I never thought I would have the baby on his birthday. I had not been having contractions at all. I was grumpy, tired, and all that end of pregnancy stuff but no Braxton Hicks and no random contractions here or there. I woke up around 4am, which wasn't unusual, checked my email when boom contraction. Hmm. 5 minutes later boom. Coincidence? It kept happening- 5 minutes apart and 1 minute long. They hurt, I was uncomfortable, 35 minutes later they were still happening. I got up told Pete, brushed my teeth, and they began hurting so much I had to just stop and squat. I began shaking, I felt like I was going to vomit. Contractions in the past never really bothered me. They were uncomfortable, not pleasant, but nothing like this. I knew this was it, I was going to have the baby on Jack's birthday. I paged the doctor, Jack woke up from all my noise, so I first apologized, told him to get dressed, and then make sure dad was awake!!
I was in so much pain that I said just take me to the hospital now with all the kids and we will figure it all out later. The contractions were already moving into the 3 minutes apart range and lasting longer than one minute. So we get out to the car and you'll never guess-- it had snowed like 6 or 7 inches overnight. This baby had the worst timing. The roads were horrible, we had to go so slow, Pete could barely see, all the kids were in the car asking questions, and I was just in constant pain.
We pull up to the ER, Pete gets me a wheelchair, leaves the kids in the car, and takes me inside. I really thought the baby was just going to fall out of me right then. They kept asking me questions and I just wanted to yell- SHUT UP!!!!!! They came to take me upstairs and Pete went home with the kids. I figured just see where things stand and if we need to call someone we can. Pete's parents were on their way in from Kentucky. When I got upstairs it was 7am. She checked me and I was 7 centimeters. It was obvious my contractions were every couple minutes so they did what they could to quickly get me prepped for my epidural. In the past the epidural has always made me nervous, scared, and was the most painful part of the whole contractions part of labor. This time I wanted to be one of those crazy screaming ladies that cusses and demands the epidural now. I truly couldn't get it fast enough and was not at all concerned about the pain from the numbing shot or any ill effects that could be caused by it. I was just sad that it didn't work immediately.
Once I was numb enough to actual say words instead of grunts and glares my nurse and the doctor checked things out and it was around 8:45 or 9am. I was basically ready to go so he popped my water and told me I could start pushing anytime. The nurse stayed with me and after a couple pushes said she thought I still had one centimeter to go before pushing and didn't want me to push for another 30 minutes. This way I didn't irritate my cervix and cause swelling. Pete and I talked at that point and he wanted to hang out with Jack on his birthday and make it special for him and not have him feel like we were brushing him aside for a new kid. Plus, he couldn't make it to the hospital in 30 minutes anyway. So at 9:30 the nurse comes back she tells me to push, I push half of a push and she tells me to stop because the baby is right there and she needs the doctor. He comes in, and I push just through two contractions and baby is born. He weighed 8 lbs. 10 oz. 21 inches long.
Since I was having a tubal ligation in a couple hours we just hung out in the delivery room. I still wasn't sure of his name because we liked a few different names and had decided not to settle on one until we saw him. Pete wasn't there, and I had no strong feelings, so he was just baby for the first couple hours of life. I learned right away he likes to suck or nurse just because. He didn't seem overly interested in eating but he kept nursing to fall asleep.
They took him to the nursery while I had my surgery. For my surgery they upped the epidural dosage, gave me some sedatives that didn't completely knock me out but had me falling in and out of sleep, and they put up a big sheet so I have no idea what happened. It took about 20-30 minutes then I was done. Never to have children again. It is sad and weird to think that part of my life is over when it is basically all I have been doing for the last 9 years- almost the whole time I have been married to Pete. I feel very confident in my decision but the finality of it, the inability to do what a woman's body is meant to do, is a loss. I mourn that part of womanhood being gone.
He has been a very good baby so far. He really likes to nurse in order to put himself to sleep, to help soothe himself, and to eat so I know already he will be very attached to me. Not a bad thing, but something that will make certain parts of my life harder, especially with a Moo Baby around.
I called Pete after my surgery and they had been celebrating Jack's birthday all day with gifts, doughnuts, movies, and naming the baby. They had seen the pictures I sent and all agreed to name him Robert Franklin. At Christmas Luke decided the baby's name would be Franklin Santa Baby Weigel. So we had been joking that was his name for awhile now. Then Joe and Matt got a dog and named him Franklin, and while Luke thought that was cool he still wanted our baby to be Franklin Santa Baby. Robert had been a name Pete picked out and liked a little while ago. He liked that it was German and I have people named Robert in my family so I agreed to it as a top pick, but still wanted to wait. So as soon as they saw the picture they agreed he was a Robert Franklin. Luke wants to call him Bobby. Pete wants to call him Robo Cop Baby. I think we may have to wait a bit longer to see what actually sticks. He may end up a Robert, after all Thomas is Thomas and refuses to go by anything else.
Everyone made it to the hospital that afternoon to see Robo Cop Baby.
He seemed like a big hit. Meg was a little overwhelmed so she just hung out with Daddy mostly. She is very mad at me and the last two times I have seen her she has turned her head away from me and won't look at me. Then she snuggles up to Pete. I have deeply offended her by having this baby. I guess it is lucky she has Pete.
Here are a couple pictures of what Robbie/Bobby likes best- being snuggled up right next to me sleeping.
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