Another beautiful son

HOLDEN SCOTT SKARDA
December 9th, 2009











Weight: 7 lbs 6.2 oz
Length: 20 inches
He is wonderful and so sweet. He looks more like Steve than Griffin did...I am amazed that that is even possible, but it is. He is a snugglie and content baby. I am just in love with him and trying to soak up every minute of this newborn phase.

Griffin is just soooo cute with him. He helps me change his diaper and get the binkie and push the swing and always has a kiss for his baby brother, whenever he cries. The other day Holden was crying and Griffin kissed his forehead and said (in the most gentile voice) "you're alright...you have mom". I am so in love with my boys and am delighting in every moment with them.

On the icky side, his birth was VERY rough. I did not think that it could get worse than 52 hours of labor 2.5 hours of pushing, followed by a c-section and loosing 1/3 of my blood...but IT WAS. I was not at all scared when I was told that I would have a sheduled c-section. In fact, I took great comfort in thinking it would be a piece of cake. I could not have been more wrong. I was given a spinal block to numb me during the surgery. I was also given a topical anesthetic on my skin. Well, the spinal did not take and my Dr. nor I found out until after the first cut. I felt the entire surgery. The Dr.s and anesthesiologist had no choice but to proceed to deliver the baby through the pain and my SCREAMING. They had already cut me, so it was too late to flip me over and try the spinal again, and they could not put me under all the way because of the risk to the baby. They worked very fast but that 4 minutes was the worst pain I have ever felt! My poor husband was in room. He was begging them to help me and trying to comfort me but he was as scared as I was. For the next 3 days, I could not walk or feel ANYTHING down my right leg. They had 2 specialists and a physical therapist come and no one knew what was going to happen or IF it would ever be normal again. As it turned out...what had happened was that the spinal some how traveled down a nerve and caused the numbness. It is fine now... but how scary!!!
All in all this recovery has been hard, made harder by the fact that my husband had to go back to the Oil Rig 3 days after for 2 weeks, (which really a huge blessing since only 6 people, out of thousand whom were laid off, where called back to work) but I am getting through it and all thou getting him here was so hard, I have never been happier and have the most delicious feeling of completeness.