An Early Arrival...

No one could have been more surprised than me when our newborn son decided to make an early arrival on the morning of Monday, October 20, 2014!

The labor was short, the pain was intense and the end result was spectacular!

 

Sebastian James Vargas

Our Story:  I went to bed on Sunday night feeling as "normal" as one could be expected during the 9th month of pregnancy; fat, swollen, tired..  All weekend I'd felt uncomfortable to the point where I wanted to do little more than change positions while laying on the couch (and even that took more effort than one might think!).  Little did I know that my body was gearing up for An Early Arrival....!

                                               October 20, 2014 - Happy Birthday, Sebastian!

I "napped" for about an hour on Sunday night before waking up around 12A to some mild, random contractions.  For a while I didn't pay much attention to the contractions, especially since I'd been experiencing Braxton Hicks for quite some time already.  It wasn't until around 2A that I started to feel like the contractions were getting just a little stronger but, because they weren't regular, I decided to "wait it out"..thinking that they'd probably just disappear altogether as what had happened on previous occasions...
                                                                            Born at 7:56A
                                                                    

It wasn't until close to 3A when I woke Jim up and started to debate on whether or not we should call Carole and head to the hospital.  At this point my contractions were still irregular in timing and intensity but were definitely becoming strong enough for me to wonder if something was going on..
                                              
                                                          7 lbs, 1oz (our biggest baby!)

I continued to procrastinate for another 45 minutes or so.  I went back to bed for a little while.  I made a pot of coffee.  I paid close attention to my contractions, always looking at the clock to see how close or how far apart they were.  I tried to determine if the contractions felt more like labor pains or like cramping.  At 4A, after much debate, I decided to call Carole.  The reason I debated for so long was because Women & Infants is known for wanting you to labor as much as possible at home.  They will only admit you if you're in real labor - meaning your water has broken or your contractions are happening every 3-5 minutes with growing intensity.  In my case, my water had not broken and my contractions were spaced out between 8-10-15 minutes, however they were getting pretty intense.  I really didn't want to go to the hospital just to be sent back home in a few hours.  I wanted to be sure that I was, in fact, in labor - but I honestly wasn't 100% convinced.  Even still, the pain was very real - which is why we headed to the hospital, around 4:45A.
                              
                                                                             Length:  20 1/2"
                                                               
 On the way to the hospital I had only one contraction which convinced me that I'd most likely jumped the gun and would be back home within a few hours.  I was so convinced of this that when we arrived at the hospital I told Jim to just leave my overnight bags in the car - no sense in lugging everything in only to have to carry it all back out in a couple of hours, right??  Boy was I wrong, wrong, WRONG!!  As we were walking into the hospital I had "the mother of all contractions".  It literally caused me to stop in the middle of the walk way.  It was at that very moment when I thought to myself "Ok...maybe it IS a good thing we came in..."!   Quite surprisingly, the entire Triage was miraculously empty.  Not one person was waiting to be seen.  I was pre-registered and in a room within minutes!  I was even more surprised when a Dr. came in to give me an internal exam before I'd even been fully hooked up to the contraction monitor!  In fact, Jim was still out at the front desk getting himself pre-registered..  Talk about an unusually slow night at Women & Infants!  Within 15 minutes of our arrival it was determined that I was in real labor.  Not only was I in labor, but I was already 7 cm dilated!  To say that things were progressing rapidly was an understatement...   The Dr. went out to find Jim and we were whisked upstairs to the Delivery Room!  Now by this time my contractions were becoming excruciatingly painful.  I had already put in my request for the Epidural (several times, just to be sure they understood that I was serious, haha!) so when we arrived in the Delivery Room the Epidural God was right behind us.  Unfortunately there wasn't even enough time for Jim to leave the room before the "ten mile long" needle made it's grand appearance, in all it's glory.  Almost instantly Jim felt nauseous, which I would have felt bad about if I hadn't been in so much pain!  Receiving the Epidural is no walk in the park.  On the contrary, it's quite painful and for me I know it will bring on massive waves of nausea but I also know that it will take away the pains of labor, therefore it's well worth it.  I admit that I thought I was dying a slow and painful death when, as the Epidural was being administered, I suffered through a strong, long contraction.  Talk about being hit with two totally different pains at the same exact time!! 
Now normally when I get the Epidural my entire body becomes numb and I become violently sick.  This time proved to be much different, though.  I experienced terrible back pains on my right side that felt like a knife was jabbing into me every time I had a contraction and while I felt nauseous, it wasn't so bad that I was throwing up...yet...  All of this was because the baby was on a mission; he was coming out, ready or not! 
The final time table of events:
Registration/Triage Room:  5:30-5:45A
Delivery Room:  6:00A
Dr. arrived to check me at 7:00A (I was 8 cm).  Dr. said he'd be back around 8A to check me again, but at 7:20A I requested that he be found.  The time to push was fast approaching.
7:30A:  The Dr. came back and took his sweet time getting himself ready to deliver the baby.  I was clinching my teeth, trying my best not to push, as I impatiently waited for the Dr. to give me the green light.
7:50A:  Jim's Mom called to see how things were going.  I heard him say "She's getting ready to push now" and the rest was a whirlwind of events, with Sebastian officially greeting us at 7:56A!

