I got an extra-special present for Mother’s Day this year—Theodore Vincent Sparks decided to make his appearance a day early for the occasion!

Theo was born at 1:04pm after about 6 hours of labor and 30 minutes of pushing, 7lb 8oz. Not sure how clear it is from the above photo, but I had a natural water birth this time, although there was not sufficient time to fill up the large birthing tub at the hospital—we ended up using the regular bathtub in the delivery room instead! Theo did great and I didn’t need any stitches this time, but I had a postpartum hemorrhage and lost just over a liter of blood, so I ended up having an IV with fluids and pitocin afterwards.

This photo was taken when Theo was about 24 hours old. I recovered sufficiently from the hemorrhage that we were still able to be released after just one night at the hospital, and although I didn’t need any pain medication during or after the birth, it has definitely taken a while for me to recover my strength and I had some pretty significant swelling in my ankles, feet, and face that have only just begun subsiding at 2 weeks postpartum.

Nolan is handling all the changes about as well as we could possibly expect. He mostly ignores Theo, but has touched his ears, nose, and feet a few times, and has been saying “mama” and “baby” quite a lot. He’s also had some disrupted sleep patterns and has thrown a few major temper tantrums around wanting my attention when I am nursing Theo or am simply too exhausted to roughhouse with him. This would be a big adjustment for any 5- year old, and I am so proud of my big boy for handling the changes so well! (And why in the world did no one warn me that Nolan would suddenly seem so enormous when the baby arrived? I cannot get over how tall and heavy he is, and how BIG his hands and feet are compared to Theo!). And thank goodness for my mom and Jeremy—they have taken such good care of me and the boys during my recovery period.