The Smerks: Welcome to the World, Baby Marcus!

July 30th at 7:39pm Marcus Emmitt Smerk graced us with his presence. He weighed a whopping 5lbs 9 oz and was 18 inches long. ...and with blonde hair...yes, he has hair, almost as much as Cassie has right now.

We were admitted to Harris Fort Worth at 8pm on Sunday and started cervidil throughout the night, then pitocin on Monday morning. I was able to contract through Sunday night, but nothing to write home about. WARNING: if you do not want to read about my Epidural then skip to the next paragraph....Around 10:30 am we called for an epidural, why be in pain if you don't have to. It is a good thing we started when we did, since I have a history of hard to place epidurals. My first, very experienced nurse anesthesiologist, thought he had a success on his second attempt for which my disks gave him great difficulties, but after about and hour and multiple doses and going through the checklist, we all determined I still had feeling. At least this made the contractions feel weaker which got me through the next few hours. Yes, hours. The second nurse anesthesiologist, the other guy was called into a c section, removed his catheter and started over moving up my spine. After her second attempt, she was willing to admit her limits, and my disk difficulty, and called in another anesthesiologist from a different department, "The big guns". Whoo hoo, right? Not so much. :( He proceeded further up my spine with everyone watching, and having some difficulties too. I think on his first attempt the needle popped back out - is that possible? But, he finally was able to successfully insert the catheter and I had a working Epidural, but not without caution. I was fully warned about an epidural headache that might present itself in a couple of days, but can be combated with lots of caffeine and water. Side note, the new cookies and cream frappuccino is delicious. So, 3 anesthesiologists, 6 stabbing attempts, and over three hours later, I had a successful epidural. And, it is a good thing to according to my doctor, but that will come later.

So after the epidural dramma, we rested, and waited, and rested, and waited, and slept a little. Sometime before dinnertime, my doctor (the one i've been seeing throughout the pregnancy and Cassie's too) came in and broke my water and inserted an internal contraction monitor. Over the next few hours my nurse continued to bump up my pitocin until a little after 7pm I started to feel pressure. I called her in and we decided to start pushing to see where we were. One contraction and push was enough for her to determine to stop and call the doctor. Luckily, with the epidural you can stop pushing and wait. The doctor came in and just about 4-5 contractions of pushing, Marcus was born.

WARNING: Don't read this unless you want to be grossed out. With Wesley, I had one, second degree tear, ripped my stitches the day I got home from the hospital and had a horrible recovery that still hurt 6 weeks later. With Cassie, the doctor preformed and episiotomy (a cut instead of letting the body tear). I warned him about my terrible tear recovery, and his stitches stayed in place and healed nicely. With Marcus, I told my doctor about both experiences, and I could tell she was thinking do I preform an episiotomy or not... she determined that the baby was small enough and with the third, I should be ok. I could tell she felt really bad afterward, becuse that was NOT the case. I had two horrible second degree tears and a hole. Yes, he ripped a hole in me. She was even surprised. How does a 5 pounder do so much damage? This is where the comment, it is a good thing I got an epidural, came in to place. Let's just say that she took her time, thought about how to make the repairs, and made a comment about putting her plastic surgery techniques to use. 1 hour and 40 minutes of stitching later, she was finished. All I can say right now is ouch.

Now for the part you have been waiting for, the pictures.