Had a baby, it's a boy!

With Sawyer's labor I've always felt that I didn't have the right to explain to pregnant woman what labor was like. You see, with Sawyer, I went in before the contractions were really painful, got an epidural, watched TV for a couple of hours and then with only 15 minutes of pushing I had a baby. That is not typically how it goes. I literally didn't feel one contraction and had to look at the computer for it to tell me when to push. I must admit, I didn't mind. But, it left me questioning what my other pregnancies would be like.

As a side note, if you are close to your due date and want your baby out, I suggest moving. Nothing like some heavy lifting and stress-filled moving to pop a baby out.

Want the low-down on how I just had a baby? No? Well, too bad.

Sunday, 2:00 pm : Chris finally gets back from D.C. after driving 32 hours straight across the country.

Monday, all day : Packed up the rest of our stuff, loaded it into in-laws mini-van, drove to Pocatello, unloaded everything and unpacked, went to Wal-mart to stock up on groceries and other essentials, Sawyer falls asleep on Chris so we can't have two grocery carts, pay and unload first grocery cart, go back and load up a second, (at this point Sawyer is puh-retty upset with us), back to the apartment to unload groceries, drove back to Idaho Falls, go to Sam's to buy a TV (since we know it's impossible to live without a flat screen HD tv, right Chris?), go back to house to load up remaining items in our car and then drive back to Pocatello to unload again. Crash into bed and hope for some sleep.

Tuesday 3:00 am : Waking up to use the restroom is such a drag when it's early in the morning. I always face the question on whether I can go back to sleep and make it to morning or if I should just get up and get it over with. Well, this time I didn't have much of a problem deciding when I realized that not only did I wake up to use the restroom, I woke up because I was having a contraction. Not only that, but I realized I had been waking up to contractions for the past hour but had been ignoring them as I REALLY wanted to sleep. So at this point I'm already past where I had an epidural with Sawyer.

Now, with Sawyer, it was my first child labor and I wasn't really aware of when I was supposed to go to the hospital and ended up there a couple day early only to be sent home in disappointment. So this time I wanted to be doubly sure. So after sitting up for 30 minutes, timing my contractions and squeezing my toes to deal with the pain, I decided it was time to wake up Chris.

Now, as I am sure most of you have never woken up my husband, he's pretty hilarious to wake up in the middle of the night. All I have to do is whisper his name and he shoots out of bed like somebody's attacking him. Then he utters some incoherent phrases which always make me laugh and the next morning he never remembers any of it. I should really film this sometime and prove to him that he does this. Anyway, I walk into the bedroom and say "Chris it's time to go". Well, in true Chris-like fashion, he shoots up out of bed with his hands around his head, like I'm attacking him, and then with a bleary eyed expression asks why he has to get out. Later, he explained that he thought I was mad and telling him to get out of the apartment.

"No, the baby is coming, get up." "The baby's coming!" Then he really shoots out of bed.

Now the next 30 minutes was a bit confusing since I'm packing a hospital bag and trying to decide what I'm going to do about delivery. Technically, I'm supposed to be delivering in Idaho Falls, an hour away. However, there is a brand new hospital in Pocatello only 5 minutes away, or 10 minutes if your my husband and miss the exit. But, my doctor, obviously, only delivers in Idaho Falls. So what do I do? I call my doctor. How do you call a doctor? With a phone number. A phone number that I've failed to put in my cell phone or have anywhere that would make sense. Well, how do you find a phone number? The internet! The internet that I haven't set up yet. Boo.

Thank goodness we have internet on our phones. Although, it took us awhile to remember that. Not that it really mattered because upon calling my doctor her advice is. "Well it's up to you." Thanks doc.

Chris wants me to go to Idaho Falls so we can drop off Sawyer at his parents house which I was totally fine with as long as I wasn't having contractions. Then a contraction would hit and I would come to the conclusion there was NO WAY I was sitting in a car for an hour with these things only getting more intense. So, we stayed in Pocatello, a good decision.

As I mentioned before, we are on our way and Chris manages to miss the exit. The exit that is literally right across from the hospital. The hospital that I could've gotten out of the car at that moment and walked up the hill to get to. When I explained to Chris that he missed the exit and there wasn't another exit for several miles he declares he's pulling a U-turn on I-15. I explain to him that is not going to happen and I would be fine for a few more miles.

Arrive at the hospital, the hospital that doesn't have my records and won't have them until the baby is 20 minutes from being born. Oh well.

Laying on a gurney the nurse is explaining that she thinks I'm in false labor. Why? I'm handling the pain to well. Ask my mother, I have never been good at handling pain. In fact, as a kid, I was quite dramatic about my pain. I guess that doesn't apply to labor? Not that this nurse REALLY cared since, as she explained, it was the middle of a shift change and she was going to let the other nurse check to see how far I'm dilated.

Meanwhile, I'm curling my toes dealing with the pain. Maybe if the nurse could've seen my toes she would've realized that it wasn't false labor. I guess science hasn't progressed far enough to accurately predict pain based upon curled toes.

