Well, it's been a week!

Last Wednesday I ended up sick as a dog: fever, chills and body aches. I told my sister, "Today's the first day I've absolutely wanted this kid out of me." Lesson learned: Be careful what you wish for ;D

WARNING: BORING LABOR STORY! Skip to the pictures if you don't care

Sure enough Wednesday night (11:15 pm) I woke up to my water breaking and proceeded to run around the house trying to pack a hospital bag (after being overly prepared for Sadie, I had become superstitious about getting ready for the hospital too early -- my theory is the grosser you look and the less prepared you are, the more likely you are to go into labor). I did a great packing job -- like pajama pants, but no top and a tooth brush but no tooth paste. At least we got the camera this time around.

Meanwhile Dustin called our awesome neighbor Jill who was sweet enough to come spend the night with our kids while we jetted off to the hospital. I wasn't having a lot of contractions, but after Sadie's 1.5 hour labor, I wanted to get there in time for an epidural and I knew they couldn't turn me away if my water had broken.

Well apparently they take their sweet time if you walk in smiling. After an hour and a half, we were finally off to the room and my beloved epidural. The whole time I'm asking, "How long before the IV empties and I can get the drugs?" Luckily, I wasn't having regular contractions, so it wasn't even that miserable. In fact, even once I got the epidural the contractions hadn't kicked in, so they put me on some pitocin and 5 or 6 contractions later, I was ready to push that kid out. One push later and Luke arrived at 2:24 am.

The next day we were headed home and Luke quickly learned that being a 4th kid means getting touched. . . a lot.


He also decided that since there were so many of us, someone should be holding him at all times while he sleeps.


I'm pretty sure I am never going to sleep again but Dustin keeps reassuring me that it's always like this and eventually he'll figure out that night is for sleeping and sleeping involves something other than my arms. I know he's right, but I'm too tired to actually remember anything other than the last time I fed the baby. Heck, I can barely remember his name sometimes. The other day I looked at Ellie after calling him both Nate and Sadie and said, "What did we name him?"

I just have to remember that the poor little guy is even more confused than I am.


And a special thanks to my AMAZING friends/family/neighbors who have taken my kids, brought me food, called to see how I was doing, left sweet blog comments. . . your love and friendship is overwhelming. I'm so grateful to have you all in my life.