Welcome Home, Peter!

This is just after Peter is born, so Peter still looks a little smooshed and his eyes have that antibiotic ointment in them (David says he looks like a little alien baby!).

Jack and Thomas's first introduction to Peter. They were SO excited to finally meet him! Here's what Peter looks like about 22 hours out of every day at this point ... fast asleep :)
So, Peter and I finally arrived home from the hospital yesterday afternoon. Hooray! It feels like I've been away from home for weeks rather than just days. My mom is staying with us for most of this week to help take care of the boys and the house and everything while I catch up on rest and we all adjust to having a newborn in the house. David also has the week off, which is great. I feel very good, just tired mostly. This was by far the easiest birth I've had, and I hope any more kids we have come as easily as Peter did!

Just a few highlights -- soon after I posted about my water breaking, David arrived home and we drove off to the hospital. Thomas, especially, really didn't want to say goodbye, but my mom said he calmed down and did OK after we left. The drive to the hospital went smoothly and my contractions were about 7-8 minutes apart. By the time we got settled into the labor room, my contractions were coming faster, about 5-6 minutes apart, and they continued to get closer and closer. We had arrived at the hospital at about 7PM, and by about 8PM the contractions were about 2 minutes apart and it hurt!!! I was having a hard time recovering between contractions, and I knew I had a long way to go, so I got an epidural and it was a great decision. I was able to relax, and my contractions continued to pick up without me being uncomfortable. David and Kim were visiting with me and we were just hanging out and talking. It was awesome! By about 2AM, I had dilated to 10cm and they said I could start pushing! About half and hour of pushing later, and Peter was born. I even got to have a regular birth, not a c-section!!!

Recovery went very well and we planned to come home on Friday, but early Friday morning Peter's respiration rate was too high and they were concerned because this can be an early sign of infection in newborns (even though he didn't have a fever). So they took him to the special care nursery to be put on antibiotics and monitored for 2 days. He did just fine over in the special care nursery, but I admit it was hard for me because he wasn't in my room anymore and he was hooked up to lots of wires and monitors so it was hard to hold him when I did visit him. But, he was perfectly healthy and he was discharged on Sunday morning and we got to go home!!

So, thank you for your thoughts and prayers -- everything went so well and, most importantly, Peter and I are both as healthy as can be.