Sullivan Martin.

This website will be littlesmithsgrowingup.blogspot.com by Friday.

Sooo.....OMG we had a baby before it's due date! My water broke at about 230 am on Monday night. I was sleeping pretty well, but Brooks woke me up when he came to bed as usual around 12 I tossed a little bit. I was having some random contractions and a couple of times actually thought, "That almost hurts....I wonder if I would know if I was in labor?" So at 1 am I got up and went to the bathroom and had a few more contractions. By 2am I thought- if I can't go to sleep pretty soon I'm going to have to call in to work! Tomorrow should be interesting! So I got up one more time at about 2 to go to the bathroom and when I laid back down and got comfy I felt a little gush. Uh oh. I flew out of bed and to the bathroom squishing all the way- yup, it's nasty. So of course, I always have to worry about prolapsed cord because I'm a psycho....but he was moving around so I knew he was fine. I got some new underwear and a pad (but really I needed a diaper) and started to pack a bag. Yes, it probably should have already been done.....I really have no idea what all I packed, but so far we're surviving. Brooks called his mom and she came over to stay with the kids and get them to school. We got to the hospital at about 3 or 330. I got all checked in and then asked if I could take a shower. HA! I didn't take a shower on Monday and I looked pretty awful! She listened to the baby for awhile and decided it was ok. So I took a shower and then she had me walk for about an hour. I carried around my Kindle and read and walked from about 5-550 or so. I was having some random contractions, but nothing that really made me need to stop or slow down, so I was figuring she would have to start some pitocin at some point. The nurse checked me at 6 am and I had made some progress with those wimpy contractions! So she gave me a clear liquid tray complete with coffee and some jello (woohoo!) and had me get up again and walk some more. Dr. M came in at about 7 or so and said she was going into a c-section and would check me after that. I walked for about 30-40 more minutes until she was done. When she came in to check me, I was largely the same. She found a pocket of water where the bag was still intact so she decided to break that to see if it helped. She broke it and he immediately grabbed her finger! She had to kindof fight with him to get him to keep his hand in there and let go. She decided we should go ahead and get some pitocin to speed things up since the contractions were spreading out and not much was going on. So we got anesthesia to come and I got an epidural. Then they started the pitocin at about 10. For the next 3 ish hours nothing really happened. I was having contractions, reading, resting....everything was good. Brooks was starting to get annoyed because every time she checked me I was the same. At 1 she had me turn over because my contractions were really starting to hurt all of a sudden and she kinda freaked out because there was blood in the bed. She checked and I had gone from a 4 to about a 7 in 30-40 minutes. Baby started to kindof freak out and drop his heart rate to about 40 or so with contractions which were really painful at this time and pretty much right on top of each other. Since nothing had been happening she kept turning up the pitocin to make the contractions stronger. I was totally freaking out by this point and the nurse was trying to make me settle down. About 10 minutes later he was still dramatically dropping and she checked and I was complete and ready to push. They paged Dr. M to get there and she went ahead and had me start pushing at about 10 til 2 before Dr M got there. She knew I was a mess because his heart rate was so low. Dr M got there at about 2 and he was born at 208! It was pretty fast. I pushed 4 times I think and the last time he just came out all in one push. His head was pretty much 1/2 bruise from coming out so fast as well as his spine with some bruising. He was pretty floppy when he came out and she hadn't been able to find his HR for the last pushes so she cut his cord pretty quick and handed him off, but about that time he started moving around and coughing. He was super full of fluid from coming out so fast. They did actually give him to me when he started crying instead of putting him in the warmer. B didn't even realize what was going on- oh, but to have the bliss of that. So I wouldn't call his birth traumatic in any way, but I was pretty happy with the slow and smooth rate of the way things were going initially! I was afraid perhaps his cord was around his neck or something, but not- he was just coming so fast and getting smashed!

He is SO TINY. 6 lbs 4 oz which is funny because Monday I made my guess that he would be exactly that! He is longer than the other kids by a smidge 19.75 inches. His feet are so long they barely fit on the ink pads! He's absolutely adorable. Head is tiny and perfect. He really does look quite perfect.
Gorgeous. His face shape looks exactly like Brooks to me. He looks just like B's nb pics except B's hair was blonde. Sully's hair is lighter than M's was but definitely not red!
So sad.
He is a screaming crier which is kinda funny, I think. I probably won't think so in awhile. The other kids would just grunt around and whine when they needed something or were hungry. He immediately screams. It's cute....and so satisfying that when I pick him up and talk to him he immediately calms.
B taking a look.

First family pic! It turned out fantastic! I can't believe I don't look awful this time!! Mira LOVES him. She's pretty possessive.
Griffy even said he lubbed his new brudder and gave him a kiss, but then he was pissed that I couldn't go home last night.
The kids were WILD at the hospital. Exhausting. We had a bunch of visitors last night- both grandmas and grandpas, Casey, Grant, and the kids, Mike, Delaney, and Theresa, and Darin and Angie. B and I were both exhausted from being up since 2 am (well I was up before that) so he had the kids stay with his mom so he could just go straight home and sleep. I didn't sleep all that much last night...I nursed him around 10 or so and then he was WIDE awake and just hanging out, so I just couldn't send him away. About 12 the nurse had to come in and do some stuff so I sent him to the nursery after that. I got to rest until about 2 and then from about 3-5 or so. I'm pretty tired.....He is refluxing a bit. I'm hoping that it's just due to some fluid still in him. He will cry out when he's sleeping and start swallowing like stuff is coming up. :( He also has a murmur. They told me that yesterday.....he looks good, but of course I have to freak out a little bit. I did go ahead and listen to it this morning...I'm not thrilled. We'll see I guess.....

Sullivan is absolutely the sweetest and tiniest baby ever. I am still having trouble believing that he belongs to us. He is "small for gestational age" which made me laugh because he is only not on the growth chart by 50 grams. Whatever. I guess I should have walked less miles or something....but I love that he's little. They had to check his blood sugar 3 times yesterday - which were all fine, of course, and they kept freaking out that he wouldn't keep his temperature up. He was fine. He is a champion nurser- he likes to eat every 2-3 hours and he eats great! I am pretty sore, but I'm hoping that will pass and nursing won't be such a huge issue this time. We'll see I guess.....They are also freaking out because his jaundice risk score is super high because he's small. I'm sure it will be fine- he's pooped his diaper full 4 times so far.

So that's our story! We love our new little guy!