It Began with a BBFT

I am sitting in my hospital room with the OSU Christmas lights outside my window enjoying my last few hours alone with baby Jack. So I guess he should get his own dedicated blog post to introduce him to the world officially before life gets too hectic. My next post could be in 6 months, who knows.

I looked back at Benson's arrival blog post to remind myself what I had to say about that. Since Benson was the 2nd birth (3rd child) I was struck by the fact that his birth was just as magical and amazing as when I had the girls. So with Jack I was anticipating that same experience--the surreal experience of becoming a parent again, now to #4--and it didn't disappoint.

We had a planned C-section since Lydia started the trend with being breech (What, Lydia? Stubborn?) I have had to follow suit and to be honest I am very much ok with that for various reasons. Our preparation for this fellow seemed less than stellar this time around since he had a queen bed and other junk in his nursery until days before his birth but somehow it all came together. We had a relaxing Thanksgiving day (thanks to the Taylors for taking us in) and even got some things done (I got a second wind and cleaned out the garage!). We battled black Friday traffic to get baby essentials from Target (and ended up with a giant TV in our cart too). I somehow made it through my last shift without my water breaking and answered my last questions to the families ("yes, I am about to pop, thanks . . . yep, he is coming in 2 days. No, not my first my 4th. Yes 4th. Yes, 4 and under. 2 girls and 2 boys. Yes, we are busy. thanks")  We trekked to a tree farm with some friends and cut our own tree. By Sunday afternoon our house was quite the idyllic setting with our Christmas decorations in place, the tree glowing and most importantly a lovely nursery ready for baby Jack.

So, Monday arrived bright and early and we were off to the hospital. We were scheduled for 8 but were a bit delayed because of a couple of emergency c-sections so I had more time to savor the last few moments with Jack.  The section went well. One minute he was entertaining the entire OR by making my whole belly move with his intrauterine antics and the next he is being pulled out by his head. He arrived at 9:23 am, weighed in at 7 lb 8 oz, and 20 inches long. He was well behaved for the pediatricians and then we were able to cuddle with him for a few minutes before he was whisked off to the newborn nursery for his first bath.

He's a cutie. He looks kind of like Ben but with dark hair. So far he has been pretty chill. He slept through his first immunization. When his sibs came he was very tolerant of their probing. At one point Lydia pried open his mouth to 'check for teeth' and then promptly snapped it shut like he was a lion and she the tamer--he squirmed but didn't make a peep (although we're not out of the woods yet, he's still fresh and could turn on us at any moment). All 3 of his sibs were super excited to see him and hold him. Lydia was especially exuberant about holding him which is surprising because she was not too fond of Ben at first and refused to wear her big sister shirt when B arrived for several weeks.

We had a hard time picking a name for him and we finally narrowed it down to 3 front runners about 2 weeks ago. We still couldn't decide but then had an epiphany (we've been able to observe our funny and entertaining next door neighbor boys who are very close in age) that we needed to pick a name that was easy to say--or rather shout--with Ben. I mean let's be honest--we have 2 boys less than 2 years apart--I think it is safe to say that we will be shouting their names together quite a bit. So we practiced 'yelling' Ben and the other 3 names together and Jack seemed to fit the best.  Ryan was a little leary about the commonality of the name but I had pored over the lists and reassured him that although it is popular it wasn't in the top 10 (Jackson is but Jack proper had not made it yet). The ironic thing is that on Jacks 3rd day of life they announced the top baby names of 2012. The newscaster actually said "and new this year to the top 10 list is Jack!" So, sorry Jack, you will be one of many--but Jack Battles is still cooler than those other Jacks :). The middle name was settled on the night before his birth at dinner. Matthew is Ryan's middle name so now both boys have one of their dad's names.

We are more than thankful for him and so excited to add him to our family. I think he will fit in wonderfully and I can't wait to see what his little personality will be like.

