little man Tate

Tate Jameson Brooks is here!

Born: August 24 at 12:56 p.m.

Weight: 7 lbs, 9 oz.

Length: 19 1/2 inches long

Here's how it all went down... Monday morning we brought the girls to my brother Trent and Lydia's house so my mom could be there with us for the labor and delivery. I needed another cheerleader! :) We got to the hospital at 7:30 and waited for the doctor to get there from another hospital. When she arrived at 9:15 she attempted to break my water, but after several attempts she realized it was too tough. So she put a monitor on a baby's head which made a tiny whole in the sack causing water to leak slowly out. It took about an hour and a half for my water to finally start gushing out! I was able to get an epidural which was INCREDIBLE!!! I was able to feel the pressure during contractions, but not the pain, so that was amazing. They did give me a little bit of pitocin to speed up the process since I couldn't feel the pain anyways and the doctor was holding off on a c-section at another hospital until she could deliver my baby. At about 12:40ish I felt the urge to push, and after about 15 minutes of pushing, baby Tate was here!!! I did feel quite a bit of pain during the pushing, but it was still tons better than the pain I felt with the last two! I LOVED being induced and wish my other labors would've been so calm! :) Plus, the doctor I had - Fahnlander - was wonderful and so were the nurses. They made the experience very enjoyable!

One thing that was kinda funny was that when the doctor was trying to break my water, she said Tate's hand was above his head trying to grab her hand. It was funny at the time, but when I asked her what would happen if his hand stayed there, she said it would be a complicated delivery and make it harder to push him out. Fortunately, he did move his hand, but he only moved it down as far as his shoulder, so after pushing his head out, I still had quite a hard time pushing his shoulders out with his little hand there.

We came home yesterday afternoon and the girls have LOVED having him home. They want to be with him and hold him all the time. It'll be kinda nice when the novelty of having a new baby in the house wears off. :) He's usually pretty calm, but last night was rough. He really likes to eat and wanted to eat at least every 2 hours and sometimes sooner. So that's gonna have to stop! I think the problem is that at night he's so tired that I can't get him to finish a complete feeding, so he's hungry sooner. Tonight I will just force him to eat a full meal each time so he won't be so hungry.

It's great having mom here this week. She leaves on Saturday and then Chad's mom will come for the next week. I don't know what I'd do without them! Especially if the nights continue to be so rough!