We had a baby

We had a baby!

Finn Ricker Milligan finally made his debut on Friday the 13th. 

In the middle of the night, of course. 

Nine pounds two ounces, twenty-two inches long. 

He's pretty perfect.

  

  

He was pretty hairy, just like we thought he would be. My doctor actually said there's real science backing up that heartburn/amount of baby hair link, it's not just an old wives tale. 

Finn has the unique experience of being both my most horrible and my easiest labor. I'd been nervous his whole pregnancy that he would be sunny-side-up like Nora was, and when I woke up around 2:00 in the morning with the same back pain I had with her I knew we were in for it. 

We got to the hospital around three, and by the time I got changed and in bed my contractions were only about a minute apart. With back labor, at least in my experience, I pretty much can't feel the contractions in my uterus at all because they back pain is so overwhelming it totally eclipses anything else. Even deploying all the many pain management techniques I've developed over the years it was seriously one of the most painful things I've ever encountered.

One of my nurses didn't think I would be in labor long enough to get an epidural, especially since I had to wait for a whole bag of fluid to go through my IV before I could get one. Luckily my other nurse took pity on me and convinced the anesthesiologist to hook me up without having to wait on the IV. Good thing too, because it still took him about 40 minutes to get there, and the bag wasn't even half gone by then. 

He gave me the usual dose, but 15 minutes later I could still feel the contractions full strength, so he came back and gave me an extra dose. It was pretty much the strongest epidural ever. In fact, he came back again about a half hour later to dial it back a bit, although I didn't feel much of a difference after he did that.

Anyway, my doctor came in right about six and was surprised that I was totally ready to go. She broke my water and three pushes and nine minutes later he was here! I couldn't believe it. Nora took two hours of pushing because she was face up, so I was expecting something similar with Finn, too.  He'd had meconium in his fluid, so they had to whisk him off right away. My doc said it was unusual to have two sunny-side-up babies in a row, and that there must be something about the way my pelvis is shaped that makes my babies come out that way. I can't be sure, but I'm gonna go ahead and blame my twisted spine for that one.

So, he was the worst, because the contractions were so much more horrifyingly painful than either of the girls, but the easiest because he came out so quickly. He got me out of bed at 2:07, and Marc was cutting the cord at 6:31.

We really like him.

The girls were so excited to meet him, of course. Nora hadn't seemed thrilled about him while they were at home that morning, but the second she walked in she was ready to hold him and just wanted to touch all of his little features. 

  

The nurses had given each of the girls a sticker before they came in, and Nora pulled hers off right away and said "here you go, Finn!". She was a little bummed he couldn't take it from her, but she settled for sticking it to his blanket instead.

We were able to come home on Saturday, and his two big sisters have been loving on him ever since. 

He even let us sleep for four hours last night. We specifically requested a good sleeper this time around, so we definitely expect him to keep that up.