Welcome Baby Luke!

Our baby boy is here! Today I’m sharing some cute pictures of him and his birth story.

I’m so excited to announce the birth of our baby. I can’t believe I have four kids now! Luke was born on September 28th and weighed 7 lbs. and was 19 1/2 inches. I am thrilled to have him here and am loving my sweet boy!

I love reading birth stories so I thought I’d share how it all went down. Feel free to just scroll through the pictures.

We decided to be induced 1 week before my due date for a couple of reasons but mostly because my husband is doing the executive MBA program (so it’s school every other weekend) so this way he wouldn’t risk missing school and we’d have more time together with our new baby before he had to go to school. So the big day finally came! I hardly slept the night before due to contractions and such. I wonder if I might have gone into labor that day anyway due to some pre-labor things I had going on. My body was definitely ready and I couldn’t wait to meet our baby!

My mom had slept over the night before to take care of the kids so we could leave early. We got to the hospital at 7:15 am and by 8 am I was set up with my IV and dilation was at a 3. I had the nicest nurse and I am SO grateful for her! By 8:45 the pitocin was started and over the next 2 hours the contractions started coming closer together and became more painful. Around 11 I decided to get the epidural. It hasn’t been a big deal in the past getting it but it ended up being the worst part of labor. It probably took about 20 minutes to finally get it in. When he was putting it in the first time a sharp pain shot down my right side and it was awful! It happened again and that’s when I started shaking for a while. I hated that. He finally got it in by putting it in a little lower. I guess it was difficult because he said I had a narrow opening where they usually put it but I’ve done it 3 times before with no problems. They said it also could have been from scar tissue there. I’m not sure but either way it wasn’t a fun experience although once it was all set in it was worth it and the pain from my contractions slowly faded away.

Just before noon I was dilated to a 5 and one hour later still the same. We thought the doctor was going to come break my water at noon but she didn’t end up coming for almost 2 more hours though so I just rested. Time goes by fast when in labor. She finally came just before 2 and checked me before breaking my water and I was at a 10! I was excited but regretted pushing the epidural button a few extra times! I wouldn’t have if I had known when she’d come in and if I had known I’d be fully dilated so fast. That made it a little harder to push at first than I would have liked but it all worked out.

Pushing took less than 10 minutes total. I think it was just a total of 4 contractions I pushed for. It was so exciting as he came out. I couldn’t wait to hold my baby! He came out crying! He cried for probably about 7 minutes. I got to hold him right away and my husband cut the cord. Shortly after he was born I started feeling shaky and a little dizzy. My blood pressure dropped pretty low and I lost a lot of blood. It wasn’t anything crazy but more than usual. My nurse did a few things to help me with the blood loss but it took me almost two hours to feel better. It was frustrating because after my last baby was born I felt so good! I of course was thrilled my baby was here but it wasn’t so great not feeling the best. I held him for a long time and even tried to nurse him but he wasn’t interested.

He was so sweet and seemed to sense I needed to lay back and rest. I just held him on my chest skin to skin and at one point he held on to my finger. It was so sweet! Thankfully I did feel better soon and was able to nurse him before moving over to Mother/Baby. He hasn’t cried much since his initial crying entrance to the world. He is a very sweet and calm baby. I love him so much and already feel so connected to him.

I love my baby! The rest of the hospital stay went well and it was nice to have that time to relax and for my husband and I to connect to our new little guy.

The kids were able to come and visit and were so excited to meet their new little brother! Asher (right) was the most excited. He seems to have a pre-earth life connection to the baby I sensed early in my pregnancy. He kept saying to me, “We did it mommy!” It was so sweet.

Now it’s one week later and things are going well! I am feeling really good. Each day things hurt less and I am adjusting to life as a mom of four! I am just hoping and praying my baby will sleep more as he’s been waking up a lot at night.

Newborn Pictures

When Luke was 5 days old we had newborn pictures taken of him. They turned out SO cute! It was really hard only choosing a few of my favorites to share with you.