                                                           And Then There Were Four...

I still cannot believe how quickly my entire pregnancy, from start to finish, happened!  While Sebastian proved to be my most painful delivery, he also proved to be the fastest delivery!  And as you all have already heard me say before, it truly was a picture perfect pregnancy!  It is almost unimaginable to me that this sweet, tiny, beautiful little boy was kicking away in my belly just days ago...and now here he is...for all of us to hold, cherish and love:

As for our other kids, well they simply adore their new little brother!!  They truly cannot get enough of him!  He's constantly being showered with attention; they all want to hold him, feed him, snuggle with him..  No one is jealous, everyone is happy!
                                                   
                                                   Bella & Savannah "sharing" Sebastian

                                              Bella could sit and watch Sebastian for hours..

                                       She truly is going to be a wonderful Mama someday..

Savannah has had a cold since the day before Sebastian was born and therefore hasn't been able to spend as much time with him as she'd like to.  I did let her hold him on his first night home, just for a few seconds. 

I truly cannot believe how blessed I am to have been given this precious, healthy gift!  Sebastian has had all of the precautionary heart tests - just to be sure that his heart is working at 100% - and has passed each one with flying colors.  His pulses are strong, his color is good, our world is perfect!

I pray that one day all of my children will be blessed with children of their own.  I want them to feel the kind of love that only a child can bring into your heart.  I want them to know what it's like to look into their child's eyes and know, without a doubt, that their world is perfect in every way.

Our first couple of days home with Sebastian have been nothing short of a whirlwind!  Just as we are trying to figure him out, he is trying to figure us out!  He was born into a family full of noise, chaos and constant excitement..quite a change from the quiet, peaceful environment he came from...
The only thing we've established so far is somewhat of a regular feeding routine.  He generally eats every 3 hours, although today he ate about every 2 hours.  He's still only able to drink between 1 1/2 - 2 oz at each feeding.   He has been drinking formula since he was born, and will continue to do so, but I also plan on feeding him my milk (via bottle) as well.  After struggling a bit with my new pump this week I was finally able to produce enough milk for 1 feeding tonight...I'm hoping he likes it and handles it as well as he does the formula!

                                                       Early morning snuggles with Dad   

Kyle has been a tremendous help to me - both during and after my pregnancy!!  While I was in the hospital earlier this week he willingly helped tackle all of the laundry on a daily basis.  I am so thankful to have such a sweet kid!  He is so special, in every way.  I know that sometimes I can be hard on him (and I admit that there are times in which I'm too hard on him!) but I make it a point to always tell him how much I appreciate his help.  I never want him to think that his actions go unnoticed.  He is setting such a great example for his younger siblings; I can only pray that they will follow in his footsteps!