He's finally here and he's fabulous!! Van is more perfect than we could have ever hoped for. We have both been so happy this last week and very excited to introduce our little guy to the world.
As every Mother likes to do I am going to tell my labor story. Here goes:
I woke up on Saturday, November 6th, having constant contractions starting at about 5am. They weren't painful just annoying and coming about every 10 minutes. We called the doctor at about 10:30 and he told us to give it a few more hours and if they hadn't stopped or if they got worse to come in. We ran errands and tied up a bunch of loose ends (thank goodness!) because I had a feeling this was it. We were pulling in to Target at 11:45 to pick up one more thing for a baby shower that afternoon. I felt a strong pinch and then felt a pop and the water came! It was just like last time. The water just kept coming! So gross!! Thank goodness we were in Dave's car. We told Riley that her baby brother was coming today and we had to go to the doctor. We made all our phone calls and got to the hospital. This time I thought Van wasn't going to mess around. My contractions started in the car and got worse and worse with each one. By the time we walked into the hospital I couldn't hardly stand or talk. They were coming every 2 minutes. I got excited thinking maybe this labor would go much quicker. I was wrong! I did get my epidural and was only in real labor for about 2-3 hours. The epidural actually worked this time!!! It was WONDERFUL! Every few hours the I would start to feel the contractions again and I would push the pain button and suffer through a few more contractions and the pain would go away. We had high hopes that Van would be born before the day was out but we were wrong. He did not come until 1am on Sunday morning!
He was absolutely perfect and I cried the happiest tears when I saw him. As soon as they got him all cleaned up and gave him to me he started making this little whining sound. We thought it was just a cute baby noise, but all of a sudden a nurse came and took him from us. They said he was born Meconium (which means he had just had a bowel movement right before my water broke) and when he was born he inhaled some of that fluid. They tried to get to him before he took his first breath but they couldn't. They thought they just needed to clean the fluid out of his lungs and we'd have him back in a few hours. They brought him to me about 4 in the morning and as soon as I touched him he started making the sounds again. The nurse called the doctor and they took him again back to the nursery. This time they kept him for 2 days!! He never got to come to our room. They took several blood samples and hooked up to an IV because he couldn't eat. We also couldn't touch him because each time we did he started whining again. Turned out it wasn't the meconium. What they finally determined was that he had a hard time transitioning. When he was born so many things had to happen to make sure everything worked properly that it freaked him out. He decided he wasn't ready to be here yet and needed a little more time adjusting to his new life. Once we had 48 hours of him doing fine (and us only seeing him every few hours) we got him back and were able to go home. It was pretty hard to see him hooked up to those monitors and cords. The IV was almost too much for me to see. I had a couple of good cries and realized how lucky we were that he was going to be just fine.
We've had him home for a few days now and have had one rough night. He screamed for about 4 hours last night which was scaring us a little. Riley didn't make a peep for 11 days when she came home. Van stays awake a lot longer and is a bit more vocal. However, he is so perfect that I can't help but feel like the luckiest person in the world! He looks exactly like Riley and I just sit and stare at him for the longest time. Dave and I are so blessed and Riley has really taken to her little brother. She tells us all the time that she really likes him. She kisses him and pats him gently on the head. I think she'll be a good big sister!
Riley is pretty proud of her little brother. She was so happy when she first saw him and she has been fascinated by him since we got home. She couldn't see him in the hospital (except right after he was born) so she was very excited to finally get to touch him. She has been great with him and we couldn't have asked for her to adjust better than she is. She is fighting for attention a little, but overall, she loves her baby brother!
He's finally here and he's fabulous!! Van is more perfect than we could have ever hoped for. We have both been so happy this last week and very excited to introduce our little guy to the world. 
I finally had a chance to load pictures from Halloween. We have a new camera and an old computer so it didn't quite go as smoothly as it used to. Riley had the BEST day on Halloween. She loved every minute of it. She couldn't believe that all the these people were just giving her candy and all she had to say was "Trick or Treat". Every house she went to she ran as fast as she could up to the door, yelled trick or treat then thank you and ran down the driveway asking to if she could go to another house. She can't wait for Halloween next year. As you can see she was a Lion. She has practiced her "Roar" for weeks and it was perfect. Hopefully next year she'll make Mommy happy and be a princess or something like that.
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