Baby Birth Day

Well, we left off at 4am on baby's birth day with my big bottle of water and two granola bars. I tried to keep really busy before we were to report to Labor and Delivery. We took Sophie to school and came home to (finally) pack my hospital bag. 

Fast forward to 12:30pm and we were checking into the hospital. Insurance, bracelets, medical history, monitors, an IV and one last ultra sound. Oh, and a few spontaneous tears. Originally scheduled for a 2:30pm procedure, my physician was called into two emergency Cesareans and two other mothers were ready to push before my elective surgery took priority. So, now we're talking more than 12 hours with no food and not a drop of water. And, I was actually in labor.

Although the baby was breech and hiding up in my ribcage, I was banging out contractions every minute and a half. We called in the anesthesiologist to see if I had any pain management options. I could have gotten an epidural, but he said that it in no way would block the pain for surgery like the spinal would - and I had to wait until in the OR for the spinal.

Finally we were up. I thought I might vomit I was so nervous, anxious, excited, scared. The absolute worst part of the day was walking into that OR without my husband and dragging my little IV stand behind me. There were a lot of tears at this point, I won't pretend otherwise. I am a big baby.

"And curl over around your baby, hold my shoulders and we're going to stick a giant needle in your back." At least, this is how I remember it. In all seriousness, I had the best nurses caring for me, calming me and reassuring me. After the "bee sting" needle in my spine, I felt something drip all the way down my back and I became acutely aware of how cold it was in the OR.

Everything happened really fast after the spinal was done. I kept my eyes on my L&D nurse as they prepped me, put up the drape and called in my baby daddy. From the first incision to the last stitch closed, it was a total of 21 minutes and we had ourselves a little baby BOY! 

7lb 13oz, 20in, 4:49pm on November 16, 2011. He didn't have a name until we were in the recovery room and had a few minutes to process BOY. I could not have been more thrilled with our decision to wait on finding out the sex. I'll never ever forget watching Bryan and waiting for him to announce the sex as he watched Dr. Case deliver baby Barber. The name Tucker was on our short list of favorites and James is both our father's first names, so we introduced our immediate family to Tucker James Barber about an hour after he was born.

We were transferred to our Mother Child room where I swear it was 95 degrees (they keep it warm to give baby first bath) and it almost made me sick to be that hot. And the morphine was wearing off - let me tell you how that itches. I am getting itchy thinking about it, literally, just had to stop and scratch my arms! My hunger pangs were gone, I just wanted to snuggle on my sweet baby boy. I was already so smitten.

Here are a few pictures of Tucker's first few days.

My smile in no way reflects my real attitude at this point.
Apparently I have a really good "fake smile."
And, that big bump is the fetal monitor (as if I needed anything to make me look bigger!).

Proud Papa ready to meet baby.

And it's a BOY! Dr. Case - love her.

Blissful first mommy moment.

Daddy and Baby Tucker.

Sweet sleepy snuggles.

Getting to know you... getting to know all about you.

Sophie meeting "Baby Brudder Tucker."
She kisses him all on her own, we didn't even have to ask.

G-Daddy having a celebratory bourbon with his first grandson.

Bryan and his boy.

Grandpa and Tucker getting some vitamin D.

True love.