Two Little Sprouts and a Little Flower: October 2008

Grayson's little brother decided to make his appearance a little early - on October 15th (about 3 weeks early). Maddox Dean (we'll call him Max) weighed 5 pounds 9 ounces and was 18 inches long.

And here's how it all happened . . .

The afternoon of the 15th (a Wednesday) my water broke, but I wasn't sure that's what it was so I decided to wait and see what happened. Grayson had a friend over to play so we spent the afternoon outside with Grayson and the other kids riding bikes and swinging. Nothing more happened, but around 7:30 I called my doctor anyway and she suggested I come in just to be sure. We didn't want to move Grayson and I was feeling fine (no contractions as far as I could tell) so Tony stayed home with Grayson and I drove myself to the hospital (!). The nurse confirmed that my water had, in fact, broken and I was having contractions every two minutes. Who knew! So Tony dropped Grayson off at a friend's house for a sleepover (he was very happy about this) and headed to the hospital where they were prepping me for surgery. At 11:50 pm Max was born via c-section (my second and thus a planned one - it was much more relaxed than the first). He was in perfect health (Apgar scores of 8 and 9) and because his weight was considered normal (praise God!) he was able to be with us as soon as he was cleaned up. By 3am I was out of recovery and in our post-partum room. Max stayed with me every night I was in the hospital and was (and still is) a great nurser, sleeper, and pooper.

My 36 week belly picture. I didn't get this posted to the blog in time! We had just received a wonderful report from the perinatologist that Max's size had jumped significantly and he was measuring in the 40th - 50th percentile which was normal!

At the hospital getting prepped

There he is!

Exercising his lungs

First picture with Mom & Dad

The next day Grayson met his brother for the first time. At first he was hesitant, but then he held Max and from that point on has been enthralled by his little bro' and a great helper to Mommy. And he has received lots of attention from his Mima and Pop-pop who stayed with him while I was in the hospital, his Papa George and Prima who visited and brought him to McDonalds for "pan-a-cakes," as he calls them, and his Nana who arrives this weekend to help us out for a week.