Going home.

We were excited to come home from the hospital to our other four kiddos, and so thankful my mom was there taking such great care of them!

This was the first hospital that just let us go by ourselves. Every other time I've had to ride in a wheelchair with the car seat on my lap and we were escorted out and our bracelets checked one last time and someone would check and make sure we put the car seat in right. This time after the paperwork was done they cut off the bracelets and said good luck. It was kind of nice!

Our welcoming committee was very excited indeed.

Scooter really missed me and jumped in the car as soon as the door opened. Silly dog.

Cute kids.

It was good to get home to these smiling faces!

At the hospital

Even though the hospital stay after having a baby isn't very restful, it's always a special time getting to know a sweet new baby. The hospital we were at was pretty great and we loved spending a few days with sweet baby Sullivan!

 First bath

 He didn't spend much time in here :)

Our family of 7!

First meeting

My mom had the kids a few blocks away at the zoo when Sullivan was born so we called her when we were ready and the kids got to meet their new brother when he was about one hour old. They were all pretty excited to meet their new brother!

Sullivan's birth

I didn't expect this babe to be too late considering I'd been dilated to a 3 for a few weeks, but he had other plans. Once I was a week overdue my doctor scheduled an induction for Saturday the 19th at 11:30am. All week I had been telling the kids, "Good night. I love you. Maybe when you wake up daddy and I will be at the hospital!" Friday night came and we all went to bed. At 2:45 I woke up with a really strong contraction followed by a big gush. I got out of bed and hurried to the bathroom. I turned the light on and my heart almost stopped when I saw there was a lot of blood everywhere and a few large blood clots. It was on the sheets,  the carpet,  down the hallway and in the bathroom.  I called to Brian and he hurried in and I said, "I think everything is okay, but we need to go now!" We grabbed the suitcase, woke up my mom (who cleaned up the mess..... thank heaven for moms!) and we drove off. On the way I was really scared but trying not to freak out. My water has never broken on it's own before but I was pretty sure it wasn't normal to have that much blood with it. We got to the emergency entrance and I hurried in while Brian parked and met me a few minutes later. They quickly got a monitor on the baby and found a good strong heartbeat so that was a huge relief. A doctor in residency came in and did some sort of test to see if they could figure out where the blood was coming from. Let me just say that she did something wrong while using a speculum and it was seriously painful. Ouch! I couldn't help myself from yelling out, "Are you pinching me!? Is that pinching me?!" When the doctor left the nurse apologized and said that didn't go very well. Ugh.

Anyway, they kept a close watch on baby's heartbeat and took us up to labor and delivery. From about 3:15 to 8:30 Brian and I were walking around and around the hallway in labor and delivery while I was having contractions about every 6 minutes. The nurse asked what I wanted to do for pain management and I chose to do a natural delivery again. Which is what I did with both Miles and Wesley's birth. Which means I thought I was prepared to handle another natural birth. At about 8ish I was dilated to a 7 and still doing okay. The nurses were all surprised I was still walking around. It was great to have Brian by my side. About 8:45 I had to lie down on the bed and from then until delivery it felt pretty much like torture. I thought that going through 2 natural births before meant I was prepared to do it again, but this one was so much harder. With both Miles and Wesley's I was able to stay pretty focused and get through the contractions with breathing and focusing on letting my body do it's work and by the time I couldn't handle the pain it was pretty much time to push. Not this time! I hadn't prepared myself on how to handle this kind of pain. I couldn't stay focused and just wanted to scream and  rip my hair out (luckily I refrained from ripping my hair out). All I could do was keep telling myself that I could push this baby out in three more contractions. Then when three more passed I'd say it again and again. A few things I remember are; not knowing what to do with my hands and feeling like I wanted to do something with them, asking Brian not to breathe on my face, saying that the lady laboring next door was probably so happy she had an epidural after hearing me and being annoyed when the nurses kept telling me I was doing a great job.

Close to 10:30 it was time to get this baby out. The pushing is sometimes the hardest part, but this time I was so happy it was almost over I didn't even care how much it hurt. It didn't take extremely long to push Sullivan out and when he did he was covered in blood and there was a knot in his umbilical cord. The doctor also saw that my placenta had partially torn away, which was why I had been bleeding so much. Both of those situations could be dangerous, which has made me even more grateful for this sweet baby boy!

Sullivan is now over a week old and it's been such a great week. I could just sit and hold him and smell him all day (and pretty much do every night...) Looking at his perfect face and feeling so blessed to have him here in our family after wanting him here for so long (which I realize to many people was not long at all, but for us it was a long time!) There is nothing like having a sweet newborn in the house.

 In the labor room. Last pregnant picture.

This photo might be a little graphic to share, but it shows how bloody he was and the knot in his cord.

Sweet big baby boy.

Welcome little one!

Sullivan Nelson joined our family on July 19th at 10:30am. He weighed in at 8 pounds and 13 ounces and was 20 1/2 inches long. His weight wasn't the only surprise (doctors had all guessed between 7 1/2 and 8 pounds), he's our first baby to be born with hair! And it's brown! We're pretty happy in the Phillips household and are enjoying all the magic of having a newborn in the house.

This week.

My mom arrived a week ago - hooray! Unfortunately we are still waiting for a baby to arrive...

My mom flew in at 11 pm so Scooter got her all to himself that night, and he was pretty darn excited. Silly dog!

We walked to the Bait shop down by the lake for some ice cream.

We went on a nature walk and battled a gazillion mosquitos on the way.

I let my mom and the kids decorate my belly :)

My big boy helped me make some cookies.

My mom bought this mini trampoline for the kids and they are loving it.

We went to Sophie's last softball game before her tournament this weekend.

And bottled 16 jars of yummy peaches.

So although we are all sad we're not snuggling a tiny new baby we've managed to have a bit of fun! I'm 41 weeks today and have an induction scheduled for Saturday if nothing happens before then. I should have been a bit more prepared to go this late considering Wesley was 10 days late, but since I was dilated to a 2 at 36 weeks and a 3 at 39 weeks I had high hopes this little babe wouldn't be too late. Darn. But only a few more days at the latest so I'll survive.

40 weeks.

Yesterday was the due date for this little babe.  My mom arrived last night and now we are all waiting for this little guy to make an appearance! I'm hoping for some time this weekend. We are all pretty darn excited to meet our little guy! Come on baby!