Living Life On the Edge with Stan and Mel: Our Sterling and his first month

We welcomed our sweet Sterling David on January 8, 2016. I had had increasing contractions every day for a couple days but they would always peter out in the middle of the night and they weren't too painful. I had a doctor's appointment on January 7 and she stripped my membranes, just like we had done with Scott. Because she wanted to make sure that I got my medication dosage for Strep B, and because Scott had come so quickly that we weren't able to get all the medication before he came, she told me to go to the hospital as soon as my contractions were 7-10 minutes apart.

Well throughout the afternoon of the 7th, the contractions were getting more frequent, strong, and painful. I started prepping myself to do the whole birth thing again and by 10 that night told Stan I thought we should go in. My neighbor was super nice and came to spend the night here with Scott while we went. When we got to the hospital they wanted to monitor me for an hour to make sure I was really going into labor. Stan and I did what any couple waiting to have a child should do, watched Stargate Atlantis. The contractions increased just enough for them to admit me and so off we went to our room. They started the antibiotics and we watched more Stargate. We went to sleep for a while (more like Stan went to sleep and I was in and out of sleep a lot) :). But by the morning, my contractions had faded again and we were back to almost nothing. Since we had already gotten the medication we had to move forward with the birth so we did some pitocin to get the party started.

I really felt so blessed to have great help when Scott was born, and my experience with Sterling was no different. My doctor came on shift right before Scott was born and she came on shift a couple hours before Sterling was born. Our nurse, who we found out after it was all over with is the wife of a bishop in our church building, was such a blessing and so, so, so helpful. It took a couple hours to get the contractions going again, so they brought me some breakfast. It was the funniest breakfast I have ever had:

A popsicle, broth, and jello, yum!

By 9:30, the party was in full swing. I decided to go ahead and not do an epidural or anything since everything had turned out ok with Scott (as long as the labor wasn't longer than a couple hours. I'm not THAT strong). Stan was wonderful and stood by my side the whole time. He let me squeeze his had...until I was squeezing so hard it hurt. The nurse was awesome and would press pressure points in my feet and that made the contractions so much easier to deal with. Stan said I did much better at not screaming during this birth experience. Well at 10:02 we were able to welcome our sweet little boy. He was 8 lbs 1.4 oz and 21.25 inches long. Right away I could tell he had such a calm disposition. And he still does.

It looked like he had long hair like Scott but it went the couple weeks after he was born :(

Look at those big hands!

Awesome Dad

My parents were able to leave first thing in the morning and be with Scott while we were in the hospital. They brought him by to meet his little brother. Scott was pretty clingy to me but was all grins when we brought Sterling over. He kept pointing at Sterling's hands/feet/eyes/mouth/etc and saying baby. It was pretty cute.

My hand is in the way, but Scott has a big grin

This was the first time my dad was able to see and hold one of his grandchildren right after it was born. I love seeing my dad with babies. He just loves them so much.

Handsome after his first bath

Darker hair than Scott but so handsome!

He was such a calm baby in the hospital. In fact, the first night I woke up more because of the nurses coming in and out than because of him

Wearing his first outfit to head home

Goodbye hospital!

He's a finger sucker like Scott but he hasn't settled on which one is his favorite. He tries all sorts of funny combination

Scott loved having Grandma Merrill here and that she would constantly play with him.

I love the newborn laying on you stage.

5 days old and wide awake and bedtime

Sterling has always been one to put things straight to his mouth. He grabbed my thumb and in it went.

After my mom left, Stan stayed home from work for a couple days and was super dad making sure that I didn't do an ounce of work. He was so good at playing with Scott and taking care of all of us. Scott loved it!

This wrapping paper tubing made a fun toy

It was a slide into the dungeon for Scott's toy people. They played this game a lot

Making dinner and dessert with Dad.

When Sterling was six days old, Scott started to act super, super clingy and a little sick. Then he got a really bad fever.

That evening he fell asleep on me.

And we didn't think much of it, until I noticed he had a bunch of red dots randomly on him...and then Stan got some:

So both Scott and Stan had Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease and felt miserable and were in quarantine and a newborn. And then our fridge went out. We felt super grateful for technology and same day delivery, I was able to find one online and called and worked with the company to get it delivered that afternoon and all turned out ok. It was a crazy day/week, but we lived through it. I was also very grateful for a wonderful ward that helped us through it.