it's a BOY!

Welcome to the family…

LUKE JAMES FLETCHER

Luke was born Sunday (yep, another Sunday) November 11, 2012 at 6:10pm. Doyle says I always have to deliver on football Sundays. All of 2 times?! But he says "well, that's 2 for 2, so 100% of the time." Ok, I guess he can be right about that.

I was beginning to think I was going to make it all the way to my due date, Nov 16. When I woke up for work I was having contractions, but I had been having contractions since I was 28 weeks pregnant, so nothing new. When I walked into work I told them that I was having contractions about every 5 minutes, but they weren't painful so we will just see how the day goes. At 1030, the contractions still continued, not any stronger, but still there. I decided I should probably go get assessed just to make sure. I walked over to labor & delivery, really thinking I would be going back to work. Well, my nurse Tamara said "you aren't going anywhere; you are 5-6cm. You are having a baby today!" I called Doyle to let him know I was being admitted. He was at home taking care of Jack who had not been feeling well the last couple days.

 We are so fortunate to have our families so close and able to help out when needed. After a bit of shuffling around, Doyle was on his way to the hospital.

Soon all of our delivery crew (Gigi, Peachy, Aunt Courtney, Aunt Lissa, Aunt Lala and Coco), was there. The rest of the crew was in the waiting room hanging out. It was perfect. Everyone that was there for Jackson’s delivery would be able to be there again.  Just another reason why Sunday was perfect.  I went walking for a bit and then took a nap while we were waiting for the time for my antibiotics to be completed.  Around 3:30, the antibiotics were complete and Dr. LeBlanc came to break my water. 

I am so thankful for my labor coach, Doyle.  I don’t know that I would have been able to press through with out his encouragement. 

Like most moms having their second child, many times throughout my pregnancy I wondered, how am I ever going to love another child as much as I already loved Jack.  Every mother assured me it “just happens.”  And in that moment at 6:10, when this not so little baby was born I yelled “it’s a BOY!” and my heart exploded with a new love for him too. 

The only problem was our precious, new little boy didn’t have a name.  I had been telling Doyle for weeks that we really needed to confirm a boy name.  We had Brooklyn Claire set for a girl name but we couldn’t settle on a boy name.  We had this perfect 8lb 5oz, 21in baby boy, without a name.  I felt so bad that he didn’t have a name.  Doyle went to the waiting room to let the rest of our family know our baby boy was born.

Doyle and I were able to give him his first bath (Thanks Alicia!)

Once everyone went home and we moved to our postpartum room Doyle started going through more lists of names. It was just making it more and more difficult to come to a conclusion.  He kept calling out names.  Finally, we decided that we needed to just sleep on it and think about it again in the morning.  One of the many names daddy listed was Luke, which was on my top names list from the beginning.  During one of the nighttime feedings I woke up and Luke was the name that kept playing over and over in my head.  When Doyle woke up I told him that I really liked Luke.  But he still wasn’t set yet. 

Doyle was going to go home for a bit, so we went to see the baby in the nursery for a minute.  I wanted him to look at him and try to decide on a name.  He promised he would have a decision made before he came back to the hospital with Jack.  As we stood at the nursery window, I couldn’t help but feel so grateful for that opportunity.  Getting to see your newborn through the nursery window doesn’t seem like a big deal, but when you didn’t get to experience it like we missed with Jack, it means everything. 

Doyle went home and he said he had to test out the names.  So he walked through the house calling out the names.  I wish I could have been there listening to him do this.  At least it worked for him, because he finally had a name. Well, he had a first name.  When we first talked about boy names Doyle thought it would be cool for brothers to have the same middle name.  It sounded good to me.  After a small debate, it was finally official. Our new little boy was named Luke James Fletcher. 

Finally after a complete 48hours and the threat of Luke having to stay for phototherapy for jaundice, we were finally getting discharged.

It was such an awesome feeling having my little family at home together.  Jackson loves his little brother and is such a big helper.  I have been trying my hardest to keep him involved in the things he can help me with so he doesn’t feel left out.  I have to say he has adjusted fairly well to the new guy in the house. 

The first week home things were going pretty smoothly.  I miraculously even had a couple days of both boys napping at the same time.  Of course, I snuck one in there too!  God knew I would need this time of calmness before the craziness of sick kids that was about to hit.

Luke has already amazed us.  At 5 days old he started rolling over.  Well, maybe actually 4. Doyle was lying on the bed with him at 4 days old and said “Oh my gosh, he just rolled over.” Of course I didn’t believe him.  I said he must just be rolling into him. Well the next day Luke was on his tummy on the floor while Coco was helping me go through stuff in his room and he rolled over, and we both saw it.  I said “no way. It’s just a fluke! That is the skill of a 2-3 month old, not a 5 day old.” But we kept putting him on his belly and he repeatedly flipped over.  We are in trouble! At this pace he is going to be crawling in no time.  I swear he was practicing in my belly.  I always said how crazy active he was in utero.

I forgot just how much they change so fast in the early days.  I feel like I can just sit and watch him change before my eyes.  It is so exciting to me to think about watching him grow and learn to meet all his developmental milestones.   

Luke is a champ eater just like Jackson. At his 2week appointment he already weighed 9lbs 80z. That's over a pound weight gain already.

So many times I have been asked if we are going to try for a girl.  Nope! My life feels so complete.  I am not going to keep having kids for the hope to maybe have a girl.  I love being a boy mom already! I guess I really need to start studying my sports though.  I am not an athletic person, nor do I really care that much about sports, I can’t wait to be on the sidelines and in the stands cheering my boys on! 

Life is good!

Just shy of 2 weeks old we celebrated our first Thanksgiving with Luke.  We are so blessed and have even more to be thankful for this year!