So the next nurse comes in and to her surprise I'm dilated to a 5 and YES, I AM in labor. Now, mind you, I had received an epidural with Sawyer when I was at a 4, barely a 4. I won't receive my epidural until a 7 this time. So, my experience with labor has widened slightly and now I can explain what a contraction feels like. Simply put, it doesn't feel good. I don't advise them. I advise an epidural at a 4. GET an epidural. Don't ever let some crazed woman tell you the joys of a natural child birth. They are lying, they only want you to share in your misery. Epidurals are a gift from God, never view them as anything else.

So, epidural in, an hour later baby comes with 4 pushed in about 3-4 minutes. Yes, 3-4 minutes, I kid you not. Apparently he was ready to come. Which is fine with me because I was hungry and you're not allowed to eat until you have the baby.

Get this... he had hair! Hair? Yes, hair. That's a surprise because Chris and I were bald as babies. Plus, when we did get hair it was blonde. Sawyer was bald and is blonde. Not only did Beckham come out with a full head of hair but it was dark. Very dark. Almost black. So giving him my dad's name (Becham Steven Bramwell) was accurate because my dad, according to my grandmother, came out with a head full of dark hair as well.

So, Beckham Steven Bramwell was born on August 14, 2012 at 8:02 am. He weighed in at 7lbs 4oz and was 20 3/4 inches long. (forgive some of the pictures, they were taken with a phone as we forgot the camera in the car. Can you tell this is a second child?)

You can tell from his expression that he didn't really enjoy his first bath.

We were worried that Sawyer might not respond well to Beckham. Especially since he spent all summer with his dad gone so he became super attached to me. However, Sawyer was thrilled with his new brother. When he held him he would stroke his cheek and gave him several kisses while calling him "my baby. Hopefully that continues to be his attitude.

Here he is with his proud dad and excited brother.

Leaving the hospital.

So now we're back at the apartment adjusting to our new addition. I could go on and on but I'll leave that for another time, shall we?

Pregnant? Who?

These last few weeks of my pregnancy seem to be really getting to me. Of course this is common among pregnant woman in their third trimester, or so my pregnancy app tells me. After completing that massive library cart project, I thought I might have got rid of the whole "you can't tell me what not to do" bug. Not so. In fact, I think I've only enhanced it.

This week was a bit of a stretch for me. Physically and mentally. Monday I spent all day assembling the furniture I had just taken apart. Tuesday I spent all day unpacking all the boxes that we've had in storage for almost two years now. That included washing all my dishes again. I don't have a dishwasher.

By the time Wednesday has rolled around I'm pooped. More than pooped, I was actually sick but refused to admit to it because, guess what? I decided to take on another Pinterest project. Well, not directly from Pinterest but it was from the same site I got the library cart from, Ana White. I mean, why not take on another wood working project when you're two weeks away from your due date.

Now, before we get into pictures... I know this isn't perfect. In fact, within the first few minutes of starting this project I determined there was no way this was going to be perfect. Why? Because I was starving but since my stomach was upset I wasn't eating anything. Plus, I had a two year old. Plus, I was using scraps from my cart project that were slightly warped. Plus, I was really doing this because I was bored and not because I needed to. Plus... every other excuse in the world.

You're now asking, if you looked at the above link, why I'm building a step stool. There's a lot of answers to that question, one consists of me sticking my tongue at you and saying it's none of your business. However, a better answer might be that I've been looking for one but all the nice ones are too expensive for a piece of plastic and all the crappy ones make me picture my child dying in a horrific stool accident. So, I decided, with all my wood crafting experience, I would do a much better job. And I did.

Ta-dah! See?

 

 It only took me a couple hours to complete but that's partly because I had given up on the perfection aspect. You see, it's not exactly square. Will Sawyer ever know? No. Will it ever affect his ability to climb up it? No? In fact, if I had left well enough alone you would never even know it wasn't square until you opened up the lid. However, for reasons unbeknownst to a sane person, I decided to try and "fix" a mistake and it didn't turn out. That's all I'm saying because I don't care for you to know what I did and my picture will never show it. 

I actually could have finished this in less than four hours but at this point I was feeling a bit nauseous. Partly because I hadn't eaten anything and partly because, in a few hours, I'm going to find out that I have a stomach virus. A nasty one. I could go into the details but let's face it... if you have had a stomach virus you know what happens and I don't need to explain anymore. And if you haven't, then there is no words to explain how utterly nasty it is. 

So, did I finish it the next day? No. I decided to be on the safe side and not eat anything because, well, above reasons. So, at 38 weeks I haven't eaten anything for two days... excuse me while I'm passed out on the bed with the delusion that my 2 year old is going to behave. 

However, after eating like a ravenous wolf this morning, I decided to go ahead and finish the project.

I'm quite happy with the result. Sawyer is too. 

Having a step stool in the bathroom now means he can gargle. Seriously. The first thing he did was climb up on the stool and grab a cup and start gargling. I guess seeing me using mouth wash has had him wishing he could do the same thing. It was pretty hilarious until he stopped leaning over far enough to actually spit in the sink. Once he started spitting on the floor it wasn't so hilarious anymore. 

That's okay because he moved onto brushing instead. I'm hoping that this will be a trend because he has fought me on brushing his teeth. I guess we will find out tonight.