On Wednesday, November 28th at 7:41am while I was 38.1 weeks pregnant we welcomed Sawyer Franklin Capan into the world and our family felt a little more complete.
The day before, Tucker and I went to my weekly appointment and when the doctor finally came in to see me the first thing she said was, "your blood pressure is a little high so I want you to head on over to the hospital and get checked out". I was surprised by this and she said that my BP was borderline severe and potentially dangerous. They kept asking if I was dizzy or if I had a headache. I had neither symptom and looking back wish I would have just had them check my BP again. The nurse who originally took it did it manually and put the cuff over my bulky sweater and I just had a feeling it was a fluke. When I walked out of my doctors office I almost thought about just driving home but second guessed that decision because ultimately I wanted Sawyer (and myself) to be safe.
I headed over to the hospital and called my mom on the way to see if she could come pick up Tucker because he was over being trapped in a doctors office and I had no idea how long they were going to monitor me and Sawyer. I was not expecting to have a baby that day. I called Jeremy and told him not to worry and everything was fine and that he didn't need to come be with me but he of course rushed to be by my side. He's a keeper that one.😍
The maternity ward was pretty full so Tucker and I were in the waiting room for quite awhile before they took us back to a "makeshift" room. Sure enough, once I had my blood pressure checked it was perfectly normal. They still wanted to keep me for a bit to monitor me and the baby. My mom came to take Tucker home and Jeremy was there and we were discussing where we were going to go for dinner since Tucker was home with my mom.😂 Eventually the doctor on call (the only one out of 6 physicians I had never seen at the office but ultimately my favorite!) came in to see me and said, "are you ready to have a baby today?". My response was, "ummm, no not really!". She wanted to know why and I said it was because I wanted to eat dinner and shower and she said, "oh well you can do that!". Jeremy and I got all excited thinking we were going to have a dinner date out (at Outback - the Blooming Onion was really calling our name) and that we could have one last good nights sleep at home before having a newborn in the house. She laughed and said, "oh, you're not going anywhere!" She meant I could eat dinner and use their shower. Not quite the same thing. As the news sunk in we called in our dinner order to Outback and Jeremy picked it up and brought it back to the hospital. We shared a Blooming Onion and a cheeseburger. It was so delicious.
I got moved into a real room and was given a pill to start induction around 9:30pm on the 27th. I remember thinking that it would have made more sense to go home and get a good nights sleep and come back to be induced in the morning but for whatever reason they started it that night. Needless to say I didn't get much sleep. Around 5am Jeremy called my mom who was still at our house with Tucker and my step dad to let her know we were getting close and to head back to the hospital. This time around as soon as the contractions became intense I asked for the epidural because you never know how long it will take for them to get to you and if this delivery was anything like the last, my body was going to get ready pretty quickly.
Getting the epidural both times has been the worst part of the whole experience but for different reasons. For Sawyer's delivery it was awful because my contractions were so intense and painful that it was difficult to sit up and stay still while I was getting it. They checked how things were progressing after I got the epidural and sure enough I was 10cm dilated and it was go time. Jeremy said I pushed a total of 9 times and Sawyer was here.
The moment they lay your baby on your chest is unlike any other. I love that with the sound of my voice I can calm and comfort them and it's so amazing to finally see the one who's been moving inside you for so long. Sawyer latched right away and I got to hold him for over an hour before they took him to check his weight, height, etc. It made me sad (again) that I didn't get to experience that with Tucker but I'm so thankful I did with Sawyer.
Jeremy's parents came to see us that morning and later that evening we had some more visitors. My parents came back and brought Tucker to meet his new baby brother. He was pretty happy to see me and didn't care much about Sawyer. Almost three months in and he's still not all that thrilled with him if I'm being honest!😂
Sawyer has been a great sleeper right from the start. I had to wake him up for every feeding in the hospital and he slept until 5am a couple times the first week when I accidentally slept through my alarm. On Friday we got to go home and begin our new normal. My dad and step mom were up from Tennessee and stayed with us through the weekend. It was nice to have help with Tucker so we could focus on Sawyer for the first few days. Tucker has never been super clingy or jealous if I'm paying attention to another child so I wasn't really expecting too much when we brought Sawyer home. Boy was I wrong. He really struggled for about two weeks and still has his moments but I know one day he'll be a great big brother and I can't wait to watch the two of them play together!
These photos were taken when Sawyer was 12 days old by
Lauren Marie Photography and I can't get over how much he's already grown and changed in just 2.5 short months! He's an angel baby and if we had had him first we'd be those first time parents who think we know exactly what we're doing! I'm not a first time mom so I do have that going for me but I definitely thought the transition from 0-1 kids was harder than 1-2. When you're already living in a circus a little more crazy doesn't make much of a difference!😂
Sawyer will be 3 months old in 2 weeks but I can't believe we ever lived life without him here. While I'm anxious to see him grow and his personality shine through I'm trying to soak up every second I can of the baby snuggles. Time is a thief and it's already flying by!
