Welcome Micah Carter Houston!

We were so sure that the baby would be here the week of Thanksgiving. Because he was thought to be so big, the dr had planned to induce the Saturday following Thanksgiving so he didn't get too big. According to ultrasound, he was following in Logan's footsteps (Logan was 9-9 a week early).

You can take one look at me in the picture below taken a week before his delivery and see he was BIG!

Even though I had become very ready for this baby to get here, that all suddenly came to a halt! Logan came down with not only strep but also the flu the week before Thanksgiving. Thankfully because we caught it early and started tamiflu, antibiotics and the flu shot lessened the severity of the flu because he never got very sick. I just wanted time to lysol everything and make sure no one else got sick. About 3 days later, Jacob got strep. I started feeling bad about that time but tested negative to flu and strep. I only got more and more sick though and the day before thanksgiving had a pretty bad sinus and respiratory infection as well as the flu. I had to hurry and get well fast! We pretty much laid low and threw the last minute "to do" list out the window so I could hopefully get better at least by Saturday (the day of induction) if not sooner!

Friday I woke up and felt a little better flu wise but noticed I was having a few more contractions. Inman kept asking if we needed to call the dr or anything and I would say, "let me just time the contractions the next hour then we will see..." or "I am going to take a shower just in case and then we will see if I am still having contractions, if I am then you need to shower and get ready." I finally got to the point that I told him if he wanted a shower to go ahead and take one. We got the kids settled and headed to the hospital about 2:30. The contractions slowed a little and I was afraid they would send me home! I was 3 cm at this point. The dr decided to keep me though and commented we would probably have a baby by midnight. He broke my water (around 4:30 or 5:00) and said that if my contractions stalled he would start a little pitocin in about an hour.

At that point he said I was 5-6 cm. He didn't mention my epidural but I figured they would offer it before starting the pit. I was having pretty hard contractions but they weren't as often, maybe 5-8 minutes apart. What I didn't know at the time was my day shift nurse got side tracked with the patient next door who was about to deliver. I found out afterwards that her plan was to head to my room and get me ready for my epidural if I wanted (and yes, the answer would have been yes! With Logan I had waited until about 5 cm and it never kicked in because I went from 5-10 cm in 40 minutes)

About 7:00 an angel appeared! My friend Aja from church and the nurse who was there for Logan's delivery had just arrived for nightshift. I was so glad to see her and felt better immediately! Well, in between contractions that is:) She asked me if I wanted my epidural especially if I was going to be getting pit. I wholeheartedly agreed! I knew it would be a few minutes to get everything ready and the dr there. At that point the contractions were getting closer but I thought I can do anything for a few minutes if it means relief is right around the corner!

The contractions only got more intense. Even over the next few minutes, I was getting no break between contractions and got so nervous that I was not going to be able to sit still for the epidural placement. Inman did a great job encouraging me but later told me that he saw how much pain I was in and was beginning to worry himself! The dr got there and quickly put in the epidural but the rest of us in the room realized the truth. You only have to say, "I feel pressure" once to make everyone know showtime is here! Sure enough, my OB came in and announced what we all knew. I was complete and it was time to have a baby! I almost started crying. The epidural would never work and I was projected to have an almost 10 pound baby!

Once again, Inman was great and so encouraging. I am sure me coming a tad unglued was unnerving. I was so thankful Aja was my nurse. I knew she would help me thru it and it is always good to have a church member in the room, I had my wits enough to know I didn't want to say anything that I would regret!

My dr was also very encouraging. I realized at this time that the epidural for Logan had at least taken the edge off because this time around there was no "edge off." I felt everything and I will stop there without going into further detail! Thankfully I did not have to push long, maybe 6 times or so. It all happened very fast, so fast there was no camera ready, no video camera (at least pointing to the ground like it was for Logan where we could go back and listen to his first cries and what we were saying:)

The birth time was long before midnight, 8:26 pm

This is the first picture of our little man

He was "smaller" than we all thought. 9 pounds 3 oz sounds small when all ultrasounds had pointed to a LARGE baby. I was followed by a perinatologist and was having weekly ultrasounds, the last one had him > 90% which would have meant almost 10 lbs at birth!

Because he came so fast, his face was very bruised

Aunt Steph

Mema

Papa

We had such a hard time picking a name for this little guy. We had considered Micah at the beginning and then gone towards a couple of other names. The latest we had considered was Seth. We had decided just that morning that we had waited that long we would just wait and see what he looked like. When Inman called the boys to tell them that the baby was born, I looked over and Inman's eyes were filled with tears. Jacob had asked him if we could name the baby Micah and sounded so excited! There was no turning back at that point. This big brother was absolutely in love with a baby he had not even seen yet! We did not announce the name until Jacob got to the hospital a few minutes later and we let him do it. He also helped pick the middle name. Carter (http://www.caringbridge.org/ga/cartermartin/)

is one of our heroes and his family means a lot to both of us. The Martins tried to set Inman and I up before we ended up meeting on our own! We feel so honored that our son will carry the middle name of such a special little boy.

Micah's first bath

Sleeping hopefully not phased by his "war wounds"

His bruises looked even better the next day

Big brothers and Micah

Jacob has loved holding his brother

Logan has too, just a little unsure of what to think!

Nana Jean and Dadoh

Trying to get our first picture as a family of 5

Jacob reading a letter he wrote to Micah. He promised to "teach him everything, even the ABCs."

Getting ready to head home

I guess a blog entry one week later is better than nothing. We are cherishing these early days, even sleep deprived. I want to soak in every minute of my three sons.

Thanking God for these incredible gifts!