We’re still at the hospital. Sarah is having some very bad surgery pains. The percocet helps, but not much. I feel horrible for her. We should be getting discharged sometime today. The big question is whether we can get Sarah feeling better or not.

The last couple of nights with Tyler have been… interesting. See, the first night of his life was very uneventful. Translation = Quiet. No crying, or screaming, or anything. Just a whimper here or there.

Then he got a bath.

That is when Sarah and I got a taste of just what kind of noise could come out of something so small. He cried and screamed and thrashed all around. I’m pretty sure that Tyler liked the noise of himself crying, because he’s been practicing and honing his pitch and volume ever since.

He’s finally able to latch on to the boob fairly quickly. If you remember, Sarah had to get an epidural. Breastfeeding is pretty difficult when mom gets an epidural. The first couple days were difficult. Now that the drugs are out of her system (and out of his system), he can’t wait to get on the breast.

Here’s what we expected:

Feed on one boob
*burp*
Feed on other boob
*burp*
*sleep*

Here’s what really happened:
Feed on one boob
*try to burp, but get nothing*
*sleep*
*SCREAM*
*burp*
*weird noises and vibrations around his bottom*
*diaper*
*scream*
Feed on other boob for barely a minute or two
*try to burp, but get nothing*
*sleep*
*SCREAM*
*burp*
*sleep*

It’s been fun. The best is in the middle of the night when he starts thrashing around and asking for food, only to fall asleep as soon as he gets close to Sarah’s boob.

Oh, and he has very little interest in a pacifier. yay.

Our midwife, Michelle, came by to check on us around noon today, while on her lunch break. I told her that Tyler is a little Houdini, and has mastered the art of getting out of a swaddle. Not just my swaddles either. I’m talking about nurse swaddles. Swaddles that should be more confining than a straight-jacket. It takes Ty no longer than 3 minutes to wriggle both arms free.

Michelle, angel that she is, said that she would teach us the “master swaddle”. Tyler was screaming during this demonstration. About 10 seconds after she finished, he was sound asleep!!!! It’s been about 2 hours now, and he’s still sound asleep.

Where the heck was she 24 hours ago!?!?!?!!?

Our family doctor came by today to check Tyler out. She had to remove the swaddle to do so, so I got to practice the master swaddle. Mine isn’t as “clean” looking as Michelle’s, but he quit crying immediately after I finished turning him into a burrito.

Best. parenting. trick. EVER!!!

Wow… We’ve been at the hospital since 9am on Thursday morning. Our little man just couldn’t pass the non-stress test at our last OB appointment. His heart rate was a steady 144 beats per minute, but just wouldn’t jump up high enough when he moved around. Being 7 days overdue already, we had to make the decision to induce labor.

We declined Pitocin initially. Our Midwife, Michelle (who is a complete angel, by the way), gave us some options and opinions. We all decided on Cytotec. It’s not indicated for inducing labor, but it works. We started Cytotec at 3pm on Thursday (after doing tests since 9am, with a Bob Evans break at 11:30a). Sarah started having weak contractions shortly thereafter. At 3:30am Friday morning, contractions suddenly got very strong. They were 2 minutes apart, lasting 60 seconds. This went on for 12 hours, with very hard contractions. At 3pm the next day (Friday) Sarah was put on Pitocin, because her uterus was getting tired and starting to fizzle a little bit. She was also given a morphine shot, because she didn’t have any break for a nap, and the contractions were very strong and painful. She continued to have contractions while she slept. She woke up after 3 hours and continued with hard contractions.

After all this, Sarah was only dilated to 2cm. The pitocin continued. At 11pm that night (Friday still), she was dilated to 5cm. At midnight, her water broke. At around 4am (Saturday) her contractions got much much harder. Michelle (our midwife) said it sounded like it was time to call family to come up to the hospital. Another check at 5am and Sarah was still only 5cm dilated. Michelle pulled me outside and said that the baby’s head wasn’t pushing onto the cervix and so wasn’t dilating more. At 8am, Sarah exhausted, we had no choice but to get an eipdural so Sarah could rest and alleviate some of the pain. At 10am, she was dilated to 6cm.

At 3pm (5 hours later) she was only 7cm dilated. We still had hopes for a natural (vaginal) birth, but had to begin discussions of a c-section. At 5pm, Sarah was still 7cm with no changes, other than the fact that her contractions were getting weaker and weaker and further and further apart. Her uterus was giving up.

There was no longer any other choice than to get a c-section. We felt extremely disappointed, but we knew in our hearts that we had exhausted ALL other options first. Her surgery was at 6pm. I was at Sarah’s side during the surgery. She is, by far, the strongest, most resilient woman I know. I still have no idea how she endured 51 hours of hard contractions. At 6:14pm, our beautiful baby boy was born and shown to us. We were informed that there was no possible way Sarah could have had him naturally. The umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck 3 times, and he was physically too big to fit through her pelvic bone Redacted: He could have fit, but had his head/body in a position preventing him from doing so.

I stayed with him from then on. Sarah got closed up and wheeled off to ICU for recovery. I went downstairs with baby so he could get weighed and measured. We then took him back to Sarah so she could meet and feed him.

Everyone is doing fine now. Sarah is recovering very very well. She’s already back on solid food and can walk for a bit now.

Our baby boy…
Tyler James Gearhart
10 pounds 2 ounces
22 inches long
He’s a baby gorilla fer cryin’ out loud.

Pictures are online…
http://TheGearharts.smugmug.com
Click on “Our Family”
Click on “Tyler James”

I’ll be adding tons and tons of pics… so keep checking the site out.

We are truly blessed to have this tiny man here. As big as he is, I expect him to be walking and eating solid foods in about 3 days. I’ll teach him how to drive next week. He’ll probably have outgrown me before August.

Ignore this post… I’ve got plans for it later.