Henry Joseph Bassett was born Tuesday, November 1 at 1:43 PM at Seton Williamson Hospital. What a day it was!
When I woke up at 7AM that day, my stomach hurt a little bit. At first I thought it was gas pains. I had been to see Dr. Chao just the day before, on Halloween. She said that I was still dilated 2cm. Nothing was changing and we even scheduled a date for induction for the following week. I was deflated. Since it was Halloween, though, I took Ruby to a festival downtown and we dressed up. I was a Double Stuf Oreo. At night we went around the block trick-or-treating.
My morning stomach pains were not going away so I thought "maybe this is labor." I didnt quite believe it, but downloaded a contraction tracker app to monitor it. I soon realized the pains were regular and I notified Nick that he would need to come home to take Ruby to school. I don't think he believed it was labor, either. He said he could come home in a couple hours. I messaged him soon after that and said "COME HOME NOW!" I went in a hot bath and water helped. I notified the Doula collective. When Nick got back from taking Ruby to school, I had him call the Doula. Kayle was the one on call and she suggested we get to the hospital soon. I didn't think that was necessary just yet. How could it be? At around 9:30 she arrived at the house and we talked things over. By 10:30 we were at the hospital and my contractions were regular, about 5 minutes apart. We checked in and got settled in the room. She set me up in the shower, which is where I stayed for what must have been a couple hours, taking each contraction under the hot water. At about 1:30 I came out of the shower to get checked by the doctor. She happened to be there that day! As soon as I got into the bed, I could barely move and my body was jolting. It was happening. She checked me and then all of the sudden they rolled out the equipment and I was pushing.
Two giant contractions and pushes later... bam! This baby was out and breathing in life! We did it. Henry was born naturally and came out with a full head of hair. He shocked everyone with how big he was. Everyone was shocked when he was weighed and was 9 lb 6 oz! A full 3 lbs larger than Ruby was and 3 inches longer, too. My big boy was also sunny-side up which explained all of my back pain. I can't believe I did this again. The doula said I was meant to have babies and if we have a third, that I should consider a home birth. That was sweet but no thanks!A few hours later Sarah and Ruby arrived has big sister got to meet her little man. She was so excited. It was a really special day. Our live became instantly richer. Henry started eating like a champ, having no problems with the latch. He did have to have glucose checks regularly at first, but did fine and had no concerns related to jaundice or anything else. We are so blessed with a healthy baby boy.
We discharged home on Thursday, November 3. Since then we have been enjoying the holiday season. We spent a week at Thanksgiving in Allen. Henry was adored by his grandparents and extended family from Montana he got to meet, too. He is sleeping for some good stretches, fusses a bit at night about 10PM. We are anxiously awaiting smiles and baby giggles. We think that we will see those soon.
