As I read back through what I wrote down about two weeks after bringing Laetner home, I am surprised at the length. It isn't that I didn't love this baby as much. This pregnancy just did not have near the drama that both of my girls had. I guess the DRAMA only happens when it is a girl. Figures!A little after Delainee's 1st birthday we discovered we were pregnant. I personally felt like we weren't ready to do this all over again--especially if we had another Delainee on our hands---but once you are pregnant there really is no turning back, right? We were at a family reunion at the Fischbeck cabin in August, and Megan and Tanya (sister in laws) started talking about how we should all get pregnant the same time next year. Much to their surprise I said I thought this was a good idea (little did they know that I was ALREADY pregnant!) We still waited to tell people till the obligatory three month mark, mostly becuz I didn't want to deal with my mother hovering over me every second.
Due to how the whole Delainee pregnancy went down, Dr. Holmes bid me a farewell and I was sent to a group of specialists known as Phoenix Perinatal Associates (PPA). I never would see a certain doc---just whoever was available--which usually meant I never had to wait long in the waiting room! From the beginning I had appointments every two weeks and an ultrasound once a month. Once I hit 6 months I had appointments every week---TWICE a week. On Mondays I would show up for the doctor visit and an ultrasound and on Thursdays they would do fetal monitoring for 30 minutes. Better to be safe than sorry, but it got old pretty fast having to find sitters for my 1 year old at home. I was actually PREGNANT this time, meaning I had SOME sickness and nausea. But none of the swelling like on Delainee, and I actually showed pregnant in my belly instead of my cankles this time. During the ultrasounds the techs started telling me that there was a BIG kid inside of me. They started threatening that I would have a 10 1/2 pound baby. At the start of this pregnance I had signed papers saying that I wanted to do a VBAC (vaginal birth after caesarean) but once they saw how big that this baby boy was weighing, they informed me that I would be having a repeat c-section.
We had a tough time agreeing on a boy name. One day in the car we were discussing what to name this baby. As a joke Court asked if we could just name this baby Lainee 2. Growing up his family had A LOT of pet birds. The first one was named Pockets, the 2nd was Pockets 1, then Pockets 2 etc. I laughed and said no, but asked what he thought of the name Laetner. This was one of those names that I had actually written down in my journal from long, long ago after watching a certain college basketball player shoot a winning buzzer shot for Duke University. "As in Christian Laetner," Court asked. Yes, that was the guy. Court said he actually liked it. We played around with Layton or Lathan, but ended up just keeping it Laetner. Shoulda changed the spelling to Laytner, becuz most women mispronouce his name as Let-ner. But I have never heard any guy mispronounce it. I think it is so cute that my Delainee came early but her little brother came LAET!
Anyways, this boy was sooo big, and he wasn't dropping, and I wasn't having any contractions, NOTHING! So the doctors schedules us a c-section for Tuesday March 9th at 7:00 a.m. We needed to check into the hospital by 5:30 a.m., so the night before we decided to spend the night at Byde and Pams house so that we wouldn't have to yank Delainee out of bed at 4 a.m. to drop her off, and then go to the hospital. This way she could just sleep and hang out with Papa all day. We got Marissa (Court's sister) to babysit Delainee and went out for our 'FINAL' date night. Must have been slim pickings at the theater that weekend, cuz we saw Starsky and Hutch and then went to eat at McGraths's Seafood. Spending the night at my parents was a good idea in theory, but Lainee wouldn't sleep, and we were all pretty restless. Court ended up driving her around most of the night. By 4:00 a.m. I was up and getting ready to go to the hospital.
I never did have a single contraction. At least not that I know of. We checked into the hospital and went into pre-op. And right on schedule at 7:00 a.m. we went in---I was scared out of my mind! They sat me up and gave me THE shot that started numbing me from the waist down, and I slowly started losing feeling. This was such a difference experience from Delainee's c-section. Everyone was very calm and even joking around. As expected of my sight of blood fainting husband, Courtney stayed on MY side of the blue sheet. I never felt ANYTHING until they were actually stitching me up and then it just felt like someone was tugging on me. When they lifted Laetner up over the sheet I couldn't believe how big and round he was. This perfectly rounded head came floating over the sheet, and I joked aloud that, "That's not a baby, that is my almost 2 year old TODDLER at home!"
From the start he looked at me with a huge frown on his face like he was so mad that we had forced him to come out. He honestly looked like my brother Scott to me---but maybe it was just the frown! By 7:30 they were wheeling me back into post-op where I stayed FOREVER. Turns out the hospital was pretty busy that day and there weren't enough rooms, so I literally stayed in post-op until 3:30! Laetner weighed in at 8 lbs. 5 ounces. Not near the poundage that everyone had threatened, but he was still HUGE compared with Delainee. The hospital was very hard for me. I cried a TON. Nursing wasn't happening as easily as I thought it would, and I was so completely worn out. My stomach was KILLING me and the moment they ripped my bandages off of my incision is still imprinted in my brain as the WORST pain I have ever experienced! But once I got home things started getting easier, and when it comes down to it, Laetner is a much easier baby than Delainee still is.
Laetner is very easy going, and is generally pretty happy. We give him six months to catch up to Delainee in weight---she is 21 months older. He loves his big sister and smiles anytime she comes near. At first he slept in to port a crib bassinet, and Delainee would lob all sorts of things up on to him. But he has now moved into his bedroom into Delainee's old crib.
first moments
first weigh in---man alive look at that frown!
first daddy time
first outfit
Yes that is an un-opened bottle of Coors Light! Some classy individual must have buried it in the snow to get cold, and then couldn't remember where it was buried due to their drunken haze.
