James has arrived!

Has it really been 3 weeks since the last blog post? Oh my goodness, how time flies! The past 16 days have been a whirlwind of love, happiness, and sleep deprivation. Oh, and lots of poop.

James Eric Maclauchlan was born on Tuesday, May 7, at 0855. He weighed 8 pounds, 9 ounces and was 21 inches long. My c-section was textbook and James got a 5 minute apgar score of 9-nice and healthy!

They took me back around 7:00 am, and took my vitals, checked James' vitals, and had a few doctors and nurses come in to make me sign a bunch of paperwork and drink a really gross antiacid thing that tasted like rotten tequila (that's how I envision it, anyway). They wheeled me back to the OR and gave me a spinal, got me situated on the bed, then brought Matt back. After he was born and they did the apgar scores, Matt laid him next to my head so I could nuzzle and kiss him. He was very alert! He only cried when they stretched his legs out to measure his length. He looked exactly like his dad and Matt's dad. He started peeing before he was completely out of me. They had to make my incision longer than normal because of his position. Silly baby!

I'm really glad they had a narcotic in the IV I was hooked up to because having my arms strapped down was a little intense. I wasn't able to hold James until about two and a half hours after he was born because I was in recovery and he was in the observation nursery. It took a bit longer for the anesthesia to wear off than usual, and they gave me Benadryl because the narcotic in the IV made me very itchy.

Once I was out of recovery and he was out of the observation nursery, we were able to have some skin-to-skin bonding time. Holding him for the first time was just...beyond incredible. The love a parent has for their child is just beyond compare. The other day I went to a doctor's appointment by myself and I cried because I missed James so much. He's my little man! Seeing my incredible husband and perfect little son together is just heaven.

Matt posted this on facebook and said: "I thought seeing my wife walk down the aisle on our wedding day was the most beautiful sight I would ever see. Boy, was I wrong..." :) (Needless to say, that made me cry. So sweet.)

I have had some complications from my c-section but am able to manage without any pain medicines, and it's finally starting to heal. Yay! I'm very lucky that James is a great eater. He still doesn't understand the difference between night and day, but we're working on that. :)

Here are some more pictures of our handsome little man: