Welcome to the World...Mikah Joseph van Herksen

 

So here we are taking Mikah's first selfie...literally minutes after he was born. My hair looks pretty good, no? That is because I went get my hair done that morning. Labor came as a surprise to say the least. On Tuesday I went to the hair dressers, picked up the boys from school, took them to an ic skating birthday party, had my 38-week appt (yes the doctor said he wasn't coming anytime soon) and had time for a trip to the grocery store. Little did I know that a few hours later when I would lay down to rest for the day my water would break...in no dramatic fashion by the way.

I have to say that this was the most relaxed and easy going birth EVER. I hope it is a sign of what is to come from our little Mikah Joseph van Herksen born on June 18th at 4:05 am weighing in at 3.460 kg and stretching a whopping 53 cm!

Mikah's arrival was something like this...

11 pm - I start to leak and I am not sure if it is my water breaking or if I really had to pee. I call the midwife and she says to monitor it for one hour and call her back.

12 am - I call her and tell her that I think my water indeed broke...but slowly. She says to breathe and meet her at the hospital at 1 am.

12:30 am - We drop off the boys at our friend's house. Thank you Sanchez family!

1 am - Arrive at the hospital and as I am changing in the bathroom my water OFFICIALLY breaks. So it wasn't the shopping mall or grocery store movie I had thought about...but it was broken and it was time to rock and roll. At this point I was 3 cm dialated and no pains at all.

2 am - By now I am 4-5 cm dialated and the contractions are coming. Not too painful, but since we had decided to go the epidural route with this one. They called the anesthesiologist.

2:18 am - Epidural is in. They induced me with drugs. Feeling great. Cracking jokes with the anesthesiologist. JJ and I just realized we brought our nice camera, but no memory card...CLASSIC. So this will be an iPhone documented birth.

3 am - Everything is moving along. I can feel the contractions, but I am in no pain at all. They call the doctor since the midwife can tell that this is going to happen FAST.

3:30 am - They ask me NOT to push and close my legs. I am 10 cm dialated and Mikah is ready to come out but my doctor and pediatrician are not there yet.

sometime between 3:45 - 4:05 am - Three nice pushes

4:05 am - Doctor asks me to grab the baby's shoulders and I put our new son on my chest. AMAZING...Mikah is with us. He cried the whole way out and opened his eyes right away to check us out.

JJ and I can't believe how fast it all went. After a while of spending quality time with Mom and Dad they take Mikah to make sure everything is ok. He is SUPER healthy and Dad gets to officially cut the umbilical chord. 

Mikah and I spent the next 4 days in the hospital. Nothing was wrong...in Chile they just like to pamper you and make sure you are ready to go home and take care of your new baby. Pretty awesome if you ask me.

I was very ready to go home on Saturday and start our new life with THREE boys. Luka and Sam were also excited to have their new little brother at home. Here are the signs they made for us. Don't you like how Luka calls us a "crazy" family. Still trying to figure out if this is good or bad. I am going to think he means crazy "good."

 

 Another sign from Luka...

 

 Sam decided to go the abstract route...

 

So there are tons of photos to share. You can see some on Facebook. I promise to try and get organized, but between recovering from the birth (three little stiches can cause lots of pain...OUCH) and figuring out Mikah's feeding schedule. Currently his schedule goes something like this...He eats about every 2.5 hours and it takes me about 45-1 hour to feed him...so if you start counting from when I started I am basically feeding him all the time. At night he does manage to sleep for about 4 hours straight, but then at about 2 am or so he is up till 5 am.

I am not sleeping to say the least, but the good news is that I also don't have time to eat so the baby weight is coming off fast. I have almost lost 20 pounds since Wednesday!

Wow, I went off on a tangent there. They talk about preggo brain, but newborn baby brain is worse. In conclusion I will try and post photos of all of us with Mikah soon.