Welcoming Huxley

Although we'll never forget the day that Huxley was born, I still wanted to write a post to help us remember the small details that will likely fade with time.   Please feel free to skip ahead to the photos if you want to opt out of the labor narrative.

Our adventure started on Tuesday, October 25 at 11pm when my water broke as we were getting into bed.  We had just returned from a delicious french dinner with several friends and my first thought was how glad I was this didn't happen in the restaurant!  We grabbed our hospital bags and made our way to the birth clinic where Dr. Lin confirmed that yes my water broke and that we should stay at the clinic and see if contractions started naturally.  Ten hours later I was only having very small contractions about every 20-30 mins so we opted to use prostaglandins to start the labor process.

By 5:30pm we were finally making some progress and very suddenly the contractions were one after another and I was desperate and swearing for an epidural.  Unfortunately the anesthesiologist took about 45 minutes to arrive which felt like days to me.   I received the epidural at around 7pm and afterwards I finally let the nurses examine me and was informed that I was already 10 cm dilated.   Our doula said that progressing this fast through dilation is very rare especially for a first child and not something she was used to seeing.

The epidural really slowed down the contractions which was actually a bit of a relief because I needed a physical and mental break to build my confidence back up for the pushing.  After lots of pushing, encouragement from Jeff, and several declarations to the Dr. that I really needed a C-section, Huxley Beau was born at 11pm on Wednesday, October 26.  We were so relieved and overwhelmed with emotions and love once we heard his first cries and saw him open his beautiful eyes.  He weighed 6 lbs, 13 oz and was 18.5 inches tall at birth, had a full head of hair (although not quite as much as his Taiwanese companions in the nursery), dark blue eyes, and of course was the most adorable baby we'd ever seen.

We stayed for 3 days in the clinic which was perfect for bonding with little Hux as there were no chores to distract us from cuddling our new son.  Our room was really large and we had a foldout bed for Jeff, a private bathroom/shower, a mini fridge, and surprisingly delicious and healthy hospital food (pics below).

Huxley's first night

Such kissable cheeks!

My handsome men!

Postpartum nutrition is taken very seriously in Taiwan.  Each meal consisted of 5 or 6 dishes aimed to help Mom recover and build up her milk supply - lots of bone broths, veggies, protein, and herbal teas.

I usually wasn't able to finish the meal so Jeff got some of the leftovers to help with his recovery as well.

Our friend and an uber talented photographer, Rebecca of Hunnicutt Photography came for an "in-clinic" photoshoot and we were blown away at the wonderful memories she captured.  Looking through them still brings tears to my eyes.   Below are some of my favorites.

Hux bundled up for his first trip home!

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