calleigh's teeth and that every time they are together, Braelyn asks to see them.  So Calleigh says to her "This isn't a museum."