BABY UPDATE

I love the contrast between the peaceful, serene, angelic look on his face in the first picture...as compared to the look of alarm and fear in the second to last picture with his sisters.

Below is LUKE at 3 weeks!

The Master Arrives...

...the Jedi Master that is.  Hold on, seriously?  Am I turning this wonderful holiday birth announcement into a lam-o star wars thing????  No.  Well, maybe.

Benjamin Luke Edwards entered our world at 9:43am on (Black*) Friday, November 25th.  


If you want the gory details, stay tuned till after all the pics.

We are calling him Luke.
(Hence the Jedi Master bit)

  He was 7 pounds and 21 inches long.  Skinny legs, skinny arms and extra long fingers and toes.  Our little guy has BIG eyes when they are actually open.  I love that.  It reminds me of Haylee a bit when she was a baby. He has a little hair on top (not sure of the color yet) and a little fuzz all over everywhere else.   He was/is still but not as much sooooooo soft!  So precious and sweet too.  In the hospital he hardly cried at all, slept thru his PKU even!  He likes to make funny faces which I also love because that reminds me of Cambree (and his Dad).


The girls were so timid at first when they came to see me in the hospital.  It didn't take too long, however, for all the kisses and "huggies" and loves and squeezes and prodding and regular questions and uncomfortable questions to come out.  They are so good and gentle and sweet with him.  They always want to hold him and sing to him and help me.  

 

Gory details anyone? This is for posterity's sake.  And me.  So I can remember when  he asks me later.  And for anyone else who cares. Here goes:  Luke was a scheduled c-section.  I got the choice to do a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) or schedule a c.  I chose to do a VBAC until right before my due date when nothing and I mean nothing was progressing.  I felt like I would probably end up being induced and I didn't want to be induced.  All the risks multiple when you do a VBAC while being induced.  So, along with some other reasons, I decided to schedule a c section for Friday, 2 days after my official due date.

Funny enough, I started having contractions Thanksgiving Day.  I will always remember it...spreading peanut butter and cheez wiz on a pile of celery with some of my neices and having to pause every so often and watch them stare at me while I cringed.  Falling asleep during the football game, curled up on the couch.  Being all around anti social (Sorry Edwards family!) Having only 2 bites of everything before feeling stuffed.  Not helping with the dishes.  Being up all night wondering if I should have made my doc take him out on Thanksgiving Day.  Being up all night remembering how painful it really is to give birth.  Being up all night, wondering if my nephew in the next room could hear me groaning in agony.  (Sorry Cameron if you did!)

Lucky for me, they didn't make me wait it out and give birth the normal way.  BJ and I got up around 5 (very easily for the first time in our lives, didn't even need our alarms) and got ready to go.  I was prepped and poked and plugged and drugged.  Since I had been put all the way out with Cambree it was a very different experience to be awake and to hear and feel (well, sort of feel) the whole thing.  Strange.  It was.  I kept saying "this is so weird, this is so weird..." to the nice anesthesiologist at my head.  I will always remember my doc when making sure the drugs were working said, "I'm pinching you really hard now Julie" and laughing about it.  Riiiight.  So hard I can almost feel it.  I will also remember the smell of someone's  burning flesh (not mine,  that would be sickening) and BJ saying "you don't want to know what they're doing now"  

Finally, they pulled our little guy out.  We knew right away our son had personality.  And a sense of humor.  When I heard my doc exclaim something about being peed on.  And then her assistant screaming about not aiming him at her.  Ha.  Ha.  And then seeing a tiny gray baby boy being held up for me to see.  And then, minutes later, hearing more exclamations and pee related remarks as he was bathed and measured.  Ha.

Turns out it was a good thing I planned my c section.  Luke came out with the cord wrapped tightly around his neck and several times around his little body.  With the stress of labor, he probably would have had a hard time and I would most likely have had another c anyway.  If you have a VBAC, they will do a repeat c section if there is even a hint of a problem.  So I felt good about my decision.  Now, if I choose to have 6 more kids, I will be able to plan what day I choose to have them cut out of me.

Recovery is in progress.  I said a tearful farewell to my closest buddy, Mr. Percocet and I'm handling it well on some days and not so well others.  It is overwhelming being a mother of 3 for me but I am slowly getting used to it.  I have an amazing support system.  AMAZING!  I feel so lucky and I know how blessed I am to have so many people ready to help me whenever I need it.  And I've needed it.  Millie.  My mom and bestest girl friend.  My amazing husband.  I know I've used that word a lot be he is the best.

Luke is doing great.  He is eating well and gaining weight and usually, sometimes sleeps well.  No schedule yet.  But we'll get there.  

 * We inquired if he counted as a door-buster and whether we could get half off our hospital stay since it was the deal day of the year but unfortunately, no one else thought it was as good an idea as we did.