Avery Heath arrives....

Here I am on the morning of June 24 - 41 weeks pregnant and so ready to have a baby on the outside as opposed to kicking and writhing and causing general discomfort on the inside. We had just returned from an appointment with the midwife we hoped would be our last before the birth. It is truly amazing that abdominal skin can stretch that much...

I had been taking a tincture of cohosh and raspberry leaf for several days and the midwife gave us the famous (in small circles) 'German cocktail' to induce labor on this day which was supposed to (with an 80% chance) send me into labor. The cocktail had almond butter, castor oil and the herbs mentioned above. Simply mix with champagne and drink, expect to empty bowels several hours later and then wait for labor to begin... I drank it at 10:30am...and it was disgusting. I do not expect to ever drink champagne again.

Less than 12 hours after ingestion, we had a son. Introducing Avery Heath Bulluck, weighing 10lb 2oz and measuring 22in long!!

I will talk about the joys and wonder of this new creature in a minute, but cannot leave the birth story so sparse...it was not an easy 12 hours. I arrived at the hospital 9cm dilated and in the throws of very intense labor only 5 hours after drinking the concoction (3:30). It was a scary drive as traffic was building and I was having strong contractions every 3 minutes. We were expecting a fast and straight-forward delivery based on other stories of second births and how fast I seemed to be progressing, but this was not so. He was a very big baby and was turned posterior (facing my front rather than my back) and this combination meant that he was not likely to fit through my pelvis. I pushed for 4 hours and his heart rate stayed strong through most of this. Once he started to show signs of distress, things moved very quickly. After two quick attempts with vacuum extraction, we chose to have an emergency c-section.

Beyond this, there is probably no need to recount many details here, save to say that this was a very unexpected, traumatic and frightening unfolding of events that we all feel very fortunate to be on this side of, with everyone recovering well.

Here is a shot of Heath (what we plan to call him), without the journey scuffs and scars so fresh. This did mean we had to stay in the hospital longer than we wanted. And I can now attest that recovering from a non-natural childbirth is indeed more uncomfortable and slow. With a lengthened stay, we were so fortunate that my parents were both in town to take care of Alder and hold our fort down otherwise. This also meant that we had visits to look forward to at the hospital.
Alder had a GREAT time with his Granna and Grandad. He supposedly asked about us and Heath repeatedly, but otherwise played, ate, slept and ran errands with a smile. His two visits to the hospital were very special for us and his first response to his new brother was incredibly tender and sweet. He ran in smiling and wanted to hold 'it' and then proceeded to gently touch and ask 'was dat?' about Heath's hospital bracelets, band aid, belly button, boobies, etc. We could not have been more pleased as we did have visions of potential meltdowns and vicious swats to the face.
Now home, Alder continues to be very sweet and interested in his brother. He often asks "where's Heath" if he is not in our arms, and when he gets out of bed. The first thing he wants to do in the morning is see his brother and know if he is sleeping or 'drinking from mommy's booby'...the two things that he is typically doing. Alder went to school today (after a week at home) to restore his routine and he had a wonderful day. The note from his teacher read - Alder seems all grown up. He is much calmer. He is speaking in complete sentences, choosing his own work....he is a big brother now! Jason and I both had tears come to our eyes as we heard about his great day.

The boys...
Alright so we should probably mention a few things about Heath. He is a super baby so far. Very content and sweet. He is nursing like a champ and the milk is flowing. He is sleeping with us for now and this makes life with an incision and nursing much easier and we are really quite enjoying it. He is a very sound sleeper and wakes only a couple of times per night. I am actually having to wake him every 3 hours or so if he does not rouse himself in order to get enough feedings in these early days.

I had forgotten how wonderful it is to kiss the tender skin of a fuzzy soft newborn body, how breast milk poops smell incredibly sweet, and how at first, truly, all they do is eat, sleep, and excrete ...

Heath has also had some mildly high bilirubin counts (aka: jaundice) so we are making sure that we do what we can to bring this down: lots of breastfeeding, to bring lots of poops, and getting him out in the sun everyday. Its a shame that such a lovely peachiness can be considered a problem.
For comparison, here is a picture of Alder from the early days of life.

It is fun to note the similarities and difference now, between Heath and Alder. It was so hard to imagine anything other than another Alder before he arrived. At this point it seems that they will certainly be recognized as brothers, but Heath seems to have some distinguishing characteristics. We know that what we see as similar and different at this point, can leave us completely wrong in the projections we make for these personalities later on. It will be so exciting to see how they continue to grow. Though two years apart, Alder and Heath are only at different stages of emerging and unfolding.

Thankfully, Jason is working from home this week, part days, and we are very lucky to be able to take some time to re-adjust into our new family of four and recover. We also look forward to time with more family to come visit and get to know Heath, and the new aspects of us that he brought with him into the world.