Thursday morning at 6:08am we welcomed Alexander Eustace Mikos into the world. He weighed 7lbs and 9 ounces and was 20 1/2 inches long. He is no longer lil' Pete, he is Alex!
My due date was August 1st but for some reason I always felt I was going to go early. I wasn't sure if that was just wishful thinking or a true gut feeling. Well as we now know that wishful thinking came true!! Here is how it all went down....
Wednesday I had gone to my weekly check-up. I was worried that lil' Pete wasn't moving as much as I thought he should so they put me on a monitor for about 20 minutes and we quickly discovered he was just fine. It was kind of neat to listen to his heart beat for that long and while I was on the monitor I had one or two contractions but we thought it was just a braxton hicks since they weren't to painful and they weren't consistent. I headed home to relax and eat some dinner.
Pete had school since it was Wednesday night and he had planned to stay after class for a social. He had never stayed for one of these socials, even though they have them every Wednesday, but we had discussed it earlier in the week and I encouraged him to go since he needed to get to know his classmates better.
Meanwhile, I was at home and got into bed. I had just fallen asleep about 10:45 pm when I felt a warm sensation wake me. I was hoping I hadn't wet myself but at the same time I couldn't believe it was my water breaking. It was just a little bit so I got up and as I made my way to the restroom I felt more. I knew it couldn't be my bladder at that point. I couldn't believe it was happening!!!
First thing I did was call Pete. No answer! I called him again and again - no answer. I knew he must still be at the social and either he had his phone on vibrate and just wasn't feeling it in his pocket or he had put his phone in his laptop bag. I kept calling and calling - I was starting to freak out because more and more water was coming out. I was minutes away from calling my sister when I got a text from Pete, "Leaving now". I was almost pissed at this point so I text back, "Why won't u answer the phone?", as I immediately called him. He had seen all the missed calls and thought I was just wondering where he was but when he finally answered I told him what was going on. He was shocked!! I told him to hurry home (but drive safe and not to fast). For those that don't know Emory is 30 - 45 minutes away from our house so I was just hoping he made it in the shorter 30 minutes. I frantically was running around the house packing the things I hadn't yet packed (I had about half of our stuff all ready packed - just incase). I kept saying to myself, "I can't believe this is actually happening!!!"
Finally, Pete made it home. We loaded the car and made it to the hospital nearly 2 hours after my water broke. In fact, right before we left the house we got a call from Kaiser wondering if we were still going to the hospital.
We got to our room got all set up in the bed and started the waiting game. They even said to us that most first time deliveries take 12 - 18 hours (or something like that). My sister was suppose to come to the hospital near the time I was going to deliver and take pictures. I didn't call her because one it was the middle of the night and two I thought we'd have plenty of time to call her at a decent hour. We had timed it perfectly with her two kids - I had arrived there about 30 minutes before she started to push and was able to capture everything - so I thought it would work that way for us as well.
They had started me almost right away on a pitocin. I was only 2 centimeters dilated when we got to the hospital so again we thought we had plenty of time. My goal was to get to about 4 or 5 centimeters and then ask for an epidural. After the pitocin got going I really started to feel the contractions. They would come to check on my but it didn't seem like I was getting into any good pattern to confirm I was progressing. Probably was a little deceiving because I kept getting up to use the restroom so I was off the monitor for a bit.
One thing I thought was cool was that both my nurse and my midwife were grads of the University of Florida. I said it would be cool if they could deliver me but the midwife got off at 6 am and the nurse at 7 am so we said that it probably wasn't possible.
