I want to introduce you to the newest member of our clan today! Theodore Bates was born last Tuesday! I’m going to tell the birth story, so if that isn’t your thing, feel free to skip past this post with the promise that more crafty things are coming soon! 

 After several episodes of false/pre-labor, I practically begged my midwife to induce me (also so I could guarantee she would be the one delivering). The pre labor was killer. Apparently when you’ve already had a couple kids, your uterus just starts practicing, so mine thought it would be awesome to do hours and hours of contractions that were three minutes apart and would last 1-2 minutes each on many, many occasions. One night they started around 1am and didn’t let up until almost 7am. Fun times, people!

So even though “there was no way” I would last until Tuesday for the induction, my body waited anyway. I was feeling concerned about getting Pitocin because I was given that to augment my labor with Wallace which was a terrible experience all the way around. I’m glad to say there was absolutely nothing to fear. Labor started up with a regular pattern quickly, and thanks to the help of my incredible husband and mom, I was able to walk around and bounce on the birthing ball, and pretty much do what I wanted until I had reached about 6cm. That’s when it got so intense I was hyperventalating and my body could not relax. My mom, my advocate, ran out to the nurses station and demanded someone come check on me. When the nurses got there they were horrified they hadn’t come in sooner, and with the oversight of my midwife they gave me IV meds to basically make my brain think things were feeling better than they were. That medicine is manufactured by angels, I’m convinced, and from the moment that stuff hit me, I was good to go. Justin tells me I went limp almost immediately, and from that moment the contractions were able to be more effective and I progressed quickly. My midwife was glad I had gotten some time to regroup and once I was at an 8 or so, she broke my water. Things got real really fast, which I expected. At this point I was still moving all around in that bed. They were doing all sorts of things to change it around. I don’t know that a whole hour passed before I was on my side squeezing Justin’s head off and pushing our baby out. 

 aunt Emilee made him take his clothes off for pictures so we had to redress him quickly. lol.  

 My midwife is all about stepping back and letting the body do its thing, which is something that caught me off guard. I mean, she told me this is how she operates, but I was really expecting some coaching so I didn’t mess up. Eventually I got that she wasn’t going to tell me, and I just hoped I was doing things right. (My labor with Wallace really left me with a lot of trauma and fear, and I did not trust in me at all!) Well out little baby got here. She told me to reach down and grab him, and I think I reached down, but to be honest I was so doped up and still wondering how I had gotten that far, that I didn’t immediately snap out of it and into that blissful state. It took a few minutes, but after holding him, and saying “hello, Teddy”, and having him latch right away, I was in heaven. Like, I just did this. And this human is my human, and I get to take him home. It just became so real. 

 Going into the hospital, we had narrowed down to two names. We loved both of them, but were unsure which one was right. When I had gotten to that very intense portion of labor and I felt like I just couldn’t do it, I begged Justin to pick a name. I needed to look forward to meeting a baby with a firmer identity- it needed to feel more real. He said we would name him “Theodore” which means “gift of God” and it couldn’t be more suitable. The whole experience from pregnancy to labor to meeting Teddy was such a gift, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I just can’t even put into words how perfect the whole thing was. 

     And Teddy… he sure is a gift. He is the sweetest little thing. I was able to hold him for about an hour to feed him before they even wiped him off. When they took him over to the newborn station to weigh him we all got a massive shock. He was a whopping 10lb 6oz!!! Um, what?! They thought he would be about 8lb, and I thought the same since I had felt much better this pregnancy, and not nearly as heavy. I am SOOO glad no one told me I would have a child this big because I would have felt defeated long before labor ever came around. And the funny thing is, this labor was a breeze compared to Wallace who was 9lb 12.9oz. The human body is such an incredible thing and birth is nothing short of a miracle!        

Theodore eats, sleeps, and poops like a champ. He is very content and can sleep through the carnival that Layla and Wallace put on here everyday. I don’t know how that’s even possible, but I am so grateful! The children are smitten with him. Layla wants to help constantly, and Wallace grins at Teddy and I and showers us with kisses throughout the day. We are enjoying the adjustment to being a five person family overall! 

   Thank you for letting me share my littlest man with you!

-Meredith