Henry's Birth Story

He's here! Henry Spencer Watts made his entrance into the world on July 26 at 2:23 pm, weighing 7 lbs 15 oz and 21.5 inches long.

Since I was only 37 weeks along I was not expecting to go into labor so soon. I hadn't preregistered at the hospital and I hadn't packed my hospital bag or Sawyer's overnight suitcase - I was planning to do that the next day. I hadn't even made it all the way through my Hypnobirthing course. I had never been checked by my OB so I had no idea if I was dilated or effaced or anything. I never got really uncomfortable this time the way I did when I was pregnant with Sawyer, in fact I had just mentioned to my sister the day before that I felt so good that I wouldn't mind being pregnant for several more weeks. So of course I went into labor. 

Around 4:45 a.m. I got up to use the bathroom (my third visit that night - thank you third trimester!) and after I had emptied my bladder something kept coming out of me. I knew right away that my water had broken because the exact same thing had happened with Sawyer, only at 3 a.m. instead. I woke Eric up and told him it was time to go, then called my OB who told me to head on over to labor and delivery. I wasn't having any contractions yet (again, the same as when I had Sawyer) so we didn't rush. I took a shower and packed my bags - not the easiest feat when your water's broken and it's early in the morning - while Eric got Sawyer ready to go.  He was a bit disoriented about being woken up so early but excited when we told him baby brother Henry would be born today! Around 5:50 we were finally on our way to Leesburg to drop Sawyer off with my sister. She met us in the hospital parking lot. Eric was getting hungry at this point, and knowing that they wouldn't let me eat anything once I was admitted to the hospital, we made a quick stop at Chick-Fil-A to get some breakfast. I wasn't hungry but ate a bit anyway because I knew I would need the energy soon.

By the time we got to labor and delivery it was almost 7:00. They got me registered (they actually already had me in the system from a hospital visit in 2000! Funny, I have no memory of what that was for) and a nurse checked if my water had broken - it had - and checked if I was having contractions - I wasn't. Well, I sort of was, but they were several minutes apart and very mild. I was 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced. At 7:45 they officially admitted me and took me to a labor room, where my nurse Vanessa started me on pitocin and penicillin since I was group B strep positive. She also took some blood to see how well I was clotting. I had taken my last heparin shot at 10 p.m. so they needed to make sure all was good in case I wanted an epidural (I already knew the answer to that question. Ha!) 

A few minutes after starting on pitocin the contractions were coming fast and furious, 2 minutes apart and intense. I listened to my Hypnobabies tracks and they really helped me focus and relax. Eric was wonderful, rubbing my back and letting me squeeze his hands. Because I was on pitocin I needed to have continuous fetal monitoring, which I was fine with, but it actually made it much harder to concentrate. They gave me a wireless monitor so I could walk around freely and be in any position - great in theory but in practice it was horrible, because the monitor kept moving around and losing the baby's heartbeat, which would send Vanessa rushing into the room in a near panic to adjust it. I just about lost it when she came in while I was on the toilet (the body tends to, um, clean itself out in early labor). As it turned out it wasn't too long that I had to deal with the ever shifting monitor, because at 10:00 she told me the anesthesiologist would be available soon. Since it was 12 hours since my heparin shot I was in the clear to get one, so I told her I was ready for it. The pain was very intense at this point and Hypnobabies wasn't helping anymore. I felt like I could have gone for longer but didn't want to risk waiting too long. At 10:15 my epidural was placed, and I had several contractions during the procedure - they were coming a minute and a half apart and lasting more than a full minute each. Some choice words may have come out of my mouth. Thankfully I had complete relief about 15 minutes later and soon I was smiling again and texting friends. It. Was. AWESOME.

