Welcome Baby Max!

I know I am horrible about blogging. (But hey, I am good about Facebooking...does that count?)

Max is here. He's wonderful and beautiful and he's captured the children's hearts.

Max was born on Feb. 15th, at 8:55 pm. We spent much of the day before at the doctor's office, conferring with them about what to do. All of our babies have been born very large for their gestational ages. Garrett was the biggest at 10 lbs. 6 oz. at 39 weeks on the dot. There was no gestational diabetes involved, he was just good old-fashioned big. 24.5 inches, even. Being so big was a bit of a health hazard for him in the delivery, so we were determined to avoid that for Max.

We've found it is hard to explain why you want to do something that is not the norm, but Dr. Parker understood our concerns. We did an anmio (that took 4 pokes to get! OUCH!) and we determined his lungs were very ready, so it was decided that Max would be born the next day, since he was over term at 37.5 weeks, but hopefully smaller than 10 lbs.

Labor was, for the most part, uneventful. Things progressed slowly, and Rachel and Darwin walked and walked around the maternity ward, trying to see if things could get going faster. We had an amazing midwife who seemed to really understand the worries Rachel had about a large baby. Two of Rachel's friends were also there. Crystal, Rachel's business partner and friend, was taking pictures and Christie, Rachel's longtime friend and birth sounding board, was there as a doula. Both really helped keep the mood light. Christie was amazingly helpful, as she and Rachel have discussed their births over and over after each one, so she knew exactly what Rachel's labor patterns and such were. Getting to the end without Darwin, these amazing ladies and the wonderful midwife would simply not have been the same.

When the time came for Max to be born, the midwife was delivering another patient, and so the doctor ended up delivering Max. The nurses, who all seemed a little surprised at a baby being induced at 37.5 weeks for possible macrosomia were all shocked when he arrived at 8 lbs. 14 oz. A VERY good size for the dates.

Since day 1, Max has been calm and even-tempered. Once he was born, the nurses were trying to get him to cry, and he simply would not. They rushed him to the NICU to check his oxygen saturation, and he was fine. Just not interested in fussing.

All of the kids want their chance to hold this sweet little boy, and being a trooper, he tolerates it all. He's been the center of attention since he was born. He seems to be taking it all in stride.



Here is a video of Max's birth. I am so grateful I had Crystal there to help document it all.

And here are some pictures of Max.