The Big Debut!

Well, not that big, because I don't have any pictures right now! I need internet at home and basically to get my poop in a group! Turns out the library won't let you upload photo's to their computers! :P Go figure!!!

SO..... GABRIEL NEALE COLEMAN!!!!!!!!!!! Weighing in at 8 lbs. 2 oz. 21 inches long of pure adorable sweetness! Seriously, he's the sweetest, cutest, most adorable, most delicious, most perfect baby in the whole entire world - everyone tells me, so I must not be prejudice! :) (At least, they'd better tell me that if they know what's good for them! HA)

We went in to be induced last Tuesday morning at 2am. I was 0 dilated, will try not to go into all the gory details, but anyway, here goes.... I was given the prolactyn(?) gel and the contractions started a little more than I had already been experiencing. The whole while, I'd planned on going naturally, then during that time of NO SLEEP, I was figuring out how to get pain medicine REALLY fast! In fact the nurse came up to me to ask me what my pain plan was and I told her I didn't have one, but I was figuring one out really fast! :) So by 8am, the Dr. came in to break my water, I was about a 1 dilation - holy cow - 9 more to go?!?!? Kill me now! So then by noon, I was about at a 3 and begging for an epidural! We had an amazing labor and delivery nurse - seriously, I couldn't have asked for someone better, she basically camped out in my room! She got an anesthesiologist in there for the epidural with contractions coming about every 5 minutes at like a pain level 0-10? well, I'd say about a 55! The epidural was a rough go. You have to be so still and he couldn't get it. I guess Sam said I get poked about 10 times. He even nearly passed out! Finally it took around 1:15 and I fell asleep immediately - this is after about 2 days of not sleeping! At 1:45, I was awakened to put an internal contraction monitor in and the nurse decided to check and I was immediately at a 10!!! Holy Cow! All it took was a half an hour rest! Go figure, having babies wasn't quite as hard as I thought! ....Or so I thought! So it's time to push - Sam, got your camera??? The time is here!!! I was ready - couldn't feel a thing - amazing!!! So I started pushing at 2. and pushing....and pushing... and pushing.... and pushing... At 3:30, the Dr. came in and said that the baby's head was stuck and turned in the wrong direction and they couldn't even get in there far enough to get him turned around. She suggested a C-section. I was devastated. This was NOT turning out AT ALL how I'd planned. But I'm flexible. I told her I'd like to keep pushing for another half an hour... She agreed and let me go. I went for another 45 minutes and the little guy didn't even budge! So now, it was off to prepare for a C-section... The little guy - Gabe - was born at 5:05pm and he was just beautiful! Sam followed him right away to get cleaned up and got to spend the first good hour with his son, holding him and loving him...It was so special for him!! I was recovering... and having a hard go of it! Turns out, to make a long story short, I'd lost a lot of blood and continued to do so all during recovery. My hemoglobin plummeted down to a 6.7 and is only now starting to climb. It's a long road, I've noticed. Sure that was only a week ago - but seriously!!! It's so hard to "take it easy!" But when I look at little Gabe and see his precious bright eyes looking around and stopping to focus on my face as I feed him, or his dad's voice as he loves on him and talks to him - it's all worth it!

So all that to say - please continue to pray for us! We brought Gabe home on Friday and have been learning all about him since! He's already changing so much, getting bigger, more alert (don't know how that's possible!) and he's just beautiful! I can't wait to introduce him to my mom and dad, his namesake - Neale, in November! I've been feeling extremely tired and like I said, having a hard time taking it easy - I feel like I should be able to do all the things from before! I've been way more emotional than I like. In fact, it's a good thing I'm sharing this via internet, or else you'd have to pick through the sobbing tears to figure out what I'm trying to say - and I'm at the library!!! Sad, isn't it?!

On a side note, which should be more fore front than side note, my husband is seriously perhaps the most amazing man in the world. Now I realize that I've made some pretty big calls all during this post, but it's my blog, I'm allowed to! But seriously, I can't even explain to you how well he takes care of me and little Gabriel and our home and everything! He's still got his art show coming up in a few weeks, which is a BIG deal and he's got a lot of things to do for that, but he's just so amazing! There is no way I could do it without him! So just a plug for most amazing husbands in the world - if you've got one, stop right now and run to him and give him a big kiss and tell him he's the most amazing man in the world! 2nd only to Sam Coleman! I plan on doing this as soon as I see my man!

Well, we've been home for three nights so far and we've had two "off" nights and one "on" night. I'm praying that tonight is an "on" night! We've been spending our days figuring out what we did wrong yesterday and changing our actions so that it doesn't happen tomorrow! I have a feeling I'm going to be spending the rest of my life in this particular state! I have learned that nuks are evil - even if you only use them for 1 hour. I've figured out that just because babies are super cute when they sleep - don't let them do it for as long as they want! I've learned that even though newborns don't have teeth - they can still bite! Ouch!!! I've learned that you want to keep the hospital id bracelet's on for a couple days after coming home, just to make sure that your precious gift wasn't switched at the door for an alien child! I've learned that having a lactation consultant for a good friend is indespensible! Three cheers for St. Aleycia Gerlach! There are a lot more things that I've learned, but it turns out the library is about to close and I need to go now. I was just informed there is an hour time limit per day on the machine and I'm getting an evil look!!! Will check in later!

Feeling overwhelmed in the Tundra,

Love, Sarah