Week 1

I'm not going to lie. This is hard. I had no idea. Patrick says they lied to us. Each day actually gets a little better, but the breast-feeding has been way more challenging than I had anticipated. My milk had a hard time coming in, so Peyton really wasn't getting enough to eat. Finally between day 5 and day 6, my milk came in, although I never really did get that engorged feeling or anything. Hopefully I'll keep producing more and more, because this is one heck of a hungry boy. Night before last, he ate, pooped, and screamed pretty much non-stop between 10pm and 2am. My mom and I were on duty and by poop number 6, all we could do was laugh. Thank goodness my mom is here. I don't know what I would do without her. She's been such a big help. She's not sleeping either, but somehow she's managing to keep up with the laundry, keeping me fed, burping Peyton, changing his diaper, etc.

Last night, my mom and Patrick took turns sleeping downstairs with Peyton and just brought him to me to be fed. That way, I could get a little bit of sleep. Up until then I had been trying to have him sleep in the cradle next to me and every little noise he made, I would jump up and see what he was doing or what he needed, so I wasn't sleeping at all. I feel a lot better today. Its amazing what some sleep can do for you.

So, we're adjusting. Still getting used to each other. But now I know he cries for two reasons: he needs to eat, or he needs to poop. He's got terrible gas. After the 6th poop in a row the other night, I knew he was a Harrell! His daddy is so proud!

Patrick says I had such an easy pregnancy, I had to pay for it somehow. And between the labor and this first week at home, I feel like I've paid my dues. The delivery was a lot more difficult than I had anticipated. My labor started about 3am. I had gotten up to use the bathroom and noticed a little blood, so I was hoping that meant things were starting. I got back in bed and woke Patrick up. He asked if we could sleep just a little longer, but within just a few minutes, I had a contraction. Then I had another one. Yep, I was in labor. I called my mom and told her to get on the next plane. I got in the bathtub to get ready to go to the hospital, thinking we still had a few hours before we needed to do that. Then we started counting the contraction length and frequency and realized that they were between 3 and 5 minutes apart and lasting between 45 and 70 seconds. The doctor had told me I should go to the hospital once they were 5 minutes apart and lasting for a minute and this had gone on for an hour. At that point Patrick realized that he really needed to pack, walk Nellie, and get ready to go. I've never seen him move that fast. We left the house a little after 6am, stopped at church and said a prayer, then arrived at the hospital. They wheeled me up to the labor and delivery floor, checked to see if I was dilated and I was already between 4 and 5cm, so they gave me a labor room. I opted for the epidural right away - I was pretty uncomfortable. I stopped feeling my contractions in my abdomen, but was really feeling them in my back. I think Peyton was right up against my tailbone. By 10am, I was 8cm. My mom's plane was getting ready to take off and she was nervous that she wouldn't make it in time. But at this point, things kind of slowed down. They ended up breaking my water sometime around noon if I remember correctly (things are kind of hazy). After another hour or so, I was still only 8cm, so they started me on pitocin (sp?). My mom arrived at this point, relieved that she made it in time. Around 3:30pm I was 10cm and started pushing. Wow. I wasn't prepared for this part at all. The midwife asked me if I had taken the childbirth class and I said yes, and she said ok, good, so you know how to push. I looked at Patrick and he had a blank look on his face too, so I turned to her and asked if we could go over that part. You know, no one said a word in our childbirth class about pushing. I hadn't even realized it until that exact moment. But looking back, how do you complete a childbirth class without having covered pushing??? As prepared as I was for everything else, and as much as I had read about everything, I was clueless about pushing. But we went over what to do and I proceeded to push for 3 freakin' hours. I had not realized how difficult this part was going to be. At this point, I had no idea that I was about to push out an almost 10 lb baby either, but that may explain why it was so hard to get him out. Once he was born, my placenta wouldn't deliver on its own so they had to manually remove it. That was fun. But there he was, born at 6:42PM weighing in at 9lbs, 13oz and he was just beautiful.

He's got to be one of the luckiest little boys in the world. Between Patrick and my families, he has 12 grandparents or great grandparents. Somehow, we managed to find unique names for all of them. Here they are:

My family:
My mom - Lollie
My stepdad - Pops
My dad - Gramps
My mom's mom - Grandma
My mom's dad - Paw-Paw
My dad's mom - Granny
My stepdad's mom - Mimi

Patrick's family:
His mom - Lulu
His dad - Papa
His mom's mom - MawMaw
His dad's mom - Big Mama
His dad's dad - Big Daddy


I will eventually try to post more pictures. Peyton keeps me pretty busy, but I will try to post some things periodically between feedings and poopy diapers.