Ok, you've been told... here goes!
Axel's journey into this world started when my water broke at 11:53PM on Sunday, January 26th. Except, I didn't know if my water really had broken... I woke up out of a dead sleep (that I'd been in for less than an hour) and awkwardly tried to wake Ryn up. Keep in mind, we weren't expecting our little bundle of joy for at least another two weeks, so we hadn't really discussed how this whole "we're having a baby" conversation should go. And because of that, it went (awkwardly) like this:
Me: Uh, Ryan?
Ryan: (snnooooooooooooore)
Me: Ryan, I think my water just broke...
Ryan: (awake now!) What?!
Me: I think my water just broke.
Ryan: You think?
Me: Well, I don't know, I've never had this happen before...
Ryan: Isn't there some way to check?
Not exactly how you see it happen in the movies... :)
So while I tried to determine if my water had actually broken, or if I had peed myself (which hasn't happened to me, but I've heard is pretty common with preggos), Ryan prayed that it wasn't the beginning of birth... Not because we didn't want to see our future baby, but because we'd both agreed that there was only one day that we didn't want our son born on, and that was Ryan's 30th birthday - which would start 7 minutes after my water broke. And indeed it had!
So off to the hospital we went - slowly of course :) Not only was Axel making his way into the world 2 weeks early, but he was doing it very fast as well - even though labor didn't actively start until about 2:30am, and after a few crazy hours of pushing (2 hours and 20 min to be exact), our baby boy was born at 12:40pm on January 27th, 2014. Stealing his father's birthday glory now and forevermore :) I'm not gonna get into the gory details of birth (in the blog anyway, if you want 'em lemme know, I'm happy to share in person :)), but I will say this - it is hardcore. F'reals. Luckily, I had an amazing husband who was absolute perfection throughout the whole process!
Also, for any of you out there who haven't had a baby yet and are working on your birth plan, I have one word for you: flexibility. You never know what's going to happen during the process and if you hold too tightly to what you wanted or expected to happen, you might be unnecessarily disappointed. And at the end of the day, you will hold a happy, healthy baby in your arms and that is all that matters!
Anyway, back to the dets.
Like I said, Axel was born at 12:40pm, weighing in at a hefty 8 lbs and 15 oz, just shy of 9 lbs - thank GOD he was early! I.Would.Have.Died. He is 20.5 inches long and just the cutest lil' squishball of a baby you've ever seen (mother's opinion of course - but I feel justified in this, because usually I feel like most babies look pretty similar, and, well, newborns just aren't my thang)!
We decided on the name Axel Daniel Randall Lindstedt. Axel is the name of two of Ryan's great-great-grandfathers, and it means "Father of Peace", which we felt was fitting because 1) he was born on his father's birthday and 2) after years of trying to decide when we should have kids, we finally felt peace, and low and behold, this lil' wonder came along! Daniel is my father's name, and I don't know a better man to have my son named after! Randall is Ry's dad's name, and a pretty awesome dude himself :) It's a bit of a mouthful, but you know us, go big or go home!
Axel's journey home took a bit longer than anticipated. Because he was such a big baby (did I mention, ALMOST 9 lbs?!?!? Ahhhh!), he had pretty significant cranial bruising and swelling, which made him highly at risk for jaundice. We were released to go home on Wednesday after his birth, but had a home visit from the nurse first thing the next day and based on his extremely high numbers, he had to be readmitted to the hospital immediately for treatment for jaundice.
I'll tell you what - I have experienced some scary things in my life, but rushing him back to the hospital is a moment that I hope never to relive again. And boy, do those post-baby hormones kick in fast! I'm not a crier, but the tears (and snot) flowed freely that day. Luckily, the hospital let me board there so I could still be with him when he wasn't getting treatment, which was so amazing! I don't know if I could have left him there to be honest. I would have been that creeper who just hung out at the hospital for 3 days :)
He took a little longer to respond to treatment then they were hoping, but finally, by Saturday night (Feb 1st), we were able to take him home for good! And boy did it feel awesome! Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd immediately overwhelming :) Holy being-parents Batman!
And here we are, one week later, and getting into the swing of things with this whole parenting deal. There's not a whole lot of sleep happening around our house, or really much of anything other than changing diapers and feeding, but I'm not gonna lie, even a hardcore non-baby-person like myself, can definitely say that it's completely different when it's your baby. We are so blessed to have this lil' miracle, and are praying every day that we can be the parents that he needs, living out God's plan for us and for him.
So there ya go folks! You've officially "met" the newest member of our fam - Axel!
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