Hooray, I finally had a baby! Wesley Michael decided to show up at 2:31am on Sept 17. He was 8lbs 8oz and 20.5" long, our biggest yet. So far he's a very good baby and the girls are just all over him. They all want to feed him, and Katie is very interested in making sure he is ok. We went out today, and Mike was just going to walk Katie to the door and come back for the baby, but Katie wouldn't go until he got Wes out too. She was afraid we were going to leave him in the car. The birth went well, I'll put the full birth story down next, so don't read it if you're squeamish. Other than that, kids are still going to school and the house is still being built.


I started having sporadic contractions on the morning of the 16th. It felt a whole lot like when I had Katie, so I was quite certain that the baby was coming that evening. I went to meet the teacher night and finished my laundry and stuff. At 9pm I decided to start timing my contractions. They were five minutes apart, so I decided to page Michelle because of my history of fast labours. She got here at 10, and I was 4cm dilated, so we count that as the start of active labour. My contractions kept up at 4-5min apart for the next couple hours. They were definitely contractions, but they weren’t that painful. I wasn’t able to walk through them, but I could still talk through them. At about 12:30am (so it’s now the 17th) she checked me again, and I was 5cm, stretchable to 6. Which was kind of disappointing. We decided that since it was late, we’d go ahead and break my waters. I’m sure he still would have come before morning, even if we hadn’t, but it probably would have taken 2-3 more hours. For another hour or so my contractions got more intense. I think I pushed for half an hour, Mike thinks it was more like 10 minutes – I’ll ask the midwife when she gets here (forgot to ask). Anyways, I found my bed to be very uncomfortable for baby having, it is just too squishy. Michelle sent me to the bathroom to try pushing on the toilet a couple times because I had a small lip of cervix left. I didn’t really like that much either, but I did it. I decided to try lying down, sort of on my side. Two or three more pushes and his head was out. I remember Katie’s head being much easier and hurting less – but Mike says I remember things nicer than they were, so who knows. His head is of a normal size, but it’s probably bigger than Katie’s was. Then everyone went a little nutso, and they yanked my legs back. Carole (the second midwife) apologized for pushing on my stomach later, but I don’t remember her doing that. I remember Michelle reaching in, and me being like WTF? And none too happy about it. Apparently he attempted to be born both shoulders at once, and there was concern he’d get stuck. He popped out pretty quick with the yanking, but showed his displeasure by pooping immediately. Wesley Michael was born at home at 2:31am Sept 17. He was a ginormous 8lbs 8oz and 20.5” long.

Post-partum wise, I had no tearing, which I think is amazing considering his size and preferred method of exit. I did however have a bit of a hemmorhage again, which sucked (did check this with the midwife, it was 700mL, which was less than with Serena). This time I got two shots of oxytocin and uterine massage, hooray. I narrowly avoided an IV. It was decided that my bladder was in the way of my uterus shrinking because after I went to the bathroom I stopped bleeding.

Wes has hair, but it’s not as dark or abundant as Katie’s was. We’ll see what it looks like after a bath. I think he will have blue eyes like the girls, his eyes don’t look the way Katie’s did. IMO, he doesn’t currently look anything like any of them either. The midwives think he looks like Mike, but I’m not sure of that. All Mike’s baby pictures are unfortunately packed too, so I can’t even go look. The girls are quite enamoured with him, Serena especially. They are all dying to hold and feed him. Katie gave him kisses and named all his body parts.