All of a sudden my little baby boy is 6 months old & there is weeping

I can’t believe I am writing this blog post. I am crying as I write. I can’t tell you how smitten I am with this little boy. Oh my goodness. It’s overwhelming. We find ourselves gushing over him constantly (his sisters included!). I watch Nick come home from a long day at work and immediately upon seeing Roman, something lifts, and it’s like Ro gives him that extra spark he needed to get through the rest of the day. He does that to all of us. He is so squishy, sweet, and so…baby. These 6 months have flown by. Please slow down, time. Please. You’re killing me.

How did my baby go from this:

to this??

Roman is the biggest joy in our home. While he has been our hardest baby out of the 3 (he’s really inconsistent), he’s still the easiest child we have right now. :)

At 6 months Roman:

weighs around 18lbs and is in the 69%
he is in the 3% for height! adorable
has been exclusively breast-fed. he doesn’t like bottles!
loves being kissed on the mouth. LOVES IT

hates being on his back
sleeps on his tummy
thinks his big sisters are amazing
pretty equally loves mama and papa. I love this about him
still sucks on his two middle fingers (on either hand)
always smells a little bit like sweat (which melts me into one huge puddle)

has crazy bed head all day
takes great naps
loves listening to music and being sung to
loves jumping in his bouncer or jumperoo
bath time is his absolute favorite thing to do

can not stay awake for more than 1.5 hours at a time. we have a sleepy baby!
rolls over from back to tummy and sometimes vice versa
drools all the time
is in love with his hands (and anyone else’s!)
doesn’t really like many toys

I love you Roman! Happy 6 months!

Roman’s birth as told by our birth photographer

My friend and photographer’s view of Roman’s birth. It’s amazing. Thank you, Chelsey, for capturing this truly miraculous day.

All images Chelsey Hawes Photography©

Part 3 :: Roman’s birth story

Part 1
Part 2

I knew from the get go that my midwife and friend, Jessica Rowan, would not be there to deliver my son that Saturday. It was hard to wrap my mind around. She had been there for me since before Belle was born and not having her there to deliver my next child was painful. She is such a rock to me; calm, collected, informative, and encouraging. I did find out later that she seriously considered skipping the wedding she was going to just so she could be there for me. I’m glad she stuck to her plans because I know it was important for her and her husband, but I love that she loves me. In a nutshell, someone I didn’t know would be delivering my baby.

 In the birthing room I decided to try a birthing ball. It was ok. I ended up standing and bending over the bed when I would have a contraction but sat on it in between which felt nice.

I was so tired. Giving birth is no joke. I met the midwife who was going to deliver my baby; Erika. I also had another midwife in there, Peggy, who was there to help Erika since she was new to their practice. They were both very kind. A bit civil and straightforward, though. They weren’t in the room a lot. They came in to check on me and then would leave.

Lisa asked me if I wanted to keep pacing the room but I was wearing out and wanted to lay down for a bit.

Lisa left to feed her son, Nathaniel, around 9:30am. I can’t stress enough how tired I was. Physically, emotionally, mentally. I really wanted to do this naturally again like I had with Belle (that was a surreal experience). However, I felt done. I started considering getting an epidural. I pulled Nick close in between a contraction and told him what I was thinking. His words? “I think you should do it. It will keep your mom and I from crying anymore while watching you in all this pain.” I don’t know why I felt ashamed to do this but I did. Eventually I felt brave enough and I asked the nurse how far was too far along to get an epidural. She said if I wanted it, it would be best to act on it quickly. I made the decision. I was done. I was tired. I got an epidural around 10/10:30am. I was almost 8cm dilated.

Now I was freezing. They piled heated blankets on top of me. My midwife asked me if I wanted to take a nap. Um. No. I was there to have a baby. Just because I had an epidural didn’t mean I was bowing out! It felt so weird to labor without feeling my labor. My midwife said I was having very regular contractions. The rest felt nice though. I got to talk to my support team and close my eyes to build back up my strength. Around 11ish (Lisa was back now), Nick called Alex Dunn and asked him to bring food for them all. Lisa asked me if I wanted water, to which I said yes, and she proceeded to pull out her phone and take pictures of me instead. Apparently I found this hilarious. Yes, that’s a laugh face not a contraction face. And look at my IV hand…oh my gosh I hate IVs.

I started missing my girls. Nick decided to FaceTime with them before the baby boy was born so we could explain what was going on and why we weren’t there. It was such a sweet time. Soon they were going to have a baby brother and it wouldn’t be just “the girls” anymore! Solace kept saying “the baby’s comin’!”

Around 11:30 or so my midwife came in to tell me that she and Peggy would be assisting a c-section soon. She said she was going to check me to see how far along I was. I was 10cm. She asked me if we could do a “test push” to determine how long it was going to take me to deliver. As I pushed she says, “oh wow ok yeah. This is probably gonna be a 2 pusher. Can you just hold on for a second? Yeah, we have to get ready.” Bizzare. That’s what I remember saying right after. Not only was I not feeling my contractions, but apparently I was far enough along in my labor that they had to stop me because they weren’t ready yet!