The nurse kept coming in and checking on me as the contractions were becoming more and more painful. She said she didn't think I had progressed that much based on the contractions but we could have the midwife check me when she was done delivering another baby. At this point it was around 5 am. At first I was fine waiting but by 5:15 am I told her I didn't care how far dilated I was, I was ready for the epidural. She said she'd check me real quick just to see. To my surprise when she checked I was 7 centimeters dilated. I was worried that I was too late but she said I wasn't and she'd order it now. At this point I think I started getting a little crazy - I kept asking if she ordered it, pleading with her to hurry. Then about 10 minutes later I told her I felt like I needed to push. She said don't and checked me again - I was fully dilated. The midwife was still delivering another baby - it was all so hectic. I was still pleading for the epidural and she checked with the midwife and to my surprise she said I could still get it. In the end, the epidural did not happen - lil' Pete was going to be delivered naturally.
The next bit of time was all a blur - it all happened so fast. Well actually looking back I kind of feel that after I was told I was 7 centimeters dilated (and I think she turned the pitocin off) that the contractions didn't hurt so much - I just had this sensation that I had to push. I'll leave the rest of the details out but I think after only pushing 5 or 6 times lil' Pete arrived. Delivered by an all Gator team after all! :)
At this point we still hadn't decided on a name. When we had arrived at the hospital Pete had started a bracket and we were narrowing down names but we still had about 5 names in the running. After Alex was born and we had a few minutes to relax Pete and I decided on Alexander - well I pulled the "I did most of the work so can I have final say" card! It has turned out to be a great name! Pete is the master of nick names and my favorite so far is "A bomber"!
Here is a picture of me before the contractions really got started!! This was probably my last smiley moment!! :) Until Alex arrived of course!
Here is Pete's first picture with Alex.
Aunt Lisa's first picture with Alex.
Our little bundle of joy!
This is not my first picture with Alex but I will spare you those!! :)
So you may wonder how we settled on Alexander Eustace Mikos. Well Alexander is just a name I really liked and in the end I got final say!! Eustace is Peter's grandfather's first name. Eustace Marion Studinski is his full name. Pete always remembers him saying to him, "Who names their kid Eustace". So he went by Al. Another reason I think ALex is a great name! Grandpa Studz meant the world to Pete and his entire family. He was a very loving, family man. His family meant the world to him and in the short time I got to know him I loved him very much too. I truly felt he loved me like one of his own grandkids! We realized it a couple days after Alex was born (on July 15th) that Grandpa Studz had passed away exactly 6 months prior on January 15th. Quite an amazing coincidence.
So I know it is early but we are trying to figure out who Alex looks like. Is it me? Pictured above with my dad.
Is it Pete? Pictured above with his Grandpa Mikos.
This isn't the best picture to tell from but we are thinking he looks an awful lot like his Aunt Lauren! Only time will tell!!
So Alex had a few set backs early in life. About 6 hours after he was born they discovered he had a high red blood cell count. They had to admit him to the NICU for a blood transfusion. They transfused his blood with saline so that it would thin it out to a more appropriate level. He was away from us for about 18 hours. It was really hard to deal with at first but we knew he was in good hands. The one good thing about him being in the NICU overnight was that it gave us a chance to sleep. We had both been up for more than 48 hours and we were exhausted. We definitely didn't get a full 8 hours but pretty close to it. So once he finally came back that next morning we were rested and ready for what lay ahead.
Us visiting Alex in the NICU before he started his procedure. We were able to visit him several times while he was down there so it wasn't so bad. The important part was that they were making him better!!
Alex is back with us and oh what fun it is!!
Pete is a natural!
Feeding Alex like a pro!
So not to long after we got Alex back in the room with us they told us he had Jaundice and he needed to go under the lights. At least it was a procedure we could do in our room! It was some what an unusual site but he was so cute and such a good baby about it!!
Alex all wide eyed!! He ended up having to stay in the hospital an extra night due to the Jaundice but thankfully we were able to "nest" in the hospital with him. We were able to stay an extra 7 hours in our room without care for me just so we could be with Alex!!
Finally after arriving Wednesday night/early Thursday we were leaving Sunday around 9:30 pm! It felt good going home with Alex!
All buckled in!!
Grandma arrived Monday to help take care of her babies!!
