Zade

Little Zade has arrived! He was born 1 week early weighing 7 pounds, 6 ounces, and measuring 20 inches long. He came after 10 hours of labor in the hospital, and within 48 hours of birth, both he and Tara were doing well enough to come home. Zade is so sweet and good tempered. We feel quite blessed to have him in our family.

For those who would like to know the details of his arrival, read on. Tara had her weekly check up with the doctor and found out she was already 4 cm dilated. By 9pm that night the contractions were strong enough that we put Aria to bed, and Tara's friend Jennifer came over to spend the night and babysit while we went to the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital at around 10pm and Tara's contractions began to slow down, which was a little disappointing for Tara. She tried walking around the labor and delivery area with her nurse, while pulling around her IV, but it didn't help the contractions pick up. Rather than get any pitocin (which Tara wasn't too fond of because of how powerful and painful it made her contractions when Aria was born) she instead just had the doctor break her water and fortunately the contractions increased significantly.

Tara thought she might try the "natural" child birth approach (i.e. no pain meds), as it seemed a more noble way to give birth (though Dane didn't see the logic), but after about an hour when the pain became excruciating, she came to her senses and got the epidural. She liked this epidural more than the one she'd received with Aria, since that one caused one of her legs to be temporarily paralyzed, whereas this one just took away the pain, but left her so she could still feel what was going on.

Active labor started at 6am and probably would've been over within 30 minutes, except little Zade ended up not coming the conventional way. Typically baby's come with the back of their head first, (i.e with their chins tucked against their chest.) He decided to do the opposite. He tipped his head back, so he came out face first. The main disadvantage of this approach is that his little face took all the friction on the way out, and actually added friction, causing the labor to take longer. The result was a very, very swollen face that literally was bright purple, with the rest of his body coming out a pasty white.

The doctors were worried the swelling might constrict his airways or hamper his ability to eat, so they took him to the NICU right after birth. However, despite how banged up he looked, he had no trouble eating or breathing, so that evening he and Tara were given their own room, and the next evening they came home from the hospital. It's amazing how quickly Zade's face has been recovering. Now that his features are beginning to come through, he seems to look a lot like Aria did at that age.