Loving my epidural

Around 11:00 Vanessa placed my catheter and checked me for the first time since they checked me in triage. I was 3 cm and 90% effaced. For the next couple of hours Eric and I chatted, called family members to update them, and relaxed. He went and grabbed a bite to eat. Around 12:30 I started feeling pain on my right side - the epidural was wearing off. Vanessa had me shift to my other side hoping that would help but it didn't, so another anesthesiologist came in and she gave me another dose of medication. It worked to numb the right side, but unfortunately made my left side REALLY numb. Like, no sensation whatsoever numb, which was a really weird and slightly disconcerting feeling. I started feeling nauseated and shaking, so Vanessa checked me again suspecting I might be going through transition. I was 6-7 cm and completely effaced.

Not feeling great

At 1:20 the nausea got very intense and she checked me again, and I was nearly complete. We waited a while for Dr. A to show up and to let the baby descend a bit more, and at 2:15 it was time to push. I had a moment of panic when I tried to pull my legs back and realized I was now completely numb on both sides all the way up to my chest; I couldn't feel what my muscles were doing at all and I thought there was no way I would be able to push. But apparently my body remembered what to do. I had requested no counting or yelling for me to push, and Dr. A seemed amazed that I knew when I was having a contraction even though I couldn't feel any pressure. Truthfully I couldn't have consciously said when I was having one, I just somehow knew when to push. At one point Henry's heart rate dropped dramatically and I could see on Dr. A's face that he was scared, which scared me too, but thankfully it came right back up when the contraction was over (I kind of suspect it might have been that annoying monitor again.) I had a mirror so I could see what was happening which helped with the pushing because I could see when I was making progress. As he was crowning I reached down and felt the top of his soft little head - amazing! We were excited to see his dark hair. A few pushes later, and Henry was born, screaming and curling his cute lower lip. I pulled him up onto my chest right away while we waited for the cord to stop pulsing so Eric could cut it.

Then the nurses weighed him and cleaned him off while I delivered the placenta (although I don't really remember that happening, I know it came out because Eric took a picture of it. Don't worry, I won't share that here.)

After he was all clean and wrapped up I held him and nursed him for the first time. He took to it right away and was very alert and gazing at both of us. I was feeling great at this point (adrenaline is an amazing thing!) so we told our family they could come visit as soon as I was in recovery. Henry went to the nursery and the nurses helped me get cleaned up and go to the bathroom, which was quite an adventure given my dead legs and the fact that my bladder always seems to stay offline for a long time when I have any sort of anesthesia.

A few hours later Megan came to the hospital and Sawyer got to meet his new little brother. When he came into the room I tried to hug him and ask him how his day was and he had no time for that - he just wanted to see Henry.

Megan brought us Cafe Rio for dinner, which is quickly becoming the traditional postpartum meal in our family. I was still feeling a little nauseous but I enjoyed it much more than the hospital food I would have had otherwise! And Eric definitely appreciated it. We were sad that the hospital wouldn't allow children to come in and Caroline, Mary Grace and Emery had to wait in the lobby, but happy that Henry at least got to meet his Aunt Megan. A little bit later Spencer and Samm, and Erin and Josh came by to meet Henry and hold him for the first time. We are so blessed to have such wonderful family members nearby to celebrate these times with us!

Soon it was time for Eric to take Sawyer home to bed and for me to try to get some sleep. Not so easy in the hospital, since they were still checking my vitals fairly often and I had to ask for help to go to the bathroom. Also because of my blood clotting risk I had to wear pressure boots on my legs, which noisily inflated at regular intervals. Not so restful. But I managed to catch little bits of rest in between feeding Henry. The nurses in recovery were amazing, so helpful and kind. And Vanessa came over to check on me, which was so nice. All in all I could not have asked for a better birth experience. I feel so lucky to have Henry in my life and can't wait to find out what kind of person he will become.

Tired but happy to be the parents of two!

