Well, He's Here... and Then Some ;)

Here he is, folks!

     Our first, last, and only boy :)  Lil Man's been around for a little while already, and he is definitely making his fair share of trouble.  From a weeks-long and irritating pre-labor, to a very quick (and painfully slow) delivery, to all that came after.  I haven't had a chance to breathe, let alone do anything remotely fun.
     It all started just a few days after my baby shower, hosted by my awesome Uncle-in-law.  I started feeling REALLY crampy.  What I felt were in fact contractions, but a trip to the hospital (after stopping at Walmart for some last minute things, of course), turned up no good news.  We found that those contractions wouldn't stay or even amount to anything.  Though they still hurt a LOT, so we stayed overnight in the area due to a big blizzard and not wanting to travel home.
     One week later, I was back.  My stomach had felt contracted for hours, all overnight and I hadn't felt all that much movement from the little guy.  I was a touch worried, especially over the movement part since he is always such a big kicker.  But again, all turned out fine.
     Finally, one more week later, after a whole day of full on viral illness and contractions, I went to bed and things got real.  Every ten minutes and staying, I dreaded the coming of the contractions and I knew things had to be progressing this time.  After a couple hours at 10 minutes apart, I woke my husband up and within minutes of standing and walking, I was at 3 minutes apart and 40 minutes from the hospital.  We went with emergency flashers as quickly as we could and got there at just 1-2 minutes apart.  Within an hour, I was so ready to push and was instructed not to.  That didn't stop me from pushing fully as sometimes you just can't help it, but man was it slow and hard since my water had broken an hour earlier and I was pushing dry.  Longest pushing of any of the kids.  In the next half hour, there was no stopping him.  He HURT like the Dicken's!  And the woman there to assist the delivery pushed him back in!  She wouldn't let me out of the burning ring of Hell that is crowning and I kinda wanted to hit her.  But he did eventually make his entrance and he was the largest of all the babies at almost 8 1/2 pounds, and only an hour and a half after getting there *smile*.

     Since then, it has been thrush, mastitis, thrush again, mastitis again, virus and full on colic-type behavior.  And that is just HIM and I.  We've also dealt with 3 bouts of this nasty virus since Christmas, resulting in 3 ear infections, pneumonia, and pink eye.  Mostly Baby Bee because she is missing a tear duct and can not handle congestion well, it causes other ailments.  And the virus... you don't want to know what that looks like.  Let's just say that Spring and open windows can not come soon enough.
     At last, we are at the tail end of Lil Man's virus and things have FINALLY settled down enough for me to breathe.  We are in the best rhythm we have been in in months!  The kids have had the last 2 days off of school, and with their help, the house is in good working order after all the chaos.  I am so happy to be able to get back to things.  I have missed my routine (if you can call it that).