TTT: Season 2, Episode 26

1. This week will be short on thoughts. 'Cause believe me, I'm not having very many right now, I'm so tired! After making it to thirty-seven weeks on Friday morning, I decided to throw in the towel when my blood pressure reads kept coming up 150/100 and beyond. That, combined with a major case of dizziness, contractions, and nausea told me that things definitely weren't getting better and, as I mentioned before, I would much rather have a safe, controlled situation than the chaotic one I experienced once before. My doctor agreed, and little...or should I say BIG!...Grant Michael Asmussen came into the world at 1:34pm on Friday, June 24th weighing seven pounds and ten ounces. Kolbe and Rudy were born seven and six days prior to this point and weighed five/six and five/eleven. So while I fully expected Grant to weigh a little more...oh, say maybe something like six/four, six/five...I was shocked when I heard seven/ten! Can you imagine if I had carried him all the way to forty weeks!?! It was a very smooth delivery and I had no real complications during or after other than a little bit of blood pressure issues. Grant did have to go to the NICU for about forty-eight hours though due to some extra fluid in his lungs. After he was born, he was grunting quite a bit and when he tried to nurse, he wasn't able to drink/suck and breath well at the same time. By about thirty-six hours after delivery he was fully latching on and nursing well and frequently and they allowed him to come up to my room with me. There's been no turning back ever since. He's doing great and is just the most wonderful baby yet. (Can you tell I'm in love!?!) Really, he nurses well, sleeps well (through the total madhouse of shenanigans his brothers produce), and has yet to have much of a reason to cry. We've managed to take him out a couple of times already and he's just slept in the sling and hung on for the ride the whole time. He's awesome! Awesome!

2. Like I said, I have several other stories I want to tell surrounding Grant's birth and how everything went down, but I'm limited on time and energy right now. Hopefully I'll be able to write a separate post dedicated to all of that soon! Instead, I thought I'd give you a little list of random thoughts concerning all things new mama. You know, the things you forget or don't remember quite as vividly until you relive them again.

• There's absolutely nothing better than the smell of your baby. It's like a drug, I tell you!...actually, I think it kind of is, right? Like when you touch and smell them, it releases some hormone in your body and ....
• Nursing and the way your body produces milk for your baby is one of the craziest, coolest things ever.
• My baby has quite possibly the strongest suck ever. Way stronger than his brothers. Strong enough to draw blood. Not kidding. And not cool.
• Dang, I took for granted those eight months without Mother Nature coming to visit. Ugh! You can go back away now! No, really. I'm nursing, so hurry up and do you thing and go back away until I stop nursing. Which hopefully won't be for a long time. Thanks.
• With your first baby you worry about everything-- Has he had a poopy diaper yet today? Will he start crying if I get in the shower? Oh no, has he been asleep for too long?-- I've been loving to find that by the third one, it feels great to make it to the end of the day and think, hey, this isn't so bad! It's just like normal life, but with a baby in it! (no, I'm not foolish enough to think every day will feel that way. And yes, we've have lots of helping hands to make the transition so smooth!) It's just nice not to have all those silly first-time mom worries.
• The whole sibling jealousy thing really isn't as bad as a lot of people hype it up to be. Give the other kids the small bits of attention they crave and they're happy. At least mine are. Besides, they love anything involving being the "big" sibling. Apparently it's a major rite of passage in life.
• It's such a huge blessing to get to be able to do what you truly love to do. Sure, there are times when it is crazy, chaotic, overwhelming, painful, and stressful, but to get to do day in and day out exactly what you feel like God is calling you to do is just a remarkable gift. I pray for the grace to always feel this way about mothering and the means to continue to make it happen for my children, my family, and me.

3. You'd think with the events of this week, I'd have tons of pictures to add for my Instagram collection, but let's face it...when you have a baby, other people are taking the pictures. Not you. And not iPhone pictures on top of that! But I did manage to snag a few:

Here we are in the recovery room! Man, it's just the best feeling to hold your baby for the first time!

Um, yeah. So, typically, if you fall victim to edema during pregnancy, it's supposed to start going away after the baby is born. These were my feet yesterday. Not going away. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's worse! What the heck!?! Am I doomed to have cankles for all times!?! Doctor Reed, we must discuss.

Hello, world! Don't I clean up well? (Just finished with his first bath at home)

Three brothers! Kolbe and Rudy are both in love...just in different ways. Rudy wants to hold him and kiss him and love on him non-stop. Kolbe refuses to hold him. He says he's too little and he doesn't want to hurt him. So he sits by and watches and pats his belly and rubs his hair. And is the perfect little mommy's assistant. He'll come around with his fears. I'm sure of it!

Totally not baby related, but I couldn't resist! We went to a little taco shop by our house that has a surf shop theme and Rudy had a blast pretending to ride the surf board. Total surfer dude in the making!