Better Late than Never - On Labor Day

He's finally here! Sadly, Rory has been here for almost a month and I haven't gotten around to posting anything yet. Please consider this an extension of my good enough parenting strategy. Rory is fed and diapered. For that last three plus weeks, that's been good enough ;)  It's been a whirlwind of a month - labor, healing, sleeping (or not), learning, and endless doctors appointments.

Here's a summary: I was induced on 2/26 for fear of infection after we realized I'd been leaking fluid for a mysterious amount of time. That morning was very relaxing, which was nice. I spent some time shopping online for various gifts for people and then met a friend at the national gardens. Afterward, I wandered over to my doctor's office for my scheduled appointment,  and wound up in L&D a few blocks away. I called Andrew, and he left school to go home and get my suitcase and walk the dog before meeting me at the hospital.

Once we met with the doctors, they explained the induction process and told us we had a long long way to go - like 24 hours or more. We settled in and did our best to get through the beginning stages of labor. This part's not very exciting. It involves a lot of pain and books on tape, like driving on the Jersey turnpike for Thanksgiving. Between 4pm 2/26 and 10:20 am 2/27 my body had done all the work it needed to, and it was time to push. Having had an epidural and very little sleep, I was happy to oblige. 30 minutes later, Rory was born. Rory Arthur Hare, born 10:51 am, 6 lbs 13 oz, and 19/5 inches long. Andrew had (and excelled at) two very important jobs during those first few moments, cut the cord and take a bunch of photos. Here are a few:

Our New Family of Three!

Since then, we've been sledding at high speed down a steep learning curve, though things are settling down. I was in a lot of pain for a while after coming home, and Rory was tongue tied, which means his tongue wasn't moving properly. This prevented him from nursing or drinking from a bottle in any efficient way. The first two weeks were a blur of doctor's visits and trips to the lactation consultant for advice, a pump, a scale...you name it. Thankfully we had help from the grandmas. Rory's tongue has been fixed now (with a very minor and nearly bloodless procedure) and he's doing much better. In fact, we even managed to make it out of the house for a little stroll in the sun!

I will put some more recent photos in the next post, along with the results from Rory's fancy newborn photo shoot. In the meantime, please know that we are so grateful for the crazy amount of love and support we've gotten from our friends and family. It's a constant reminder of how much positivity and generosity there is in this world. Rory's grandparents on both sides came out to visit/help, our friends walked Fig and brought meals, the lactation consultant took time to talk with me on her cell phone at 10:40 on a weeknight, so many people sent e-mails or FB messages, Andrew's students made him a cake...the list goes on and on. We are so happy to bring Rory into such a warm and loving community and we are overwhelmed with gratitude for all of this happy chaos.

Update: Here's a photo of Rory with the doctor who delivered him, Dr. Jenny. She just happens to be the sister of one of my colleagues and stopped by to see Rory when he was around 10 weeks old.