Welcome, Sterling

What. a. surprise. I honestly thought we'd be a family of girls (and I was just fine with that), but this little guy surprised us. We didn't find out his gender beforehand and we were both floored when he came out a different flavor than the rest of our kids!

I thought I'd better record his birth story before all the sleepless nights makes my memories foggy. This guy arrived on Mar 14, 2015 -- "Pi Day", but not just a regular Pi Day, a special pie day (3.1415). I really should have eaten some pie by now to celebrate. 

His birthday was sort of planned though. I wasn't due until the 25th. Because I had been having such awful round ligament pain for so long and because I had started dilating, I wanted to see if he was ready to come out with a little push. I did the castor oil-scrambled egg trick that worked to bring Mimi into the world. I figured at the very least I'd have the runs and no baby. If my body (and he) wasn't ready, it wouldn't work.

So we picked a day. And I did it. And it worked. It didn't happen quite as fast as Mimi's birth though. 

8:30 AM - Ate the eggs.

10:30 AM - Mild contractions started.

10:31 AM - Kids ask when the baby is coming out.

10:32 AM - Kids ask when the baby is coming out.

10:33 AM - Kids ask when the baby is coming out.

(You get the picture.)

3:00 PM - Dropped the kids off at the Stephenson's house. Holly was already at work (L&D nurse and my BFF and had dibs on the delivery) and Traci met us there (amazing midwife).

4:00 PM - Got settled at the hospital and started walking around. We expected him to arrive around 6PM -- if it was anything like Mimi's birth. I fully expected him then, too, because... 4th baby.

7:00 PM - Progressing, but S.L.O.W.L.Y. He was taking his sweet time. We decided to break my water to see if that would get things going.

9:00ish PM - Yes. That helped. Harder labor beginning. 

9:ish-10:30 PM - Don't even ask me about these hours. I don't want to talk about it. I wanted to have another natural birth, like Mimi's, but I didn't anticipate it being drawn out for this long. I was on the verge of asking for something, but I was positive he was almost here. So I held out a little longer.

10:43 PM - Hello, little boy! What? A boy? Are you sure?

I'm surprised now, but honestly I wasn't into the whole gender reveal at the time. I was just relieved that the whole experience was over and I didn't care if it was a girl or a boy. (Thinking of Lorelai Gilmore when she said giving birth is like doing the splits over a crate of dynamite. Yep. Pretty much.)

He gave out one little yelp and then didn't make a peep for a long time. He weighed 7 lbs 10 oz and measured 20 in.

We usually take a day or so to decide on a name. This time it took us almost a week -- boys names are hard for us. The girls really liked Owen and started calling him that, but we decided on Sterling Richard (after Steve's dad) instead. When we told them we decided on Sterling they took it pretty well. Except Sophie had a short meltdown and was sobbing upstairs for a little while. My mom was here at the time and was a little concerned about her... until I told her she reacted the same way when we traded our van in for another one and had to say good-bye to "Toola". She's just sentimental, I guess.

Guys, Sterling is so sweet. He rarely cries and sleeps a lot. After a week he isn't doing too badly during the night either. I got four hours in a row last night and I don't feel like I'm in a fog. Breastfeeding is going beautifully, and I'm not nearly as sore this time. (Thank you, coconut oil!) He eats A LOT. I've heard that about baby boys, though.... wanting to eat constantly.

We think he looks the most like Sophie as a baby. He has Steve's olive skin and dark hair, Sophie's lips and nose, and maybe Ivy's eyes. He's going to be one good-looking kid.

That's about it. We're still walking on air and soaking in his little newborn self. I love this stage, despite having to deal with my body's recovery as well (which is going pretty well, by the way), and I wish it didn't go by so fast.