Diagnosis

Along with all our infertility drama this summer, we also have been in the process of trying to get a diagnosis for Sawyer. He's been under the Developmental Delay label, but now that he's 6 that label is no longer appropriate according to school system. We've been taking him to a developmental pediatrician but those visits haven't led to any useful information, which has been frustrating given that we have to wait 4-5 months for each appointment. A parent of a child in Sawyer's ECSE class last year mentioned to me that their son had been diagnosed by a local psychologist, Dr. W, so we made an appointment with her. The assessment took place over two days, with a total of 9 hours of testing. I couldn't imagine Sawyer sitting through 9 hours of anything, but Dr. W and her assistant did an amazing job of keeping it fun and light and after the first day he was excited to go back! After the testing it took her a few weeks to write up her reports and recommendations. Soon after this we learned that Sawyer needed to be reevaluated by the special ed team at his new school, so we scheduled all of those assessments too. (The testing with the school psychologist was especially memorable, because the earthquake happened right in the middle of it and we had to evacuate the school! Sawyer was unfazed.) Finally about a month later the results were all in.

The diagnosis: developmental mixed receptive-expressive language disorder and phonological disorder. Basically, this means his brain does not process language in a normal way, so he has a hard time both understanding and producing language. He does not have autism or ADHD, and he is not intellectually disabled - although he scored in the ID range on some of the testing measures, the team believes it's because his learning disabilities are so pervasive. According to Dr. W he has a lot of potential for improvement and growth.

So that's where we are. Even though it's a formidable diagnosis, I feel relieved that we finally have some answers. A name for his difficulties. And there's a lot that we can do to help him understand more and say more, especially in the next few years. At the eligibility meeting all of his teachers expressed what a good kid he is and how hard he tries. One of them pointed out that for Sawyer, daily life is like living in a foreign country where no one speaks your language. It's such a struggle for him, and he still manages to be happy and sweet 99% of the time, which is pretty amazing to me.

The next step is coming up with a new IEP (individualized education program) for him and the school will decide which services he qualifies for. We're hoping at a minimum to get speech, occupational therapy, and possibly extra time in a special ed class at least a few times a week.

First Day of Kindergarten

Chocolate Milk

Sawyer's favorite food is chocolate milk. He will drink it all day, every day if we let him. I buy the Nesquik powder so we can use organic milk to mix it into, and because it has less sugar than Hershey's syrup or Ovaltine (and did you know Hershey's is mostly high fructose corn syrup? Yuck.) I also like the powder rather than the premixed stuff because I can put just a little of it into his cup and his "chocolate milk" is more like regular milk with just a smidgen of chocolate.

The other day before dinner I asked him what he wanted to drink and of course he asked for chocolate milk. When I went into the kitchen he followed me saying "No no no no Mama! I want Daddy to make it!" I told him it was the same thing, Mama could make it just as well as Daddy. He insisted: he only wanted chocolate milk made by Daddy. So I watched Eric make it. It turns out Daddy has a different strategy - he adds 3 scoops of powder (the box says to use 2) and sometimes also adds a bit of half and half.

So it's true. Daddy really does make better chocolate milk. But Mama's might be less likely to give you type 2 diabetes.

Budding Artist

Sawyer has become obsessed with writing and drawing lately, which I'm thrilled about, because until very recently he had absolutely no interest in picking up a writing instrument of any kind. Now he'll sit at the table for long periods of time tracing letters and numbers and shapes, and getting more creative too. Here's his first recognizable drawing: "a face with arms."

Often he asks me to draw something for him so he can try to copy it. It's challenging for me since I'm not an artist (AT ALL). I do OK when he asks for a puppy, or a tree, or even Lightning McQueen. But yesterday he came up with a new one: "Mama, draw windy." So I drew a tree with lines going by to signify wind. Then he said, "Draw germs." Um...germs just look like little bugs, right? So I drew something resembling little spiders. Then, "Draw penguin germs." Sorry son. I can't draw that without doing some research. How about a smiley face instead?

