
In March of 2011 Alex left to go on a one year deployment…the boys and I kept pretty busy, which helped a lot…Jacob had a few gymnastics meets left to the season and the Dallas zoo had a homeschool day so we took a trip out there…I also had trips planned throughout to go see family to help break it up too…Our first big trip was for Easter to see my younger brother and his family…that May after a long hard week Alex found out that he was going to be going to a class in TX, and then would get 4 days to head home since it wasn’t far…So the boys and I made plans to head to TX just for a trip…I did not tell them why 😉 They were definitely surprised and happy to see their Daddy…at the end of his class we spent a day at Sea World since they had the free offer for military members and their family…the next day we headed home…
The timing worked out perfectly that he flew back the day before the boys and I headed to CO to see my parents…we got to spend Father’s Day with them…about a week after we came back we also found out that I was expecting number 4 🙂 two months later and just out of the 1st trimester, we flew to WA to see my older siblings and their kids…I also got to go see my Grandmother’s grave site for the first time…up to that point I kept thinking I would get to visit her too…since I was unable to go to her funeral this helped to give me some closure…
That September, while waiting in the waiting area to have my big ultra sound Alex’s boss called and told me that he had decided to have Alex come home early…he didn’t let Alex call me or even surprise me…not sure if Alex had thought of either, he was just as frustrated as I was over the situation…though I was happy to have him back, I felt like a failure…but I also know it was all in God’s plan…had He wanted him to stay he would have…I still had them put the sex of the baby in an envelope so that we could open it as a family together…and you guessed it…boy number 4 🙂
That Oct we all went up to VA for his youngest brother’s wedding and found out that he and his new wife were expecting their first child…she wanted a boy mainly because she was concerned our other sister-in-law (4 boys also, 1 is an angel) and I would be upset if she had a girl…we told her we wouldn’t be, because then it would be Ham guys can have girls…ends up, they had a boy too 😉
Just like my other pregnancies my pregnancy was uneventful…my mom came out about a month before my due date to help out with the boys and just every day stuff…My Dr. started asking about scheduling an induction, but I really wanted to finally have a child fully on my own…so kept putting it off…every night in the last month he would go head down, and then by morning would be sideways again…at my last ultrasound he was breach, but Robert had been too and turned himself (he also had the smallest head of 3 large heads) so we just assumed (bad thing to do) that all would be ok…
As we got up to 39 weeks I reluctantly scheduled my induction since my DR was going out of town and I really did not want a leap day baby…I also prayed that if God wanted him to come on his own that he would make it work out some how some way…but the trend of head down at night, to side ways in the morning continued up to the morning of my scheduled induction…I never even had strong enough contractions to hope I was in labor…
When we got to the hospital at 6 in the morning I told that nurse my history and that once induced I would progress quickly and then once I got my epidural I would progress really quickly…so she decided to put it off a bit since the anesthesiologist would not be there yet…I don’t remember when I was actually induced…but within minutes my water broke and I was progressing up to a 6…I had only been a 2 before that…which I was at for over a month (typical for me)…when she went to check me I though maybe her fingers were short because it really hurt and hadn’t with my doc before…well when my doc went to check me it was the same way…the doc decided to do an ultra sound…neither the nurse or doc felt his head…turns out it was his hand because he was still breach!!
Because my water had broker they didn’t want to wait around let him hopefully turn so my easy labor we all (including the doc) figured I would have turned into an unplanned C-section 5 weeks before we were moving and with two little boys at home expecting their mommy to be able to hold them and pick them up…when they told me I would still be able to wear a bikini, that was the last things from my mind…all I could think of was the disappointment of the boys and moving…and I normally bounce back quickly…
I was in tears when I went into the operating room and Alex couldn’t be in there with me until I was all ready…thankfully the nurse and anesthesiologist were very understanding…though he did tell me to try to stay calm or the nauseous would be worse…I tried, but it was impossible…I dry heaved at some point in there…I think before he was born…
Alex and the doc came in and my baby was born in a very unnatural way…Alex said the doc practically climbed on my to get him out…I had no clue and didn’t feel a thing…I was so upset I didn’t even ask to have him near me…he went straight to the warmer…Alex did get some photos of him…I just wanted to lay on my side and had to wait for the doc to stitch me up…and according to the nurse my doc is the quickest one in town to do that…I just think I was in so much shock and just so upset that I just well was just that…
I was so numb that even lying on my side didn’t make me feel better I was miserable and lost so much blood that I couldn’t even sit up enough to try to nurse my baby…I was really upset…eventually we sent him up to the nursery so I could rest…I had to take meds to keep from throwing up…I also thought I was hungry so they brought me food, but my mouth was so dry I couldn’t eat…I was worried that they would eventually give him a bottle because I hadn’t been able to nurse him…Alex reminded me it wouldn’t hurt him…
Eventually I was feeling well enough to be transferred to the recovery floor and had my baby back with me…I found out they didn’t feed him anything and I was able to start nursing him…they had also changed the rules since Robert had been born and he was able to stay with us in the room even when we were both sleeping…I had to have my cup of water in the bed with me that whole first night…Alex said I had lost a lot of blood…
When I woke up the next morning and tried to go to the bathroom I got really light headed…everyone felt bad for me because this was my 4th child and first C-section…I guess that isn’t very normal…
Alex brought the boys to see their new baby brother…the first time they really wanted to see me, but once they met him and came back the next day they went straight for their brother…especially Robert…he was so happy to have a baby brother of his own…Jacob even got to sleep in the room with us since Alex was there…which was nice…he is a mama’s boy still 🙂 Alex also made steak and brought it with the boys so that we could all eat together…I actually like hospital food and still do…but it was nice to have a family meal…
Since I was able to I did stay at the hospital an extra night since I knew it would be rough once I got home…my mom had already gotten her tickets to head back to CO, and she was ready…it was hard for me to not over do it while my meds were working and multiple times Alex had to make me chill out, because one they started to ware off I was in extreme pain and once almost passed out…
It actually took me 12 weeks to fully recover, when normally it is supposed to only be 6 weeks…the move and the carpet fuzz in our new house that I was constantly vacuuming did not help…eventually my doc in DC told me I had to stop unpacking so I could recover…I still have not finished, it just threw me for a loop…and really messed thing sup because we just dug in boxes to find what we needed…
Had Alex not come home early he probably would not have come home until the beginning of March…since my due date was the 4th…who knows little man may have tried to come and turned into and emergency C-section…at birth his head was 14.5 inches…we knew it was measuring larger than Jacob’s had by two weeks, and his was two ahead of an average baby’s head…but because the others had been such easy deliveries we just assumed his would be too…
Alex was an awesome support through it all…Mikey was actually our biggest Daddy’s boy, I think because Alex was home on leave to prepare for the move (already planned so didn’t need to take extra leave to help me from recovery)…so he got lots of Daddy time, more than the other boys…he was also our biggest cuddle bug…though he didn’t come into the world the ideal way, he is still one loved little boy…
On February 24th, 2012 we had our 4th son, Michael (after my older brother) Alexander (after Alex) was born…Alex was 35, I was 31, Jacob was 9 just short of 10, Patrick was days from turning 4, and Robert was just over 2…