Nolan's Story

It's crazy how quickly time has gone by since Nolan was born. Little man is almost two weeks old and I've been meaning to write about his arrival now since my post last week, but obviously other things have been keeping me from doing so. The most apparent reason is because I now have a newborn who requires my attention all of the time. But there are others too; like trying to catch up on the lack of sleep that I get during the night, washing the endless dirty bottles and pee-soiled laundry, attempting to keep the house somewhat orderly, and just getting used to two kids versus one. I know that it's still very early and I'll start learning new shortcuts and ways to make things easier as I go so I'm fine with knowing certain things will just have to wait until I can find the time.

Nolan's arrival was pretty easy thanks to my scheduled c-section. We checked into the hospital at 6pm and took care of all the admitting paperwork, then they hooked me up to all the monitors until we were ready to go to the OR. As I figured would happen, they were running a bit behind and my 8:30pm surgery time got pushed. Then when we were in the OR and I was getting prepped for my spinal block, there was an emergency that caused everyone to pause on me and tend to her. Yes I was bummed that I had to wait even longer but I also understood and actually felt sympathy for the mom; she was only 24 weeks along with twins. Once the dust settled and we were ready to roll with my surgery, everything happened quickly. My anesthesiologist was great - he had his iPad set to John Mayer on Pandora and told me to let him know as soon as I started to feel any sign of getting sick. I had gotten sick with Mallory so I told him that was one of my concerns going in. Sure enough, I had a moment when my blood pressure dropped low and he came to my rescue with some medicine. Other than that, the surgery went smoothly and Nolan was healthy as can be. In true boy fashion he peed as soon as he was out and then again on the table when they were cleaning him off, even managing to hit himself in the face.

The recovery area was probably the least enjoyable part, mainly because it took FOREVER. I seriously felt like the nurses that were tending to me were in no hurry whatsoever, and at times almost seemed a little unprepared with either supplies or the steps to take to get us up to our room. I was so tired and all I wanted was to be by ourselves with our new little boy. By the time we got wheeled upstairs and into my room it was 2:30am. The nurse that took over in my room was great and tried her hardest to make herself as sparse as possible so we could enjoy being on cloud nine with Nolan. And even though she told me I wasn't supposed to let him sleep with me in the bed, that's exactly where he was for the rest of the night. I just couldn't help myself. As tired as I was, all I wanted to do was stay awake and stare at him.

The rest of the hospital stay was pretty standard. I could have gone home on day two but I opted to stay an extra day. Checking out didn't go as quickly as we were hoping for so that was a bit frustrating though I know it was because Labor & Delivery had gotten inundated; one doctor told me there were 30 women in active labor with only 24 rooms available. Sucks to be those six who were told they'd have to wait. Once we were home from the hospital it was business as usual trying to get everything settled and back to normal. Mallory did and is doing well adjusting to being a big sister and no longer the only child. She definitely has her moments of jealousy and her attitude has regressed a little, but nothing that we didn't see coming. Nolan is fitting into our family very nicely and we can already tell he's a much more relaxed baby then Mal was - thank God. His demeanor is answered prayers for sure. We are elated for his arrival and are having fun getting used to this adorable little boy.

Father and son

Little peanut

Loves holding her brother

At the park

First trip to the doctor

Sleepy baby

Kisses