Corban Lewis Rollo was born on August 21st at 7:52 pm
He was 6 lb 10 oz and 21.25 inches long (at his check up at 4 days old he was 6 lb 6 oz (10th percentile), 20.25 inches long (60th percentile) with a head circumference of 13.5 inches (17th percentile))
So here's the story as I remember it. Pardon the length and the rambling. I am a little tired these days. . .
On the Sunday before he was born I started having a really bad headache. I had headaches towards the end of my pregnancy with Gabriel, so I didn't think too much about it, but when I checked my blood pressure it was also a little high and that concerned me a little (my BP tends to run on the low side normally). When I went to the OB on that Wednesday it was still high, to the point that my OB recommended getting Corban out sooner rather than later. Since I was going to be 39 weeks on that Friday she recommended scheduling an induction and not waiting around for blood pressure related complications to happen. She did an ultrasound and he looked about 7 pounds and his lungs were fully developed so there was no reason to sit on something that could only lead to problems for him.
The induction was scheduled for Friday morning. I'm glad we went ahead with that plan because on Thursday my headache was so bad I could not really think and was sick to my stomach too. As much as I wanted things to progress naturally, it was also kind of nice to be able to plan when we were going to the hospital too. Taylor's mom drove up on Thursday to be with Gabriel (she was such a huge help to us in the last week. I'm not sure how to thank her enough). We didn't have to scramble when I went into labor to get Gabriel somewhere. Minor kink in things though: Taylor got food poisoning on Thursday night. He was up all night sick. I'm pretty sure that I would not have slept much anyway, but we both started things on Friday feeling pretty worn out.
So we got to the hospital about 11:30 on Friday morning. I was glad to find out that I was already in early labor (3cm and having regular contractions). I knew my back was hurting but hadn't really thought about it with everything else going on. Our nurse was WONDERFUL. And I'm kinda picky when it comes to nurses (no surprise there). I have high expectations. Anyways, she explained things so well and really made me feel secure with the whole "induction" things. She said her job was to to as little as possible to get my body doing things itself, which is exactly what she did. Very tiny dose of pitocin that she barely turned up until things started happening themselves. Then she turned it off. I was really afraid that I would be pushed into things too fast and that they would want to break my water and start a clock, etc. She started the pitocin about 2pm and at about 4pm things were moving really fast. My water broke in the bathroom (sorry Taylor for calling you in there in a panic of pain) and when the OB checked me a little while after that I was 8cm and 80%. I did get an epidural at that point because oh my back. Same as with Gabriel. Every contraction felt in the exact same stabbing spot on my back (it's starting to feel better now, but the pain and internal bruising I've felt back there since then. . .). Our nurse told me to let her know when I was feeling like I was at the point of wanting to push, but it was so nice to not be in pain for a while that I just wanted to hang out in bed a little longer. No back pain and no headache. I had not felt so good in a while. And, on top of that, it was about 6:30 and our nurse had told me how obnoxious it is when people want to deliver babies at the nursing change of shift. She was, of course, joking since we were talking about nursing things, but I wanted to relax and I wanted her to get off of work on time too.
When our next nurse started her shift the first thing I told her was that I thought it was time to have a baby and sure enough it was. She called the OB and got everything in place. They also called the NICU team since there was a large amount of meconium when my water broke. But, they didn't have time to get there. Corban came out after one contraction. Speedy little dude (I was told if we have any more kids there will be no delaying coming to the hospital or they might be born on the side of the road). To note, the cord was wrapped around his neck when he came out and it had a big knot in it. So thankful that little man tolerated labor with no complications.
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| Gabriel in the top picture and Corban on the bottom. I think they may be related. . . |
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| Brothers meeting for the first time. Gabriel was more excited about touching buttons on the bed and TV remote though. |
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| Heading to the doctor for the first time. |
Gabriel is turning out to be one sweet big brother. He wants to hold Corban a lot. He very gently strokes his hair and touches his hands. He told me the other day that when Corban cries it makes him sad. Whenever he is holding him and he makes noises he says "he's talking to me!" When I ask what he's talking about he says "he's talking about Sweet Frog." On the other side of that thought, Gabriel has been acting out a lot. He's trying to grab attention any way he can and is breaking rules that we know that he knows. I feel bad for him because I know that change is hard. The other day I was putting him down for a nap and Corban was crying and I know that it upset Gabriel not to have my full attention and be able to cuddle like we usually do before he falls asleep.
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| What is this guy going to do to me? |
Gabriel got a couple of "post baby" presents. One was figures from the movie "A Bugs Life" that Taylor found on ebay. Those were not easy to find but he loves them. He also got a doctor kit. His play has really changed over the last few weeks. He's all about pretending. He likes to be characters from his favorite movies (this week he's every character from "The Incredibles", but he also does "Star Wars" a lot and runs around the house pretending to be "The Croods." He likes to shout "To the cave!"). He likes to make us "picnics" in his play kitchen. He pretends to answer the phone and always says the same thing: "Hello? Anybody there? Haha. Ok, bye." He's full of energy and never runs out of things to talk about. He also starts most stories with "On another day we _____", even if it's something that we just did today. He also says frequently, "Oh, that so NICE of you," even when it in no way goes with what is going on. I realized yesterday that he got that from a Mo Willems book that we have from the library. He's funny.
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| Watching "Little Einsteins" while having a picnic on Mommy and Daddy's bed. He was one happy guy. |
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| First "Tummy Time" |
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| Darth Vader and his baby |
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| First Bath |
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| One week old |
