I apologize for the length of this post. I’ve got a lot to say and who knows when I’ll have the chance to post again so prepare yourself for a little bit of verbal diarrhea.
On Wednesday, May 29, at 1:16 pm our son Alvy Olen Buck was born! He weighed in at a hefty 9 pounds, 2 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. The delivery was done via planned c-section and though there were no medical complications I certainly can’t say that it went smoothly.
I couldn’t feel any pain during the surgery, thanks to an epidural/spinal combo, but I could feel them pulling and tugging on my insides. Needless to say it wasn’t a pleasant sensation. The OR staff sensed my discomfort and gave me a cocktail of drugs that would make even the most dependent of drug addicts jealous.
Now I know how Alice must have felt when she disappeared down that rabbit hole, except instead of falling down a rabbit hole I disappeared into a drug induced neverneverland thanks to a combo of laughing gas, Ketamine and goodness know what else.
The room started spinning. The OR lights turned into a kaleidoscope. My body felt light, like it was floating. I tried speaking but my lips weighed 100 pounds.
I heard crying. Where was it coming from? Is there a baby here? Who would bring a baby here? Wait, where am I? Where is here?
I opened my eyes. On the overhead monitor I saw him. They were measuring his head. I was right, I did hear a baby. But where’d he come from? Wait. I was supposed to have a baby. It’s he mine??? That’s right I was having surgery to deliver a baby! He’s mine! OMG HE’S PERFECT!
Jason brought him over to me swaddled up a blanket. I saw him and cried. He really was perfect.
Just a few minutes later they wheeled me out of surgery and into recovery with my baby in my arms. He caught onto breastfeeding almost immediately (thank goodness) and things have been relatively smooth sailing from there.
Three weeks later I already can’t imagine life without him. I realize now how incomplete we were; he is supposed to be here. We’re still getting to know each other though. From what I can tell he’s a pretty laid back little guy. He doesn’t cry much except for when he’s sleepy or hungry, he is very sweet and loves to cuddle. He’s beginning to “wake up” from his newborn easy-to-lay-down, sleep-every-second-he’s-not-eating phase. You can tell he’s tired and needs rest but he doesn’t want to miss anything. His big steel blue eyes just want to see the world.
The first few days were rough on Evie. She wasn’t sure what to think of our new addition. The day we brought him home from the hospital she was openly mad at me for holding another baby. Poor thing. Her little world got turned upside down. While looking at the above photo she was eager to point out mommy, daddy and Evie but when asked who the baby was she became noticeably silent. Only after a little prodding did she mumble, “Alvy” under her breath.
Thankfully, over the past several weeks she has adjusted well and now will stroke his arms and legs and give him kisses while I nurse him. Though I don’t think she’s completely okay with him being here I think she’s well on her way to becoming a great big sister.
Having a newborn and a two year old hasn’t left much time for anything else and there’s no way I would have been able to get through this transition without the help of my friends and family. Thanks to them we have been pretty well taken care of over the past three weeks. Though, I realize our help is coming to an end soon and Jason and I will soon be doing this all on our own.
Monday, was my first day without help alone with both kids while Jason was at work and Evie choose that day to get sick – nothing like listening to your newborn cry while you run your toddler to the bathroom before she projectile vomits all over the place. And, as these things go, yesterday it was my turn to be sick. All that worrying I did about how I was going to take care of both of the kids and my very first two days I don’t even get it easy. That sounds about right. Trial by fire, I suppose. If I can handle those two days then I can handle a normal day. Right?
Today, I feel much better, by the way AND I only have three weeks until I can start running again. YAY!