During that first push, my nurse said they noticed some meconium so they were going to have another nurse on hand when I birthed him just in case anything went wrong. I think my heart rate dropped. That made me really nervous. She was so comforting though and stopped, looked me in the face and told me to be calm and they were going to do everything in their power to make sure my baby was fine.

In the end, I pushed 13 times over the course of 7 minutes. He was born at 12:08pm. (9 hours of labor) When the laid him on my chest, he wasn’t crying and I wanted to cry. They cleaned out his mouth and nose and rubbed his back vigorously. I talked to him and told him I was there and would he please cry? When he did finally, there were huge cheers from everyone and I felt myself relax. My boy. My sweet boy was here. Nick cut the cord and I got to hold him closer to my face.

Remember that food everyone ordered for lunch? Immediately after Roman was born, there was a knock at the door. It was Alex with lunch! Haha. We all completely forgot about it. Nick got the door and food, thanked Alex and told him Roman had just been born so he couldn’t come in! Oh my…thanks Alex!

I held Roman under my clothes, on my skin, for the next 2 hours before we weighed him or anyone else held him. He slept so sweetly and smelled so good. They stitched me up during this time because of course I tore. However, they didn’t tell me how badly it was. (I found out 6 weeks postpartum from Jessica that I tore about a 2 on a scale of 1-4.) Then I nursed him. They said he would probably get in a good 10 minutes which would be great. He ended up nursing for half an hour! We were all shocked and so happy. They finally weighed him and measured his height and he came in at 8 lbs 10 oz, 19 1/4 in long (my shortest baby!). Nick finally got to hold his son then.

Some of the sweetest memories of Roman’s birth was that my mom got to be a part of the whole thing. She had always arrived a day or two after the girls were born. Also, my dad got to the hospital straight from the airport (thanks Andy Wambem! That’s the second time he has visited after one of our babies was born) only 3 hours after Roman was born. He was actually the 3rd person to hold Roman! I will always cherish the fact that they were there. He also brought me Chick-fil-a :).

We had kept the middle names a secret from our parents the entire pregnancy. You see, August is Nick’s dad’s middle name and Clark is my dad’s middle name. We wanted to honor our dads (with a twist) but didn’t want them to find out until he was born. It was so special to surprise them with that.

Everyone one had left (my parents went to take care of our girls) and it was just us with Roman. They moved me to my postpartum room and we rested and ate and stared at our son. We also FT’d with Nick’s family and introduced them to their new grandson and told them his full name as well!

The dazed “what just happened, why am I in pain” look:

We had some visitors later in the evening. First being our girls :) They were so, so, so excited to meet Roman, that they fought over holding him and Nick had to take Belle out to calm her down!

Dan, Emily, Abby, and Randy + Lisa came afterwards with Met Market pizza and treats. Then Randy prayed over Roman. It was beautiful. What an amazing day.

I love you Roman August Clark! I loved my experience with you.

Part 2 :: Roman’s birth story

Part 1

When they finally came to get me, I had had several more painful contractions and was no longer worried that this was a false alarm. I know my body. I knew this was it. Unfortunately they didn’t allow me to walk up to the 14th floor of the hospital (if they had, I’m sure Roman would have come much faster). Wheelchair bound, they took me up to the triage room with my mom, Nick, Chelsey, and Lisa following behind.

Nick kept timing my contractions for me which were getting closer and closer together. Once you get to having your third baby, those sweet little contractions that get you so excited that your baby is coming don’t last very long. Your body goes headlong into the intolerable.

In the triage room they again asked me to pee in a cup. I get that they want to check for infection but it’s so annoying. They began to ask me tons of questions which I answered as well as I could in between contractions. I now had to bend down practically with my head between my knees and breathe in and out loudly while swaying back and forth.

  

They asked me this time before I was pushing my baby out if I wanted to touch his head and I got to nip that in the bud pretty quickly. I will touch his head when I’m holding him in my arms for the first time.

The view from our room was beautiful!

I was drinking lots of water after every contraction. Lisa held my cup for me and practically kept forcing water down my throat. Which I am thankful for. :) The nurse asked me to get on the bed so she could check how far dilated I was. It was really difficult to get on the bed. My belly was so large and my contractions were so painful. However, as soon as I laid down on the bed, my contractions slowed waaaay down. This was common throughout the rest of my labor. Any time I would sit down or lay down, my contractions would lessen significantly. It was nice to give myself little breaks when it seemed unbearable.

