Alexander Grant

Okay, I know everyone wants to see pictures, so I'll put the story behind this up later...yes, I'm already posting pictures because all of our family wants to see him. Luckily for all of you, I'm supposed to be sitting/resting not just because I had a baby yesterday, but because I LOST FOUR UNITS of blood in the whole process-not normal! More on that later...

Here he is...Alexander and his trip into the world:

The last picture of the four of us...we dropped the kids off at our friend, Heather's house, before we went to the hospital. At this point, I was actually going in for really high blood pressure and preeclampsia issues, but we were hopeful I'd get induced...once we got to the hospital, Alex decided to come on his own.

A very sick me...blood pressure of 151/102, blurred vision, extreme headache. That's what got me admitted for observation. My OB's plan was to induce me then on Saturday morning. The blood pressure cuff every 15 minutes was awesome all night. As the night progressed, so did my contractions. At home, they had been every five minutes for 36 hours, but they hadn't been getting stronger/progressing. Overnight at the hospital, things changed quickly, and by 7:00 AM, I was being transferred from the floor to labor and delivery. My OB came in and told me thanks for doing the work for him :)

By 11:45 AM...not at Ft. Bragg where they said babies were "delivered from above-Airborne" but delivered by Daddy here!


Just like his big brother, Luke, Alexander was born OP or face up. What's going on that my boys give me a hard time delivering them?? When face up, they can't bend their heads correctly to get under the pubic bone, so it's really hard to push them out. Luke was a vacuum because of it, but since Alex was small, I was able to get him out on my own.


Weight...5 lbs. 7.9 oz. They called it 5 lbs. 8 oz. Just to put it in perspective...Luke was born a day earlier than this in my pregnancy, and he was 8 lbs. 5 oz. I joked last week that the boys' weights might be reversed since we knew Alex would be small, and I was right!

Newborn exam by my trusted doc

For such a little guy, his body temp was low, so he spent an hour or so under the heat lamp. He loved it. We decided he'll really like Yuma.

"Hello, world."

Resting and waiting for the first glimpse of my baby boy.

My nurse, Stephanie, was fantastic. I could never be a nurse, especially not a labor and delivery nurse, so I'm very grateful for wonderful people who love that job.

First glimpse of Alexander

Checking out his hair

Can't believe this little guy caused me so many problems!

Under the heat lamp again

I think he looks just like Edward and Edward's dad.

Okay, so at this point, I'd delivered about three hours earlier, so they were ready to move me to my room. Edward and Alex were sent down to the room while my nurses helped me get up, etc. At this point, I had MAJOR bleeding issues and ended up losing four units of blood. Thank goodness I didn't require surgery, nor did I require a blood transfusion, but I'm really weak and anemic from it.

Luckily, our pastor arrived to see us when this started, so he stayed in the new room with Alex while Edward came back down to stay with me while my OB and nurses fixed my problems.

Pastor Neil

Alex with his "I got my first hug at YRMC (Yuma Regional Medical Center) shirt.

Wearing the Clemson Tiger hat...Luke could never fit into this because his head was too big for the hat. As you can see, the hat is way too big for Alex.

I picked up two preemie sleepers last week after they told us he was going to be really small. This preemie sleeper is even big for him.

Eyes open...this was taken around 3:00 AM when Alex and I were up. Edward spent the night at home with Madison and Luke. During the night, Alex never cried one time...great baby so far.

Then, this morning...

The time came for Madison to FINALLY meet Baby Alex. She was delighted. Edward said she was the first one up this morning, probably excited, and at our house, it's hard to be the first one up unless you're on Luke's early-bird schedule.

Edward and I realized our limitations and only brought Madison in. Now, we're outnumbered with three kids! We decided to keep Luke at our neighbor's house with their two-year-old son. Madison had to spend four hours at the hospital, something Luke couldn't have done.

Loves him

Here I am with my best friend...my IV. I had to have eight liters of IV meds, in addition to the normal saline IV OB patients get. Most of the IV meds were for my bleeding issues. I also had some for my high blood pressure. It was super annoying trying to take care of Alex with this to drag around, but obviously necessary.

Helping to give Alex a bottle. He needs formula right now just to bulk him up.

The ride home...

Alex got to ride in style today...Daddy's new car. We'll save the minivan for later :) And, this was the warmest weather we've brought a newborn home in. It was only 103 today.

Home

We really had to mess with the carseat straps because even the smallest setting was almost too big.

This is a newborn outfit...

Funny, his hair looks blonde here, but it's so dark in other light.

Daddy gets to feed him.

And, Luke came home to meet "baby."

Luke loves him too and has been very interested and protective.

Trying to "help" swing him

A little too much

103 degrees, but still loves to be wrapped up

Our little guy...literally.

Thank you to our friends and neighbors who helped in so many ways. Heather, thanks for taking the kids for the night and a FULL day, especially while Kurt was gone for the weekend! You can see what they all did together at http://www.thedouges.com/Thedouges.com_beta/Blog/Entries/2009/5/31_While_We_Were_Waiting_for_Alex....html

Thanks to Tom for taking the first round of baby pictures. He's a doctor/flight surgeon at the Marine Base here in Yuma...ironically, he and his wife just moved here from Bethesda. She contacted our MOPS group, and we discovered that she and I were due the same day and husbands were both doctors. We ended up, three weeks early, delivering the SAME day, in rooms next door to each other. We happened to have the same OB and kept joking with him we'd deliver together...Alex was born at 11:45 AM, and Katie was born at 11:45 PM...they have the same birthday! We're going to have a very unique bond. However, Katie was a "little" bigger at 9 lbs. 8 oz. Alex has some catching up to do. We're excited for our new friends. I'm glad you were there to take pictures, Tom! Both of you, enjoy your first baby.

Thanks to Pastor Neil, the Vreemans, and the Dunderdales for visiting us. Dunderdales, thanks for watching Luke today. Thanks Nikki for the delicious dinner tonight. Thanks to our family and friends for the calls and text messages.

And, a HUGE thank you to everyone for your prayers throughout this whole thing. God gave us a beautiful baby boy this weekend!