Baby Gray

This is Grayden just before we brought him home from the hospital.
His newborn pictures look just like Parker's. Same length, one pound lighter. (And for Spencer's family and friends...if you look closely you can see the green Polo Ralph Lauren symbol on his left side.)

This is Grayden just moments ago.

We officially welcomed Grayden Clark Smith into the world on Thursday afternoon. Hallelujah! At 8lbs 4oz, he was my easiest delivery yet. Grayden weighed a full pound and a half less than Reid. Which was my doctor's purpose for inducing me early. She didn't want me to have to deliver another giant. Truthfully, I don't have a problem delivering big babies. I never knew any different and never had a difficult time delivering them. And really, I take great pride in having delivered a 9lb 11 oz baby with no epidural. But now, after having a smaller one, I see why she wanted to induce me early. That boy shot out like a rocket. When it came time to push, I wasn't quite ready and only gave it a half hearted effort when out popped his head followed shortly by his shoulders. It happened so fast the nurse looked at the charts to check how long it took...90 seconds. He was completely out after 90 seconds of half-hearted pushing. I couldn't have asked for better.

The only trial of the whole process was the epidural. When the anesthesiologist was talking about possible side effects, she mentioned that sometimes an epidural won't work everywhere it's supposed to. It may just take on one side of the body or there could be patches that don't take. I don't remember ever paying attention to that before, but thought how lousy that would be. Well as luck would have it, that was the case for me. At first, it only took on my left side. So after up-ing my dose several times (and loosing all function of the left side of my body) it worked on patches of my right side...places like my lower leg and my hip, but not where it really counted. It was a bizarre feeling to experience labor pains on just half of my body when the other half was completely dead. But I was grateful it worked on that half.

In typical new born fashion, Grayden makes the funniest old man faces ever. I think it might be the lack of hair and teeth. He is a sweet baby. I think he fussed a combined total of 5 minutes the entire time we were in the hospital. And it's the same at home...until night time comes. He's still in the phase where he confuses day time and night time. He sleeps all day and wants nothing to do with it at night. The first night wasn't so bad...he was awake on Spencer's shift (that's right, we take shifts...just another reason I'm an advocate for formula feeding your baby). But last night he slept through Spencer's and was awake for mine. Once we get him to switch things around though, I think he'll do well. He can go 6 hours between feedings during the day. If we can get him to do that at night, we'll be set.

Parker and Reid are adjusting surprisingly well. I'm not sure Reid would care much for Grayden if Parker wasn't so excited about him. But Reid will imitate Parker to no end. So Parker's excitement is emulated in Reid as well. Although, I don't think the baby was nearly as exciting for either boy as was my hospital bed. Taking rides on that thing was better than a roller coaster for those two. Parker plays hospital at home all the time now.

I'm doing well...how could I not be? Any amount of recovery is better than being pregnant. Not to mention, I get to sleep on my stomach again.

Thanks everyone for your well wishes and to my friends who live nearby...thanks for all your help.