Monday, October 27, 2014

Welcome to the world, Karsten!

Our third son, Karsten

Born at home
October 20, 2014
3:23 a.m.

10 lbs, 6 oz
22.25 inches


After two weeks and a day of prodromal contractions, I awoke to what (finally!) seemed like real labor the early morning of October 19. The midwives came and went throughout the twenty-one hours of labor but left in the evening to get some sleep. In the middle of the night, my water broke as I was trying to grab some rest myself in between contractions. I hopped into the birth pool, and out Karsten came shortly thereafter, caught by his father.


Yes, we once again managed to call the midwife too late! Unplanned unassisted birth is now sort of our thing. I have to say, I kind of dig having the birth be unassisted and then having the midwife come in and sort out the postpartum situation.

As I was saying to Sam, the first time we called the midwives too early. The second time, we called them too late. This time, we split the difference and did both!


This baby is much more like his oldest brother than the peaceful middle child. For one thing, he's a big boy! He's not as big as Mikko, but he looks so similar with his chubby cheeks, full body, squinty eyes, wide nose, and head full of dark hair promising to faux-hawk — just like Mikko-lite. For another, he scorns sleep and prefers to cry most of the time he's awake, perplexing Alrik who cannot for the life of him figure out what's wrong. My milk has come in and he's nursing like a champ, which is helping space out the wake-and-screams since his belly's full now.


Both siblings are fascinated by this little brother. Mikko is over the moon and keeps coming by to poke and yell at Karsten (in joy — it's just his brotherly way). Alrik is a little more circumspect since he doesn't know what to make of his baby sibling's emotiveness, but he thinks Karsten is adorable. The boys slept through the birth, with their aunt on hand to help out. It's probably for the best, because I know I dropped an f-bomb in the birth video!

This labor was really, really challenging (posterior baby, back labor, intensity to the nth power), though I'm glad it remained peaceful, at home, and at our baby's own pace. Hypnobabies kept me mostly calm and helped me limit my swearing to only once or twice…. Pushing him out, though, I kept having the thought, I'm glad this is our last one! Heh heh. It's ok — he's definitely worth it.

Thank you all for your prayers, thoughts, blessings, and good wishes! We felt them all.

When I'm not so sleep deprived and have use of two hands, I'll have to write the full birth story, but for now, here are a few more pictures of this sweetness.





Welcome, little one.

13 comments:

Taylor said...

Welcome Karsten! Congratulations! I've been a follower of yours for a long time, and I'm so excited for you! Enjoy your new squish - he's SO adorable!

Inder-ific said...

OH MY GOSH!!! Welcome Karsten! What a cutie pie! Chunkers chunk! And so interesting to hear how different each of your births was, and how different your babies. Hopefully Karsten will calm down after the newborn fussies. I had such an easy second delivery and baby (she was so chill and barely fussy at all) I was kind of like, I should have a dozen more kids! (NOT.) But then I remembered, they are each totally their own person! You just never know. Joe was a needy baby and he is such a self-possessed kid (if also a bit of a loner), so it really goes to show, you just don't know. Virtual internet hugs to you all!

Raluca said...

I thought about you these days! I am in awe now! Congratulations and I wish you all to be healthy and happy!


I hate it when commenters give advice :(, but I can't stop it now. You say he cries. I am in deep study of the tongue ties now and in the picture he looks like he cannot raise the tongue to the palate. Maybe you'll think about sending a picture to Bobby Ghaheri MD or Dr. Kotlow. Or study their explanations in pictures of the tongue and lip ties.

I hope this is not the case and I am very very sorry for mentioning it. But if this is real, I would have felt really bad not mentioning it now.

Hugs!

Morgan Lipton, MA CCC-SLP said...

Long time reader of your blog. I've been trolling waiting for the news. Congratulations!

Unknown said...

So much love and congrats coming your way, mama!! Karsten is absolutely stunning. I know you are happy to have him here. Thank you for sharing your birth story and first pics!!

XO,
Jessica
www.beingbarlow.com

Unknown said...

So much love and congrats coming your way, mama!! Karsten is absolutely stunning. I know you are happy to have him here. Thank you for sharing your birth story and first pics!!

XO,
Jessica
www.beingbarlow.com

Karen du Toit said...

He is beautiful! Congratulations!

Laura said...

Congratulations! He is so cute. :) Too funny about not being able to time the midwives right. Take care!!!

Tara Borin said...

I've been thinking of you lately! Congratulations, he's beautiful and I just love the name!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations and much health in the coming months. We wish you all the best!

Ann said...

Wow! Congratulations! Sounds like Dad knew what he was doing!

Momma Jorje said...

Congratulations! I love how you "spoke" of how NOT calm Karsten is... then posted the most peaceful photos of him. lol

Blanka said...

Prodromal labor hurts!
I was like that when I was 28 weeks pregnant until delivery.
I gave birth at 38 weeks 2 days
Born on oct 19 2014 at 2:55 am
Baby boy 8 pounds even 19 1/2 :)
Congrats mommy :)

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