Alexander Zethan

It's been forever, but obviously the biggest event is that Alexander Zethan was born on Christmas Eve. I had been having timing contractions for a couple of nights previous. So when I went into labor at 2am I wasn't sure if it was for real. I called the hospital and woke James at 3am, and decided to leave for the hospital at 4am. The contractions were 10 minutes apart at 2am, and 5 minutes apart at 4am. We woke up our neighbors upstairs and gave them the baby monitor to listen for Abby and Will, scraped the ice off of the car and left. At 5am in the hospital, I was already at 7cm, and since I had tested positive for Strep B, the nurses were scrambling to get my IV in with the antibiotics. I started pushing a little after 6am. It took awhile for me to figure out how to push. I've always had an epidural before, and this time I didn't have that. The other issue was that my leg and feet muscles were cramping so badly I couldn't concentrate on pushing. I finally made up my mind that my misery wasn't going to end unless the baby came out, an epidural wasn't an option, which left it to me. It only took two more pushes and he was born at 6:58 am, weighing 8lbs 6oz, and 21 inches long.

I had been hoping I could do it without an epidural this time around. I'm so glad that I did. The other two recoveries were very difficult. This recovery was a lot easier, which was good since there are three of these little people now. The biggest blessing was that for William's birth I was so numb I couldn't push, so the doctor had to use foreceps. They broke my tailbone doing it, and it healed wrong so that it's been very painful to sit for the last 18 months. Alex rebroke it and it healed correctly so that I don't have that injury anymore. The other blessing was the fact that this time I went with a midwife and I was so pleased with that change. They were willing to let me have an epidural if I wanted it, and there was a doctor there in the hospital if something went wrong. It was awesome when she got to the hospital, she knew a lot of pressure points to relieve pain which is how I made it. All in all, it was a great experience for a change. And it was only 5 hours long which was awesome. Here's a pic of newborn Alex

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We actually let Alex pick his name. So, for all of those that participated in our name vote, we had the most votes for Logan Alexander, and that was my personal favorite. James liked Alexander and Zethan, and we agreed that we couldn't decide. So, three days before Alex was born James and I conducted a kick test. The baby was moving fairly regularly, and so we asked him if he liked Logan (pause, no kick). If he liked Alexander (pause, 1 kick). If he liked Zethan (pause 2 kicks). At this point we didn't know if he wanted Alexander Zethan or Zethan Alexander. So we asked him which one and he kicked for Alexander Zethan. It's probably totally bogus, and we were laughing really hard. Mostly because a kick test had worked at all, and then because we seriously considered the results and decided that name was it. So, I think that means that Karen, Kristina, and Jess won the vote. Mostly because the baby voted :D.

Here's me and James too.