John Maxwell Wardlow
Born October 14, 2009
7 pounds 1 ounce
20 3/8 inches long
4:24 pm
Dark Brown Hair
Precious as EVER!
The Pregnancy: Max's pregnancy flew by and went very smoothly. I gained 25 pounds total and had more heartburn than I could have ever imagined! When I think back to this pregnancy I will always think of sleepless nights downing Tums! I assumed the constant heartburn would mean that Max would have hair, and sure enough he does! Overall, the pregnancy went by in a blink of an eye and as I stare at my new little baby boy I can't believe he is already here!
The Name: Oh, the name. If you know me very well you know I take the task of naming our children extremely seriously! To the point where I am 100% positive I drove many close family and friends absolutely insane. John is obviously my husband's name but it is also a big name in both of our families. My great grandfather was John Oliver Michael, hence the name of the wedding facility that my parents own and that I work at The John Oliver Michael House. John's mothers side of the family also had a John, whom my husband was named after. Maxwell is John's fathers middle name and "Max" is his great great grandfather's name. So this little sweetie has quite the "family name" and just BELIEVE me when I tell you it was a very hard decision. I always knew if we had another boy it would be a challenge and a challenge it was!!!
The Birthday: We were able to choose Max's birthday! Dr. Leach said we could induce as early as Sunday, October 11th. We wanted Thursday the 15th but the doctor made out of town plans (not cool!), so we basically were able to choose a date from Sunday the 11th through Wednesday the 14th. John wanted it to be close to the end of the week as possible and I wanted to either do Sunday or Wednesday. I wanted Sunday because I was ready to hold my sweet baby but I wanted Wednesday because it was closer to his due date. So we went with Wednesday, October 14th.
Interesting fact: When choosing an induction date it came down to the 11th and 14th. The 11th of October is Max Wardlow (John's great great grandfather's birthday) and the 14th is John's dad's birthday. So in the 365 days of this year it actually came down to the two days that are also the birth days of the two grandfather's who share Max's name. That sounds so confusing, did you follow that one!?
The Labor and Delivery: The labor and delivery went absolutely wonderful! Max's big brother Brooks paved quite the way for our little 7 pounder. I was induced around 8 am Wednesday morning. Contractions came IMMEDIATELY and I asked for the epidural shortly after. One contraction made me nauseated and that was enough for me to request the drugs! I do not tolerate pain very well, let's just be honest! We basically waited on the doctor to come check me. We thought he would be in at noon but he actually came at 2 pm. He broke my water and went back to his office. After he broke my water I kept telling my sister that I felt like something was happening but I decided to just wait on the nurse because she said she would be in to check me in 30 minutes. When she came to check me he was crowning! So, we called the doctor and the nurse prepared herself to deliver the baby without my doctor. Thankfully, Max held out and one doctor arrival and quick push later, he was born! PS: I am so pleased with my decision to switch doctors. I was sad to not have the same doc deliver both boys but Dr. Leach was awesome and I know he played a huge part in making the pregnancy and delivery go so great!
Afterwards: Funny thing about having a second child. For me, everything has been ten times easier. The pregnancy, the labor and delivery, recovery and nursing him. After I had Brooks I felt like everything was super fast and easy... until I had Max! I felt great shortly after his arrival and everything since then has gone very well. He is such a good baby! And Brooks is such a good big brother!
Big Brother Brooks: Brooks loves little Max so much. I often find him helping him with his pacifier, covering him up and mostly giving him slobbery open mouth kisses. The first few days at home were pretty rocky because Brooks had pink eye so he was not able to get close to Max. It was hard for him to understand why he couldn't get near him. Now he is used to him and calls him "Maxey" or "My Max." He is very protective of his little brother and while I have to constantly remind him to be gentle with Max, he has taken to him very well and I do not think of him as jealous at all. I feel like he is just as excited to have Max here as we are and he is a super sweet big brother. Yesterday I was putting makeup on in my bathroom and Max was in his bouncy. I looked over and Brooks was covering him with his blanket (which is a huge improvement, usually he takes his blanket away), and he leaned over and kissed Max on the forehead and said "I wuv you, Maxy." Talk about melting my heart!
I have a new computer that is photo free, but most of my readers have seen photos on FB or my sister's website. We are planning 1 month pics for little Max and I am so excited to get those done! I hope to be able to blog more often about our new little family of four but right now, I have to get back to my mom/wife/wedding planning duties!!!