I've made my lists and checked them off, I've made Ryan's list and made sure he checked everything off, packed my bag, said good night to the kiddos (very tearfully to Ben though since he will no longer be the baby and for some reason this thought fell prey to pregnancy hormonal tears as I simultaneously clunked his head on the doorway of his room so we were both crying which confused my dad but I think my mom totally got it), had my last meal until post baby (thanks mom and dad for taking us out and to sam for babysitting), took a nice long pre op prep shower and am now trying to think about going to bed for about 4ish hours. We are very excited about meeting #4 in a few short hours but since it is #4 in 4 years I will be retiring the maternity clothes after this (barring a real modern day miracle) and although I am confident in this decision it is sad to leave the pregnancy era behind. So this is farewell to all that is pregnancy. I know that a lot of women would roll their eyes at that statement because well frankly it sucks for a lot of people but I honestly love being pregnant 95% of the time (and that 5% is mostly in the last 3-4 weeks). I think God decided that since for us getting pregnant requires great science and cost that he would cut me some slack in the pregnancy department. One of the things I like most about pregnancy is the belly (and the eating of course, it's a nearly guilt free meat and cheese extravaganza for 9 months with me)--hear me out on this. Here is my reasoning: after the twins I would get asked if I was pregnant anywhere from once a week to once a month. That really grates on ones' self esteem. So when I am pregnant I can just let it all hang out and say, 'why yes, I am pregnant, thank you'. Also, people like you better when you are pregnant. They ask warmly how you are feeling, they open doors, they offer seats, they sometimes just smile at you but still, people are just so nice about it. The patients and families at work definitely seemed to take much more of a liking to 'the pregnant doctor' than when I am just plain old 'girl doctor'. I even had one father who is from a culture that is notorious for large families say to me after a barrage of questions about my due date and how many kids I currently have "Now THAT is what I like to see!" about the fact that I will have had 4 kids in 4 years. He practically gave me a high 5.

Honestly I feel very blessed and honored to have had the privilege of carrying our children and I have tried not to take it for granted. Before we had the twins we were on the fast track to adoption and I had come to terms with the idea that although disappointing, pregnancy was not to be in my future. So every time I feel the baby kick and move and squirm I am so thankful to have been given this opportunity and I'm sad (although not sad enough to do it again) to close this chapter in my life.


The pics below are mainly for my benefit and if my kids ever decide to read this in the future too--normally I would not put a whole barrage of pics of myself :)






Twins

Last month we had to say goodbye to our very first house. I get sentimentally attached to inanimate objects (I did a whole post dedicated to pacifiers) so of course leaving our first house tugged at my heart strings and definitely deserves a commemorative blog post.

A little history . . . Ryan and I got married right before I started medical school and settled into our first apartment, a cozy little 2 bedroom in Toledo, Ohio. We lived there for 4 years and had many happy memories as young newlyweds. When the time came to move to Columbus for residency we decided we were ready to be homeowners and after much searching picked out a 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom ranch on a quiet street called Mohawk Avenue. It felt enormous compared to our apartment--with a basement and . . . a 1 car garage! (luxuries of luxuries for at least one of us). So we packed up our place in Toledo and said our goodbyes to our first apartment.   I think I teared up on and off all the way to Columbus.

When we first moved in 2006 it was just myself, Ryan and our new boston terrier puppy (a.k.a. trial child) Widget. I remember lamenting to Ryan about how big our new house was and how far away he seemed to me if we were in different rooms. I actually didn't like it at first and truly missed the smallness of our apartment.

Fast forward to 2012: Our little house was now bursting at the seams. We now had 2 adults 3 little ones and one boston terrier (Widget is no longer but now we have Bocce who was trial child #2) sharing our 'cozy' ranch which was now feeling less 'cozy' and more so just tight. The twins shared one room and we were able to squeeze two toddler beds in one little room (our house was built in the 60s when a luxurious bedroom was 10 x 10 ft). Ben had  his own room and of course Ryan and I had the 'master'.  The bedrooms were all very close together so we had to employ noisemakers in each room to drown out eachother's noises. The bathroom was one of our biggest issues because with 2 adults and more importantly 2 newly potty trained 3 year olds it was a revolving door of use. Ryan has had to use the facilities out back many a time under the cover of night:) Closet space was challenging too and at one point we each took a turn using the part of the basement as a make shift closet--I became very skilled at spider hunting. We learned to store things creatively as well--our backyard shed was used more so as an attic space and I would send Ryan out there in all types of weather to search through boxes for seasonal items, etc. When we found out #4 was on the way we knew we had finally outgrown our little abode.

In that house we made the transition from young early marrieds without kids to the parents of 3.5 kids, from med student to doctor, from teacher to web developer. We have so many poignant memories in that house, probably the most special being that of bringing home first Grace and Lydia and then Benson. Below are some pics that capture just a few of our favorite Mohawk memories.