Liam Xavier McDonell is here!!!

Our little "Lamb", as Oliver calls him, finally arrived via scheduled c-section on 6/7/11 at 1:01pm. He was 9lbs 7oz and 21 inches long and had a gorgeous head of brown hair.  It turns out that he had not even dropped yet, so I don't think he had any plans of coming out on his own.  We had a scheduled c-section at 41 weeks, and while it was not how we had hoped he would be born, there are certainly a few nice aspects of this birth route...First, we had a good night's sleep the night before meeting our little guy and got to stroll into the hospital at 10:30am after a leisurely morning with Oliver.  We dropped him off at school as usual and then headed over to Swedish. It was just like checking into a hotel, some might say ; )


Once in our room, we chatted with the nurse, talked to the anesthesiologist (face to face instead of from behind while screaming in pain) and they did all the prep stuff they needed to do (IVs, etc).  There was some waiting for my OB, which was nothing new after having to wait with nearly every appointment - she is a great doctor and takes a lot of time with you, but that means she is often late. We just relaxed and read some magazines : )

Mike all suited up and ready!

 When the time came, we walked down the hall to the OR.  They put in the spinal block and I didn't feel a thing after that. Then the actual surgery started around 12:45.  Liam was born at 1:01!

And he's out!

 They had to check him out and clean him up and Mike cut the cord and took pictures, while I crained my neck to see him (my neck was sore for a few days).

 In about 30 minutes we were both wheeled in to the recovery room and I finally got to snuggle with my newest little boy.  He was wide awake and nursed right away for like 45 minutes. It was so calm and relaxed. 

 A few hours later, we moved to the post partum room (with a view of dowtown and elliott bay). Mike went to go pick up Oliver from daycare at 5pm and brought him over to meet his baby brother. He ran in the room and said "it's baby lamb! He's not in mama's belly anymore!". I was nursing him at the time and Oliver said "no baby, don't eat mama's nipples!" (pronounced "nimmels"). He wanted to hold him and said "I love my baby brother" when he left to go to Derek and Dawn's house while we stayed in the hospital. We are so grateful to them for treating him like a prince for two days - he had the best time there! It was so nice to be able to be so present and to really enjoy this time with our son, so for that, the c-section was great ; )

Our complete family

We went home 48 hours later. Liam has done so great since the moment he was born. He left the hospital weighing 8lbs 13oz and by two weeks he weighed 10lbs 9oz! Like I said, he is a good eater...He is a very peaceful baby, hardly ever cries. Oliver has had a few rough days with the baby, but he is doing really well considering how much his life has changed. Mike took off the first two weeks, which has been so nice, especially given that I couldn't easily sit up or lift Oliver for the first two weeks. My recovery has been really easy too - by two weeks, I was off all the pain meds and back to walking 2+ miles and lifting a 30lb toddler. Thankfully, Oliver is a great sleeper for the most part and Liam goes right back to sleep after waking a couple times a night to eat. So we can't complain too much ; )

All in all, after a long and sometimes difficult pregnancy (I am so happy to be able to eat carbs again and not inject insulin 4 times a day!), it was all worth it to get to be the mama of this sweet little guy :)