I was 6 cm dilated now. I had been laboring for about 4.5 hours. It felt longer of course and I was already getting impatient. So when they asked if I wanted to sit in a wheelchair to get to the birthing room or walk, I chose walking. It was a slow go, but my support team was incredible. Every time I would stop to have a contraction in the hallway, I could hear everyone encouraging me and telling me how great I was doing. My nurse in the picture below was amazing.

When we got to the birthing room, everyone was hungry. I was too but not enough to actually want to eat. I think I remember someone asking me if any smells would bother me but I never answered. Lisa went down to the cafe in the hospital and picked up breakfast sandwiches + coffee. We found out later that she totally forgot to pay for the food! Haha. But she paid for the coffee! Once back in the room with the food, I labored to the smell of eggs. I didn’t think it would bother me but yuck. That was hard to tolerate. I didn’t want to complain though because c’mon, I was the one having a baby and couldn’t eat, not them! I needed everyone on top of their game for me. This was around 8am.

Part 1 :: Roman’s birth story

There’s no easy way to say this. We had sex the night before Roman was born. We didn’t do this with either of the girls in order to induce labor, but it totally worked this time. Uncomfortable and awkward? Yes. Even more awkward that my mom had encouraged us to try this and she was downstairs at the time? Yes, please. But it worked! -_-

So in the middle of the night around 3:00 am I woke up feeling kinda crampy and was very confused. Marley was laying on my huge pregnant stomach, because that’s the perfect place to sleep. I thought it was because he was on me and just ignored it. I closed my eyes and felt crampy again and finally said to myself, “duh, Beck. You’re one day overdue and you had sex last night. You’re having contractions!” I rode it out for about 2 hours. I figured if this was the real deal, I had better get as much rest as I could. At about 5:00am I called Nick on the phone (he had been sleeping downstairs on the couch for 6 weeks because I needed the whole bed to sleep at night!). He answered super groggily and I asked him if he could make me some pancakes. Haha. He says, “Sure babe, are you ok besides that?” I said yep and I’ve also been having contractions for the past two hours. And then Nick turned into “I’m about to become a father (for the 3rd time) Nick” and promptly started freaking out. I love this about him.

Pancakes arrived and I ate them in bed in between contractions. He started to take over timing my contractions for me.

My mom was sleeping in Paige’s room next to ours so I texted her that she should get ready because this was it.

We began to find childcare because we’re awesome and already had that planned out. Not. Paige was out of the country and Dan was working! I texted Lisa to let her know what was happening. We also let our birth photographer, and friend, Chelsey Hawes know that she should get ready to head to the house (or hospital, which ended up being the case).

I got up and went to get myself ready to leave. Very slowly, I might add. Every time I would move I would have a contraction. Brushing my teeth was essential. Nick said Monika Scheffe was coming to watch the girls until someone else could come. (Andrew & Annalea Cirillo and then Bryan Green took over after until my parents came back home.)

I was still talking in between and sometimes during contractions when Lisa got to my house. We were all hanging out in our upstairs bathroom and I was still just in my underwear which was very funny to me. However, Lisa was like seriously, Becky, you need to go to the hospital. Always the voice of reason. :)

I still couldn’t believe it was happening. My hospital bag was actually packed. I hadn’t forgotten my boppy. Nick threw crap in a bag and got it all in the car. The hospital is about 8-9 minutes away. I did not have a contraction the whole drive there. I was panicking. What if this was a false alarm? What if I was going to stay pregnant forever?? We arrived to the emergency room around 6:15am. We checked in and I started walking around the ER in an attempt to keep my contractions going. That sounds so bizarre. It was at the time too. Lisa, Nick, and my mom just stared at me while I walked and would tell me to keep walking when I would stop. Obviously, everyone wanted this baby to come today!

Part 2

And now I have a son

Roman August Clark Laparra

November 8, 2014
8 lbs 10 oz
19 1/4″ long
9 hours of labor

Wow. I don’t even know what to say.

I really struggled to get excited during my whole pregnancy about having a boy. I had no idea what to expect and I am used to girls. I am so glad I have a little boy. Oh my goodness. I can’t describe the feeling.

I want to take him with me everywhere. I miss him when I’m not holding him. He is such a snuggler and he loves to eat. He’s had no trouble putting on weight! It’s really nice to have a baby that makes nursing easier!

Now he is one week old!

We are all obsessed with him. Solace and Belle love him and have accepted him much more readily than I could have hoped. Especially Belle. I thought she would loathe another baby in the house, but it turns out, she is sweeter with him than even Solace!

We have liked the name Roman since we got married. It was just about the only boy name we agreed on, besides his middle names, however. We have loved them for a very long time. August is Nick’s dad’s middle name and Clark is my dad’s middle name. We wanted to honor our dads but with a twist. :)

We have been having so much fun with him. Now don’t misunderstand me, 3 kids under 3 years old is hard. Oh my goodness. I really don’t know how we will survive after my mom leaves! I’m trying really hard not think about it.

I still can’t believe I have a son!