More Sawyerisms

Sawyer weighs 34 lbs now, just over the 30 lbs required to sit in a booster seat in the car. Although our car seat can handle up to 65 lbs, we've recently had several incidents where Eric took the car seat to work by accident, or the car seat cover was being washed of pee and Chick-Fil-A milkshake spills and I needed to go somewhere, so we finally went and bought a booster seat. I asked Sawyer if he was ready to ride in a booster seat like a big boy. He looked at me excitedly. "A monster seat?!" From "monster seat" we got to "mooster seat" and finally to "booster seat." But once in a while he still only hears the "-ster" part and calls it a monster seat. I like it.

Last night I heard Sawyer talking in his sleep. Just one loud exclamation: "I like pizza!" I do too son. I do too.

Babies and Daddies

Waiting for the bus yesterday:

Sawyer: Look, Mama, look at all the baby lions!

Me: ....you mean dandelions?

Sawyer: Yeah, Daddy lions!

First Day of School

At 10:15 this morning Sawyer climbed on the school bus for the very first time. He's attending an ECSE (early childhood special education) preschool class that meets at an elementary school. We were nervous about how he would take to the bus since he sometimes has a hard time separating from mom, but he did great and didn't cry at all. As he climbed up the steps he proudly told the bus driver "Sawyer's a big boy!" The one moment that had me worried was when he stopped at the top of the steps and turned around to see if I was following him, and when he saw that I wasn't he said "Mama?" and looked crestfallen. But the assistant helped him get buckled into his seat and soon he was telling her all about the chocolate milk in his lunch box. I didn't get any pictures of him actually getting on the bus (I was too focused on keeping myself together until he was gone!) but we took some pictures on the front stoop.

Yo Gabba Gabba=Freakiest Show Ever

This is Sawyer while watching Yo Gabba Gabba for the first time.





He had the same expression on his face (disbelief mixed with intrigue mixed with fear) for about five minutes, then he turned to me and said "watch Diego?"




UPDATE: For the past two mornings Sawyer has asked for Yo Gabba Gabba immediately after waking up. He loves it now! I guess it grew on him.

Tantrum Time

Sawyer is currently throwing a tantrum because I turned off the TV. When this happens I usually ignore him and he stops pretty quickly. This time though he is persisting, and little does he know that I'm typing everything he says, for posterity, of course. I stopped short of getting out the video camera - this is slightly less cruel, right?

Sawyer, while rolling on the floor and wailing hysterically:

I soooo sad! Look at my face! Look at my eyes! Soooo sad! What happened? Are you OK? [I think that part is what he thinks I'm supposed to be saying to him.] I'm rolling! I'm rolling! Uh-oh! I too sad! [lots of heaving of breath and artificial wailing.] I too tired! I too sad! I need 'yardigans! Ahhhh! Oh no! I hurt myself! [He didn't.] He's crying! Sawyer is crying! Look at meeeee!

Ah, the joyous times.

You know you're doing a LOST rewatch when...

We got Sawyer a new toothbrush today. He picked a robot one because, as he said, "it's a Bad Robot!"

For those of you who don't watch the show, this is what he was referring to.

Sawyer's Prayers

We love hearing what Sawyer comes up with when he says his nightly prayers. At first we gave him lots of prompting ("What did you do today? What are you thankful for?") but now he launches into it all by himself. It's not always easy to understand him but he is often very thoughtful. Some recent examples:

-"Thank you for washing the car and splashing the car." He had helped Eric and me wash the cars that day.
-"Bless Penny in her crate."
-"What's Penny barking at?" Not sure if this is supposed to be rhetorical.
-"Thank you for Backyardigans and Pablo and Wall-E."
-"Thank you for Father's Day." He started this one on Father's Day and then kept mentioning it for weeks afterward.
-"Bless Caroline and Mary Grace and Megan and Ryan and [whoever else we've seen recently.]"
-"Thank you I go to preschool." He's getting very excited to start preschool in the fall!

And the other day he made up a song that went like this: "Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, you so so nice," repeated over and over again as he danced (naked) around the house.

