And Then There Were Four. Our Son Is Here!
Yep, he’s here. I am a dad all over again … and it just feels weird. Ok, onto my little recap.
So given the fact that we had Alyssa 16 months ago by C-section (due to her being foot-down breech), this pregnancy was scheduled to be a C-section as well. I guess anything under 24 months between births comes with at least some risk of uterine bursting during a VBAC since the tissues take so long to recover from the surgery. So while Laura had the option to choose, she still went with the Caesarian.
Here is a picture of Alyssa after I told her she is going to have to share MY pizza with her little brother one day. She proceeded to grab my phone and try to call her mom for verification.
Laura’s due date was April 9, but the delivery was scheduled for Wednesday, March 31 – 10 days early. Interestingly enough, Alyssa was also 10 days early. Also interesting is that Alyssa is a December baby, as am I. Laura is a March baby, as is our new son. That’s pretty cool, to me at least.
So we were up early, and of course running a bit late, but we arrived at the hospital around 8:00am yesterday morning. The delivery was scheduled for 9:30am so in between our arrival and her entrance into the delivery room they prepped her and we just cracked jokes and talked; basically marvelling at the fact that we were having a baby. LOL
Laura was gone and I was in my ‘greens’ waiting for them to call me in. I can distinctly remember sitting outside the same room for Alyssa’s birth. Talk about NERVOUS. I sat there with that face mask on waiting to get called in for what seemed like an hour – the mask on the whole time which was so hot – couldn’t breath. This time, much, much calmer since well you know, I’m experienced now. Haha! I was just sitting there, taking it all in, and praying a bit. I thought a lot about my father of course as that was the only thing missing yesterday.
And then the door opened, “Are you ready? Don’t touch anything blue!”
I made my way towards Laura’s head and took my seat, waiting for the sound of his arrival. What anticipation! Right when they thought they had him ready to be pulled out, the delivering doctor (who is awesome; we had her last time too), says,
“Laura, do you workout? Your abs are giving me some trouble here. Oh, and I’m extremely jealous right now.”
I stood up and watched the rest of the delivery – boy they come out looking funny eh? And just like that, at 10:06am on Wednesday, March 31, 2010, our son was born.
As for stats, here they are:
7 lbs 11 oz
21 inches long (same as Alyssa)
36 cm head!! (that’s supposedly big lol)
And he has dark hair. Alyssa had like, nearly none.
What an amazing experience. I’m sure all you parents can relate. Here is a shot of Alyssa meeting her little brother for the first time.
As for his name? Well, I have had a favourite boy’s name since before even meeting Laura, thinking that if I ever was blessed with a son, I already had my name. Fortunately, Laura likes it too. So, he will go by, Christian. (anyone who calls him Chris is going to get beaten).
So our son’s full name is Lars Christian Ledin. Now, his first name is still Christian and his middle name is Lars. The ‘Lars’ we decided on for continuity between my late father, myself and my new son. You see, ‘Lars’ is also my middle name too – Lars Erik Ledin. My dad’s name was Lars Ake Ledin. If you haven’t guessed, it’s Swedish.
I now have TWO children. I can’t believe it. Don’t mind Christian in this picture; he’s just shy.
It’s really strange though. I have no siblings myself so a little family of three, which I had before yesterday morning seems complete to me. Having another child just isn’t really resonating with me yet. And I can’t wrap my head around the ‘feelings’ part yet.
Here, I’ll give you an analogy (a couple of you will find this particularly funny) as I’m going to use ‘units’ to illustrate what I’m saying. LOL
Ok, so I love my daughter very much. Since I had one child she gets all the love I have available for her. Let’s call that 100 units (you might use ‘percent’). She gets it all. So now what do I do? If I only have 100 units, now I have to take some away from her and give it to him … and that’s not really computing for me right now. I know this sounds incredibly silly, and it’s not really doing what’s in my head justice but it’s the best I have. How do you love the second just as much as the first? I’ve asked parents this a number of times. And each parent of multiple children simply says, “you’ll see, you just do.” And then I had an ‘ah ha’ moment – I don’t have to give any of Alyssa’s units to Christian. I’m going to get MORE units!!! Now I have 200 units instead of 100. Woohoo!
Hahaha!
I’ve had Alyssa for two evenings by myself; my first two evenings ever. I am obviously a pro since it’s been glitch free but I’ll admit I much prefer married parenting to the single father parenting of the last two evenings (the day time was covered by my MIL fortunately). Diaper changing is easy, albeit not enjoyable at least ‘those’ kinds of diapers.
The rest of my family came home today, just in time for Easter weekend. Here’s a great one of Alyssa and Christian.
Happy Easter everyone. Thanks for sharing in my excitement.