Leo Star, born at home this morning!

[lexbeach]

Pictures Here.



After a crazy, intense, beautiful, fast, perfect labor (dw went from 1 cm dilated to baby in four hours), our sweet son, Leo Star, was born at 5:26 this morning, the day after his due date. There was no time to fill the birth tub, and Leo was born on the bathroom floor. The midwife arrived 20 minutes before he was born. He is perfect and TINY (7-2; our last baby was 10-10, so this is quite a difference!), and we are so in love.

Hoping to get a chance to write a more detailed birth story soon!

So glad he's HERE!



Lex

[channelofpeace]

Congratulations! What a beautiful boy! Welcome, baby Leo

[Chamomile Girl]

DDC crashing to say congrats!!!! You have a beautiful family!

[amandaleigh37]

Congrats!!! : He's beautiful!

[DevaMajka]

WooHoo! Congrats! I'm so excited for you!
:

[because]

Congratulations! :

So, what were the signs that labor was impending?

[BananaBreadGirl]

Wow! Congratulations! And I'm sure a 7 lb. baby would seem very small after a 10 lb. baby. Any newborn seems tiny to me, though .

[maryjane]

Congratulations!!!:

[lexbeach]

Originally Posted by because

Congratulations! :

So, what were the signs that labor was impending?

A couple of days before labor started, dw did start act a bit spacier. Just mixing up words, putting batteries in wrong . . . nothing major, but enough to make me think that labor would be soon. The baby had dropped by our 38 week appointment and was very low.

Early labor started yesterday morning (her due date!) with very mild (but stronger than BH contrax.) every 15 minutes, combined with the loss of the mucus plug. We really weren't sure if we'd have a baby anytime soon, or if it would still be another couple of weeks. Contrax. continued all day, sometimes spacing out further, never increasing in intensity. Once it got dark out, they seemed to pick up a little, but we were trying to ignore them, and went to bed. At about midnight, dw felt a shift of some sort, contrax. started coming more frequently, and she couldn't sleep through them. She woke me up at 1:15. I checked her and she was 1 cm dilated. From then until the birth, four hours later, it was just crazy one-contraction-on-top-of-another, high-intensity labor. We waited so long to call the midwife because of the lack of dilation, but I really wish I'd just never checked since by dw's behavior it seemed obvious that she was in active labor. Just goes to show that dilation really doesn't mean anything! Dw started wanting to push at about 4:45, so she was probably complete then, but she held back until the midwife got there (she says that was the hardest part of the labor).

We were fully expecting the baby to not arrive before 42 weeks, and really didn't have any good reason to think he would come sooner. But he surprised us .

Lex

[rivkah]

:

Congratulations! Those fast labors can be crazy!

I hope you have some NB clothes and diapers, and didn't plan another 10-pounder.

[Erinz]

Oh Lex that is so fabulous! Congratulations! How is your wife feeling? I hope great! I felt like a truck ran over me with my first, I can't imagine that physical feeling while wanting to love on my three other boys. She's so lucky to have a spouse who has birthed My husband is phenomenal and all that, but he has never birthed and I always say it's really hard to GET IT if you haven't DONE IT.

[Ianthe]

He is beautiful!!! Congrats! :

[lexbeach]

Thanks everyone! He's doing wonderfully, as is his Mama (my wife), nursing like a pro and having lots of amazing alert time.

We did expect a tinier baby this time around (my wife is much smaller than me, and I birthed our other three), so I did stock up on the teeny tiny newborn diapers--and they're still so big on him! Not really an issue at the moment, though, since he has yet to pee or poop . . . but I'm guessing we'll be in for a major explosion in the middle of the night.

To those still waiting . . . you will be in this bliss SOON! Hang in there!



Lex

[graceomalley]

Congratulations Lex and Lena! I read your blog every couple of days, Lex - for some reason I can't post my congrats over there today, so I thought I'd crash the party here.

Welcome Leo Star!

[nerin]

yay!!! congratulations on the birth of Leo!!!

[ErinsJuneBug]

Congrats Lex and family! How are your boys doing?! Are you planning on nursing this babe too?

[annettemarie]

Congratulations! He's beautiful.

[maxwill129]

Congratulations, mama!!! :

[Alohamelly]

Congratulations!

[groovynaturemama]

congrats!!! he's adorable and i love his name!!