Landon Matthews Corn

He's here and he's beautiful! I thought I'd take a quick moment while he's sleeping to write down the events of his birthday before I forget them all :)

We got to the hospital at 6 a.m. and got to our room (the "princess suite" thanks to my dear friend, Terry Cooper, who also happens to be the best L&D nurse ever). I had my blood drawn around 6:30 and they got me hooked up to all the monitors. The nurse who was getting me settled asked if I had been having any contractions, to which I replied no. The funny thing is, I started feeling things and told John Michael that I was beginning to feel like labor was starting on its own!

Terry (who also happens to have delivered Addie - she is my high school friend, Chrissy's, mom) came on duty and asked me if I realized I was contracting every five minutes! I thought it was hilarious, because this same thing happened when I went in for my induction with Addie. She told me I would have been in on my own that day, regardless. She predicted that Landon would be born between 2 and 3 p.m.

ANYWAY, Terry started the pitocin at around 7:30 a.m. to give my body a little boost. She told me she had discussed it with the anesthesia team and they had decided to do early placement for my epidural because I delivered Addie so quickly. Sounded fine to me! The only thing was that they had to wait for my blood results before it could be placed, but that this shouldn't be a problem because the results should be coming up any second.

Sooo...an hour later, and pretty regular and quite a few starting-to-get-very-painful contractions later, I hear Terry out in the hallway saying, "YOU ARE KIDDING ME!" I looked at John Michael and said, "They lost my blood." Sure enough, Terry came in to tell us that was the case. Thank goodness, just a few minutes later, they located my blood and the nurse anesthetist was on her way. Hooray!

She placed my epidural and I immediately knew something was wrong. I felt a little pain, then numbness, down my left leg, but my right side was still feeling everything and my foot was cold. They said it might be a little one-sided so they had me lay on my right side to see if it would spread over there - no luck. At about 10:30, Terry checked me and I was still 2 centimeters. That had me a little concerned, but she assured me it was fine. I told her I was still feeling contractions on the right side, so she called the nurse anesthetist back and they "readjusted" the epidural by pulling the line out slightly. Success (or so I thought ;))! My right leg still had feeling, but I stopped feeling the contractions. Awesome!

Then it was time to have my catheter placed. A nursing student and her instructor came in to do it. They were pretty excited that I already had my epidural so I wouldn't feel anything. I told them that, oddly enough, I was feeling everything they were doing. They didn't seem too worried, and got the catheter "in place."

Well, maybe not. Thankfully, they told Terry that they weren't sure they had gotten it in the right place after all, and they were right. She came in to re-do it (um, owie) and I told her I was still feeling everything, which she replied was NOT okay. She explained that I had a "window" in my epidural, meaning there was a spot that had no pain blockage. Of course my "window" was right where I really needed it :)

Sooo...they re-did my epidural at 11:30. Not the most fun I've ever had, but once they placed it (correctly), I immediately felt better and more relaxed! Terry checked me 20 minutes later and I was at a 4. She checked me 30 minutes later and I was a 6. Long and short of it, I progressed 7 centimeters in 2 hours (the "normal" is one centimeter per hour). I was fully dilated by 1:45 p.m., and Landon was born at 2:00! Terry was RIGHT ON her estimate. He weighed 7 pounds, 8.6 ounces, and was 20 inches long - almost the exact size Addie was (7 pounds 8 ounces, 20 inches long).

We could tell immediately that Landon looked JUST LIKE Addie as a newborn! The resemblance is actually kind of spooky :) He had a rough first 45 minutes of his life, though. Because he was born with so few pushes, he still had quite a bit of fluid in his lungs, so he was "grunty." Although he got two 9's for his APGAR scores, the nurses were concerned with how he sounded and put the oxygen mask on him for about five minutes. They assured us there was no reason to be alarmed, though. They brought him over to attempt to breastfeed and he would not latch. It completely freaked me out, because Addie had latched immediately. The baby nurse stripped him down and placed him skin-to-skin with me and it took us about 30 minutes to calm him enough to latch. He's been a pro ever since ;)

Sooo...that's about it (I know, it was long, but I'm afraid I'll forget all this stuff and really wanted to make sure I didn't). He is an absolutely beautiful baby, just like his big sister, and she was THRILLED to meet him. We had an overly emotional moment when Addie had to leave with Mimi & PawPaw without her mommy, but Mimi has said she's been asking for Baby Landon ever since, so I'm glad to see that (for now) he ranks up there with me :)

The picture at the top was taken by Uncle Kris! We'll have to shrink the files from our camera once we get home, but there will be plenty more on their way!