My Baby is One! (and other facts)

So recently we bought a new camera and while I love it...not really loving the software it came with and relearning how to upload my pictures...change can be hard sometimes.  However, this isn't about my camera, or even about me (in parts maybe) no I dedicate this post to my baby Thaddeus who decided to grace our presence this day last year!  Really, it has been a year?  Actually I feel more like finally it has been a year.

Here is my baby, literally hours old!

Thaddeus Xavier Scott who was just over 8 lbs at birth is now well over 20!  He certainly is not being starved.  He started out in the world so compliant and cuddly, now he is cuddly but demanding too!
I think that it took him a while to realize that all the big kids in his home were here to stay, to which he decided his vote counted for like triple!  Other than being demanding, non-scheduleablility (yes I just made up a word), and absolute refusal to wear socks he is a wonderful boy.  He loves to be the center of attention and when he is happy there ain't another person happier!

I think this picture was taken the end of April, first of May.

Now that a year has passed from his birth I think I might be able to safely tell my birth story.  My delay in sharing is not that it was so horrible I can't bear to think of it, quite the contrary it was in fact the best delivery of all of my births.

For about 2 weeks preceeding his birth I was beginning to have 'real' contractions.  Not timeable nor nothing to write home about.  All of my babies thus far were born well after their due dates and I was expecting and early April baby, not March.  I however was very tired of being pregnant because I wasn't sleeping, at all.  Yet, I have my babies at home so the only choices for inducing labor are natural ones and I wasn't that ready to try castor oil.

I remember the day very well.  I woke up consistently through the night from contractions,  then got up at 2 to time them but by 3 they had piddled out.  I decided to stick with the arranged plan, go to my weekly check-up with the midwife then have coffee with my dear friend Wendy.  I had a morning appointment and I told my midwife, Beth, how I had been up most the night with contractions and I was tired of having the birthing pains without the birth.  She offered to check me but I declined mostly because I was certain the birth was well off, at least 2 weeks as I hadn't even hit the 40 week mark.

I met my friend and we talked and had a generally good time.  I know she was amazed that I still wanted to meet with her and further more I was keeping my dentist appointment for that afternoon.  After coffee things are fuzzy but I know I went to the dentist, had a few fillings filled and left with contractions.  By the time I got home, about 30 minutes, I wasn't feeling good and had lost my appetite.  I got into the tub to relax and Husband cared for the kiddos.  Just before 7 my husband leaves with the kiddos for church (which is just across the parking lot).  The older boys were already planning on spending the night with his parents and I told him Elsa should probably go too, even though I was sure I wasn't in labor, but I knew I couldn't handle her at the moment.

All this time I'm timing my contractions and they were all over the map.  Painful as get out, but not regular.  Sometimes they were right on top of each other, other times there were minutes apart.  I however was getting scared, really scared.  I've been in labor before, this is not normal, so I called my midwife crying 'something is wrong' I say, 'I think I should go to the hospital' words that never escaped my mouth before if I wasn't near death.  She told me she would be right over and see what was going on, could I wait?  Yes, I could wait.  Knowing she was coming I was able to relax and while the contractions didn't stop they did slow down, a lot.

At first I was nervous that I was in the really, super, duper early stages of labor and that my midwife will have wasted her time coming to see me.  So I prayed silently that when she got there I was dialated to at least 4cm.  That is the threshold of early labor and active labor.  She arrived just around 8 in the evening and there was a little bit of a rush as my mother-in-law didn't realize I was in labor (not that I had admitted it either) so she was surprised to see the midwife when she came to gather up more things for the kids.  I however, didn't see her at all and was more focused on staying calm.  Beth, my midwife, came and saw me and checked the baby's heartbeat and timed a few contractions.  I imagine that when she saw me, she knew I was in labor but I don't think she realized I didn't know I was!

Around 9 pm she checked to see how far along I was and that is when we got the wake up call.  8.5cm!  I think the number put me into shock.  Really?  8.5, that is well passed early labor how did that happen?  I remember Beth looking at me and saying that I was going to have a baby, that day.  I also remember thinking that it was still early, I had another 1.5 cm plus pushing, that could easily take up 3 or 4 hours. Beth let me digest the news then started getting set up and I asked, to my thinking rather timidly, if I could try for a water birth.  It had always been a dream of mine.  She of course agreed and soon fresh water was running into the bath tub.

The rest of the labor is really a blur.  All I remember is that Beth prayed with me while I was in labor.  That it was harder to push in the tub than I thought it would be and that I delivered the head and was waiting to push out the shoulders and Beth told me to wait and gosh darn it I waited and I was going to do everything she told me too because my baby's head was under water!  I remember the feel of his little body on mine as she placed him on my chest, his body covered in vernix.  I remember looking to see what we had, boy or girl, because we hadn't peeked earlier.  And for the first time in all of my births I cried.

He was born just before 10:30pm and I still can't believe it was that fast.  I'm pretty sure I'll be saying that for the rest of his life.

Taken just this month.  He is certainly a cutie.

Well, please don't slap me as I promise all my labors weren't this easy.  

Happy Birthday Thaddeus Xavier!  Momma loves you!