Justin's Birth

Well, here we are, almost two weeks later, and I can hardly believe how fast the time has gone. I promised that I'd write more details about the birth, so here they are.
At 6:15 am, on Feb. 20, James' alarm went off. I stirred a little bit, and tried to roll over, and realized I was all wet. I turned to James and said, "I think my water just broke". To which he responded "are you sure?" Given that I was sitting in a puddle, I said "Yeah, pretty sure". Both of us just sat there for a minute or two, and then I said "well, I guess we're headed to the hospital, then". So, we got up, I took a quick shower and James woke up the boys, got them dressed and packed a bag for them. I finished packing a few last minute things, and then we waited for Andrea to come over to stay with the boys (thank you!) while James' mom drove from Morgan to come pick them up. Once we got to the hospital, they hooked me up to some machines to monitor any contractions and the fetal heartbeat. They also took care of admitting me, called my doctor, and got a room ready for me. By the time we headed for the labor/delivery room, it had been over 2 hours since my water had broken, and no labor, so....they had to give me pitosin. I was pretty disappointed. I had really wanted to have a natural childbirth, and that DIDN'T include being induced, strapped to monitors, having an IV and being made to lay on my side in one position. From the beginning, I had decided that the only way I would want to go epidural-free was if I could get up and move around, and not have to be tethered to things and have needles sticking out of me. That being said, I decided to give it a try, anyways. My labor only lasted about 6 hours, and I went meds-free for about 4 of those hours. The first 3 hours or so weren't so bad. Even though I was on pitosin, the pain was really manageable, but then it got dramatically worse extremely fast. The pitosin gives you transition strength contractions, without being in transition, so it was bad. I called for an epidural, but I had let the contractions get so bad and the labor was pretty far along and moving very quickly, so, the epidural couldn't keep up with the pain. I'm sure that it was taking the edge off the contractions, but they were still really painful and the pain wasn't completely blocked until right before I started pushing. I was disappointed in myself for not going all natural, but what are you gonna do? Anyways, I pushed three times, and Justin was born. Our first thought when we saw him was that he looked just like Matthew did when he was born (he was almost exactly the same size, too.) But, the more we looked at him, we began to think that he has Matthew's eyes, but Ethan's mouth and chin...so he's a mixture, at least for now. They change so much over the first couple of months, it's still too soon to really say.
Our hospital stay was uneventful except for the earthquake the morning after Justin was born. The epicenter was near Elko, Nevada, but people from all over felt it. We were on the fourth floor of the hospital, so the shaking was probably more exaggerated for us. It livened up an otherwise boring morning. I have to say that I hate staying in the hospital. It's boring, the bed is uncomfortable, I can't get any rest, people are poking and prodding you at all hours of the night...I leave as soon as they let me. We left the night after Justin was born, but we would have left hours sooner if they would have let us.
Lucky for us, Justin is a pretty good baby. He cries, but not very much, and he acts like he hates crying so he doesn't do it very often. When we got home, we soon realized that Ethan was sick, and it turns out he had hand, foot and mouth disease. That means he had a mouth full of sores, and a rash on his hands, legs, and feet. He was miserable. He couldn't sleep which meant he was a little terror (the kid needs his rest!). We had to get up more with him at night than we did with Justin. Like I said, it's a good thing Justin is so good, or those first few days could have been MUCH worse.
Well, Ethan is doing much better, but still a little on the grumpy side...probably the terrible two's setting in...yay for us! Justin is doing well. He's not perfect, he gets gassy easily, so he's a little fussy, but still pretty good for a little newborn. Matthew is doing well, too. He loves to help and both Ethan and Matthew love to hold Justin as much as they can.
I've been really spoiled, too. James doesn't go back to work until tomorrow...it's been so nice to have him home for so long. I'll have to try not to cry when he has to leave tomorrow morning. I'll really miss having him around.
Of course, my parents were here for the first week and were a huge help. Matthew and Ethan were especially sad to see them go. Now they're stuck with boring James and me.
We're getting ready to put our house up for sale within a week or so. How I'm going to keep our house immaculately clean is still a mystery to me, but I'll do the best I can!
We're all doing well and adjusting to life as a family of 5. I can still hardly believe it. We are so blessed!