Wow! Has it been since August that I've updated here? Time really flies. I've had computer problems (coincidence that the one year warrenty is up?), the house had a mini flood which ruined the floor, and Xander was born in the midst of reconstruction. Thankfully, the house is mostly back in order now.

While we were in the hospital, I dreaded coming home. Just days before James had sanded down the floor (the bottom layer of linoleum decided to stick) and dust coated everything. The day we left to come home, I discovered that my mom and one of the ladies from church came over and were cleaning house for me! Then when we drove up at about 2 AM, there was a blue bow on the mailbox, an "It's A Boy" balloon on our other car, and a sign on the door proclaiming his birth. I almost cried!

Here's Xander's birth story that I've been copy/pasting around as his birth announcement:

James Alexander (Xander) was born Friday, Oct. 26 at 1:29 PM. He came so suddenly that we are still reeling from it all. I went for a check up in Chattanooga Thursday. I was only 1 cm dialated all day. My midwife wanted me to spend the day with her and her assistant. We spent the day shopping and they paid for me to get a massage. It wasn't full body, but I got my back and feet massaged. It was nice. She checked me again that night before we left and I had dialated another cm all day. I hadn't even noticed it.

She decided that she didn't want me to head home. She had worked all the night before and didn't want to rush the 5 hours to our house. We all stayed at her assistants house. The next morning James left at 6 and we were all going to follow him in a couple of hours. He had Teresa's (my midwife) cell phone, but we found out later it had been turned off.

Teresa checked me and I was still 2 cm, so we didn't really think anything would happen that day. She was still thinking that it might be Monday or later. After she checked me, I thought it was really odd that my bladder kept suddenly leaking. I wonder now if that had been my water breaking. I got in her bathtub (a nice jacoosi (sp) style tub). Right before I got out, it felt as if my bladder released again. After I got out almost an hour later, Teresa checked me and I was already 4 cm and my water had broken. I wasn't feeling much of anything, just an all-over uncomfy feeling that would escalate and then ease off. It really wasn't bad at all.

We tried to get a hold of James, even had the state troopers looking out for him. He made it home before someone finally told him. Someone was waiting at the house for him. He was still 2 hours away when I started pushing.

Around 11 I was already 8 cm. At 11:30 I was at 10 cm. I was still not having strong contractions, although I could tell there was an added burning pain and I told my midwife I was in transition. She didn't believe me until she checked and found me at 8 cm. I pushed for an hour and a half. She had to tell me sometimes when I had a contraction, because I couldn't feel it.

The worst pain of the entire delivery was pushing his head and shoulders out. They wouldn't let me rest in between the head and shoulders. Once the shoulders were out, they told me to reach down and pull him out. I held him against me for a moment then snuggled him in the crook of my arm. They told me he was a boy and I started talking to him and calling his name. He looked right at me. He looked so cute! Then they took him, wiped him up some, put a hat on him and wrapped him in a towel.

Then Teresa told me I had to push the placenta out. I didn't want to, I wanted to hold my baby. I kept looking at him, he was laying next to me on the bed. He was blowing bubbles! I thought it was the cutest thing.

The placenta wasn't coming and Teresa told me to try squatting over the toilet to push it out. I finally decided to do my best, get it out and done with so that I could hold my baby again. It wouldn't come. Teresa then told me to lay on the bathroom floor. I tried pushing some more, but still nothing. She finally reached in and checked me and said that some of the placenta hadn't attached. An hour after Xander was born, she decided we had to get to the hospital. Ann (the assistant) started running around to get things ready to go. We didn't have a car seat, so Xander was left behind with Ann's children. She was having a nurse friend of hers come by to be with him.

At this point I was getting seriously concerned. I had felt gush after gush of blood rush from me and I was growing weaker. I knew something was seriously wrong.

The last time I had heard from James too was that he was still on his way and that was a little while after Xander was born. He had no idea that anything was wrong. Teresa and Ann took me to the hospital. I almost didn't make it to the van without passing out. It was a long 40 minute drive to the hospital. I had to fight to stay conscious. Several times I slapped my face to stay awake. I'd never been more scared in my life. I thought I wasn't going to make it. Teresa tried to get me to push a few more times and I gave it all the energy I had. The last time I nearly passed out and I told her I had nothing left, I couldn't do it any more without passing out.

Finally we got there and the doctor that Ann had called arrived and they prepped me for surgery. I kept asking if I could go to sleep yet. The doc came in and explained that they had to do a D & C to get the placenta out. If it didn't come out, they'd have to do a hystrectomy. I prayed they wouldn't have to do that, but at the time I'd rather live than worry about that.

The anasthesiologist finally told me to take 5 deep breaths from the mask. I remember taking 2. I remember thinking how relieved I was that I was finally getting some rest. My first waking moment was seeing James walk into the room as if he were in a cloud. I felt so relieved to see him. I told him not to worry that the important thing was that Xander and I were alive and okay. I found out later that he still didn't know what was going on. He'd just been told that we were at the hospital.

They ended up giving me 2 units of blood the next day. My recovery has been much faster than I expected. I was released Sunday but Xander's doctor at the hospital wouldn't release him until some test results were back. They determined that I had some kind of infection and they ran hepititus tests. It was that test that they were waiting on. They wanted to know if he'd been exposed to it. It turned out fine though, and they are supposedly analyzing the placenta to try to determine what the infection was.

So, we came home Monday. And are doing fine. At his doctor's appointment at 10 days old, he already weighed 7 lbs. 6 oz. He's a sweet little boy.

You can see his picture at: www.eastridgehospital.com. Click on 'Baby Train' and type in October 26th. Then click on his name in the list. The poor guy had to wear an outfit with pink flowers because we didn't have anything. My midwife had bought the outfit the day before for a friend of hers.

He weighed 7 lbs. 3 oz. And was 18 3/4 inches long.

Here's some pictures of our little Xander-man:

Xander having a meaningful conversation with seal. (He was 2 weeks old that day!)

Xander and Daddy sleeping (taken with nightshot).