The Arrival of Baby Sawyer

Monday, February 25th

Our baby's due date had come at last!  And he or she was still happily growing inside me!  

I was dilated to 4 centimeters at my appointment with the doctor at 10:00 a.m. that morning, but wasn't having any regular contractions (I had been having Braxton-Hicks for about a month though).

My contractions started to get regular and increasingly painful around 3:45 in the afternoon that day.  It didn't take long for them to be spaced 4-6 minutes apart.  Erik went for a run and when he got back I had been timing contractions long enough to know that we should probably start heading to the hospital!  So he showered quick and then packed our bags into the car, and off we went at 5:30 p.m.  Might I add- what a incredible blessing it was to have my sister-in-law Laurel here so we could leave Bennett with her at any moment like that, and know that he would be well cared for, and happy :) 

I took this picture probably about an hour before we left for the hospital, around 4:30 p.m.

The hospital we delivered at is half an hour away, and I was having very painful contractions about every 3-4 minutes on the drive there.  We arrived at the hospital at 6:00 p.m. and I promptly puked in front of the poor ladies at the reception desk!  Luckily I was prepared since I knew how I reacted to labor with Bennett, and had a bucket on hand.  Either way I still feel bad for those ladies!!!

We had to deal with our name being lost in the system to check us in (because they had spelled our last name wrong), so it took about 20 minutes before we got checked into our room on the Labor and Delivery floor (that was an awful 20 minutes for me).  As soon as I met my nurse I gave her a heads up that i'd like an epidural as soon as possible.  She called the anesthesiologist and gave him a heads up as well.  It turned out that it didn't matter in the end because the anesthesiologist was putting in a PICC Line at the time, and I ended up having to start pushing before he even had a chance to come see me.  I progressed from 6 centimeters to 10 centimeters in about 30 minutes, pushed for about 20 minutes, and then into the world came our second precious baby boy... Sawyer Dean!!!!

After Sawyer spent almost an hour and a half on my chest after he was born (that was some seriously awesome bonding time!), he finally got weighed and measured.  He weighed in at 8 lbs 7 oz and was 21 inches long!  He looked so much like Bennett, we were amazed!  Our two boys were also very close in size at birth, same exact length but Sawyer outweighed his big bro by 6 ounces.

Sawyer checking out his Mom & Dad.

Bath time!

After Sawyer and I got cleaned up we got to move into our new room around 10:00 p.m.  Right from the start he has been a pro at eating and sleeping.  Me on the other hand... I couldn't sleep very well that first night (probably because of the adrenaline I still had in my blood... the same thing happened when Bennett was born).  I got a couple hours of sleep maybe, but the boys got some much better rest than that thankfully.

Tuesday, February 26th

15 hours old in this picture!

Big brother Bennett's visit!

What... a... LOVER!

We were so happy to hear that we could discharge home that evening.  It was awesome only having to spend one night in the hospital!  We left at 7 p.m. so we were only there for 25 hours... compared to three days in the hospital when Bennett was born.  

Everyone getting ready to go HOME!!!  :)

Bennett couldn't keep his lips off Sawyer when we got home... he is totally in love!

Auntie Laurel with her two nephews!!!

Wednesday, February 27th

Good morning Sawyer!!!  One and a half days old :)

A delicious birthday breakfast for baby Sawyer, that he didn't get to eat! lol

Laurel spoiled us with all this awesome food, and MIMOSA'S  :) :) :)

YUMMMMM!!!!!!!  

My three boys snuggling... and Bennett telling secrets to Sawyer :)

Those two will be trouble, I can tell already!

All is well here in our home as we settle into this life as a family of four.

Sawyer can't wait to meet you, so come visit!  :)