Happy half birthday to my little Sean! It's been a crazy but wonderful 6 months.
I never posted his whole birth story. Here are two little excerpts from it I wanted to share. The first from when I first saw him/held him and the second about naming him. (remember - birth stories can be a little TMI so if that bothers you then don't read! I did edit a little . . )
Excerpt #1:
"The nurse got the Dr. and Midwife and the Dr. checked me, a 10! no lip! Baby at +1. She asked me to give a little push just to see what would happen, yep the baby would come! I was shocked. I looked at Jared, he smiled. I started to tear up, not really out of fear but just out of joy and excitement that the baby was going to be here so soon. I felt very close to Heaven and could feel the spirit reassure me as I looked at Jared. They got all set up and I started pushing at 3:40. The next few minutes went so amazingly well. Definitely night and day from my first labor. Pushing was actually really easy, I held onto the handles on the side of the bed - LOVED that. I curled over the baby and I was pushing so well the nurse didn’t even have to count to 10. It took less than 10 minutes and about 5 contractions maybe and our second baby boy was born at 3:47pm. Straight from Heaven.
I could just see the dr holding his little body, I could see his back and then he was up on my chest. Still no cry. The nurses were stimulating him and I was trying to get my hand out from under my gown I knew if I touched him he’d cry. I got my hand on his perfect, smooth warm back and the crying began. He was ok, he was perfect. He stayed on my chest for a long time. Jared kissed me and all the while was doing video and pictures like a pro.
After a minute or two I was able to lift him up to see his face. He was SO handsome but I was shocked a little because he looked nothing like Max. I had a feeling they would look different but it was just so clear even then. First was the baby’s nose, his nostrils were just different. Also the shape of his chin and cheeks and the spacing of his eyes, just everything! Very thin light eyelashes. But their hair is about the same as newborns. Dark and pretty straight. The hairline is different however, Max’s was a little thinner maybe. Anyway. I held him for a good few minutes and Jared cut the cord. They weighed him - 8lbs 6oz! Not too big for going a week over. (according to my calculations he was 4 days over) My midwife guessed upper 8’s at my appointment the day before. I guessed 8lbs 3oz. They brought him back for skin to skin, both Jared and myself held him skin to skin and they gave us a good hour of time. The baby (I keep calling him that because we hadn’t named him yet) was crying on and off the whole time. About an hour after he was born I had the strong desire to start nursing him. He latched on like a champ."
Excerpt #2:
The next morning. . .
"We spent the rest of the day as a family, just talking and taking pictures and video. We posted pictures online and sent texts. I told Jared we needed to start calling him Sean. He said, “ok, you’re ready to do this?” We’d been talking about the name Sean for just the last two or three weeks. A couple Sundays ago, when I was 38 weeks we were talking about names in the car on the way to Jared’s parents for dinner. I was really just gettings so frustrated with finding a name. I loved so many but Jared didn’t have a good feeling about ANY of them. Jared had a couple but I really didn’t like any of them either. We were really considering Anthony on this day but couldn’t agree on whether or not to call him Tony. I liked Theo but Jared wanted to name him Theodore and then call him Theo but I wasn’t really feeling it. I still loved Nixon, Hudson, Oliver, Royce, Jameson and Vincent (which is what I’d been calling him all along) but then on this drive Jared brought up how I really liked the name Sean when we were talking about names for Max and even before we were pregnant the first time. I thought about it, I still liked it. Jared said he did too. As we parked at his parents house he said, “so that’s it then, Sean?” I wasn’t ready to call it good just then, but that was the moment that we both agreed on the name. It simmered in my head and my heart for the next couple weeks. For a day or so I really considered Ethan, another on Jared’s list. We also kind of wanted an Irish/Scottish name like Maxwell. As we got closer and closer to the end of the pregnancy I really felt like Sean was the name he was supposed to have, and I felt strongly it needed to be spelled the traditional Irish/Gaelic way. I also kind of love that it has the letters S-E-A because he was born by the sea. The birth certificate paperwork had been dropped off earlier and while Jared was taking a nap I filled it out, Sean Jared White. Jared had written it up on a white board in the room earlier, along with Sean Spencer White. I told him he could choose the middle name either Jared or Spencer (his first and middle name). He liked Sean Jared, later he had a moment where he said we could do Sean Spencer, but then went back to Sean Jared, I like it too. I already had that on the birth certificate anyway. I was so happy to have a little boy named after my husband. When it was official, I texted the family."
Some things to remember about 6 month Sean:
- he rolls all over, sleeps on his tummy
- he screeches a very loud scream when happy, sad, or wanting attention
- he LOVES his brother and his brother loves him. They smile when they see each other every morning. Max always tell me, "baby is so little!", really at least once a day. They make each other laugh and when Max cries I know it's only a matter of seconds before Sean will curl his little lip and start crying too! (Thankfully it doesn't go the other way around). When Sean cries Max will either say, "no screaming in the house!", "baby time ouuuuttt", "it's ok baby Sean" or "Mommy, baby is tired."
- he also loves his Daddy. We've had the boys in the same room for the first half of the night since Thanksgiving but in the morning Sean is in our room. I pull him out of his bed and on to my tummy when he wakes up. He sees Jared laying there asleep and just goes crazy! He tries to say "Hiii, Hiiiii" and laugh to get his attention, but Daddy is a very heavy sleeper. Sometimes Sean is fussy a little and then Jared walks through the door and he completely forgets whatever was bothering him and is all smiles.
- He still has blue eyes, no teeth. His hair is straight and wispy, light brown but blonde in the sun. No more bald spot.
- He has a funny laugh where no sound comes out but if your holding him you can feel the laugh in his tummy. We love it.
- He loves his hands, he talks to them and will hold toys and bring them to his mouth, although he doesn't seem to be as orally fixated as his brother was at this age.
- He is very grabby, he will grab anything in his reach.
- He has tried rice cereal with breast milk, with water, and with water/apple juice. He has also tried yellow squash and carrot purees but he isn't really a fan of any of them yet. Maybe we'll have better luck with sweet potatoes, next on our list.
- He is a SWEETHEART and I can't get enough of his soft belly and rolly legs. I spend the most time cleaning the creases in his legs when I bathe him (he loves the tub too!).
