Mason has arrived!! All 10 pounds, 4 ounces and 22.5 inches of him! I feel the need to remind anyone reading that I was induced 1 week early and he was still over 10 pounds. Delivery went really well, nothing too exciting, no C-section, no screaming and under 5 hours from when we set foot in the hospital until he was born. After having a 10 pound baby, I have really been considering including my anesthesiologist on my Christmas card list. Mason was born May 11th at 2:45 P.M.
After he was born the respiratory therapists had to work on him for a few minutes so they couldn't tell us his weight for a bit. The Dr, nurse and respiratory therapist all separately made mention to a football players, basketball players and the next player on the jazz while they were giving him a little help to breath better. After hearing all of that I was pretty positive he was on the big size. When they told me his weight I responded with "seriously, I just had a 10 pound baby?" and then "I just lost over ten pounds in under 10 minutes".
Every nurse that I had in the next two days felt the need to tell me how much their babies weighed at birth. Twice I got to respond with "So, I just had 2 of your babies". On the flip side I had great care in the hospital. I actually felt pretty good but I think the nurses felt bad for me. More than once I had nurses come in that were not assigned to me to bring me pain meds and anything else I had asked for within minutes. Much different than my experience when I had Cole.
I went to a breastfeeding class while I was in the hospital and the nurse teaching it said "Oh, your the one that had the 10 pound baby, they were talking about you in report". I was starting to feel a little like a freak and a celebrity all at the same time. During my class one of the fathers told me he "had to see this 10 pound baby". I told him he looks just like any other baby just bigger. Later that day I thanked Justin for not being the kind of man that A - would go to a breastfeeding class and B - ask a stupid question like that.
Mason was labeled an LGA baby. LGA stands for Large for Gestational Age. They had to preform blood sugars every few hours both days we were in the hospital. LGA can cause a list of problems for mom and baby but we lucked out. The only thing the Dr. told us was his skin was somewhat red in color (a sign of LGA) but that will fade quickly. My pediatrician and OBGYN told me that it is pretty rare to have that large of a baby when the mother doesn't have Gestational Diabetes. Justin was bigger than Mason at birth but according to his Dad he was on-time and Justin's mom had Gestational Diabetes.
Mason is a really, really content happy baby. The first night he was home he slept a 5 hour stretch and the second night a 6.5 hour stretch. I took him to the pediatrician today and he is gaining weight like he should and loosing some of his redness. The jury is out on his hair color. I thought it was red at first but that may have had to do with his over all rosy appearance for the first few days. Justin and I have gone back and forth everyday between strawberry blonde and blonde. When Justin was born there was NO question he was a redhead.
Here is Justin after the delivery. Sorry no pictures of me :). When we were going up the elevator there was another father-to-be who was telling us they had been in labor and delivery for over 18 hours waiting for their baby to get here. The best part about this father was the fact that he was dressed head to toe in camo. Even a camouflage jacket over a camouflage t-shirt. Maybe he was tyring to hide from his wife/girlfriend? Justin looked almost boring in his blue shirt and jeans.
Here is Cole meeting Mason for the first time. I love his raised eyebrow look. Cole has been great so far with the addition of a brother. He calls him "hey little guy" and tries to give him a binky all the time. He also tried to give him a raisin and some string cheese, so I will have to keep an eye out for any food Cole sneaks away.
Does that hand on Cole's shoulder look familiar to anyone? It is my mom! She was able to leave her Mission for almost a week to help with Cole. It was so nice to have her here. It made everything so much easier knowing Cole was with my mom at his own house while I was at the hospital. Cole calls my mom NYE. We call her Nana, but he decided NYE was better. He had a fun week being spoiled by my mom. I will be a long 13 months untill she and my Dad get home.