Broken

Sawyer, after spotting the half-moon during our morning walk yesterday: "Oh no! Who made it broken?"

Every Parent's Dream

I related more than usual to today's Engrish Funny:



After months (OK, actually years) of potty training, pleading, begging, scolding and bribing, Sawyer is finally consistently using the toilet. Our developmental pediatrician says that it's pretty common for kids with a language delay to also have issues with potty training, but we finally made it, right around his fourth birthday. Hallelujah!

He still has accidents sometimes when he gets really involved in playing and he doesn't want to stop what he's doing. He'll come up to me and say "Uh-oh! Accident!" Then he'll say "Oh well, that's OK," which is a line from a book he likes about learning to go potty. I want to tell him "NO! It's NOT OK!" but I usually manage to rein it in.

Next step: teaching him that yes, you really do have to wash your hands every single time.

Guilty

Do you other moms ever have moments of intense mommy guilt? I just had one yesterday. I was doing some weeding in the front yard. Sawyer was with me and disappeared when I had my back turned. I called for him, he didn't answer. I went inside and looked all over the house, he didn't answer. I was starting to freak out when I found him in the backyard using one of my pitchers to dip water out of the pond. My fear combined with the fact that he had (unintentionally) uprooted several newly planted water plants made me furious - oh, and the fact that he knows he's not supposed to play in the pond without an adult watching. I smacked him on the hand as I took the pitcher away and yelled at him, telling him how mad I was. We don't spank, so he's not used to this kind of reaction, but he didn't seem too upset about the whole thing, which actually just made me even madder. I brought him inside, put the pitcher away and tried to calm down. Once I was feeling more level-headed I apologized for getting so mad.

So later in the day I overheard him playing by himself with a couple of matchbox cars and making them "talk" to each other using a high-pitched, sing-songy voice. Here was the conversation:
"I so mad! So so mad! I'm going to HURT you!"
"Ouch! That hurt!"
"Oh, I sorry."
"That's OK."


GUILT.

The Lion King Lear

The other day a tragedy occurred in our home.



It was Penny's doing. Despite the mountains of dog appropriate toys we've bought for her, she only wants to play with (and subsequently destroy) Sawyer's stuffed animals, in particular this lion. No matter how many times I put him away, she always manages to get him out again. I suspect Sawyer is helping her. At least now the poor lion won't have to see his stuffing ripped out in front of his own eyes.

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's....Healthy Body Image Man!

Yesterday I was cleaning the kitchen when I suddenly noticed the house was too quiet. I figured Sawyer was out back so I went to go check on him and this is what I found.








Apparently superheroes don't need clothes (just a cape), and it doesn't matter if their Crocs are on the wrong feet.

Sickness Part Deux

Just when we were all feeling healthy again, last Wednesday I got a stomach bug that kept me up all night. The next day Sawyer got a fever and what turned out to also be a stomach bug (probably the same one I had.) Just in time for my dear friend Sara's wedding. So Eric stepped up as the good dad that he is and stayed home with him so I could go to the sealing and dinner. This captures pretty well how Sawyer was feeling.

Luckily it was a quick illness and we are all feeling fine now. Here's to a healthy, sickness-free summer!

Watch Football!

Last night when Eric turned on the TV to sports highlights, Sawyer threw up his arms and yelled "Yay! Watch FOOTBALL!" Like father, like son. (I guarantee he didn't learn that from me!)

We had a nice Thanksgiving at the beach with the Watts/Buchanan clan. We went for walks and bike rides, ate too much, caught up with family, and yes, watched football. We came home on Saturday morning rather than Sunday to beat the traffic and it was nice to be home together for a bit before going back to life as usual again on Monday.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Did I really just say that?

To Sawyer, currently sitting in the Naughty Chair: "No, you were naughty so you may not help Mommy clean up."

Oh, the "punishments" that work on a 3-year-old...