Birth Story and Andrew at 17 days

Scott will post some pictures later but here is the story of Andrew's birth and his status at 17 days.
The labor was pretty similar to Rebekah's: long labor, easy delivery. On Tuesday (Feb 15) I went into work and started feeling crampy, but that had been going on and off for a few days, so I ignored it for a while and surfed the internet since things had been slow at work. Around 3:00 that afternoon I started to notice the cramps were more closely resembling contractions so I quickly started to go through my emails and loose ends to make sure I had delegated everything in case this was my last day at work. I left around 5:00, went home; it was a nice day, so we went for a walk, and I watched Rebekah swing on the swings. The contractions were every 5 or 7 mins apart or so at this point. We went home, had dinner, put Rebekah down and then watched a Discovery Channel documentary.
The contractions kept up at about that speed all night (which was fine with me since I was hoping not to have to wake Rebekah or our babysitter up) and it was not until the next morning that they were picking up to be 3 or 4 mins apart. We dropped Rebekah off at around 9:00 and then went to the hospital. I was a 3 when I checked in, so we walked around the neighborhood for about an hour and a half, came back and I was a 4 and a half. I was debating whether or not to get an epidural, and eventually decided to get one around 2:00 that afternoon, and by the time I got it, I was about a 7. The epidural slowed things down (just like Rebekah) so they gave me some pitocin and broke my water and things progressed pretty quickly after that. I was ready to deliver a few hours later and at 4:45, I was crowning.However, we ended up having to wait about 25 minutes for the respiratory therapist to come to our room. There was some meconium when they broke the water so they did not want to deliver without the respiratory therapist. So I am glad that I got the epidural after all--I would not have been able to wait without the epidural. So we spent about 25 minutes chatting with my doctor (he told us the story of how he met his pediatrician wife). There were also about 10 other people in the room, about 5 or 6 of them were nursing students who were observing their first live birth.
Once the respiratory therapist came, the doctor told me to start pushing. I pushed for about 10 minutes or so and Andrew came out at 5:25. The first thing I noticed was how much he looked like Scott. After he came out, my doctor said "You could have 4 or 5 more of these if you want." He was 6 pounds 9 ounces and 20 inches long. We were glad we waited for the respiratory therapist because he had some stuff in his lungs; otherwise he was perfectly healthy. He picked up on nursing right away and his pediatrician was amazed at how little weight he lost in the hospital. When we went in for a doctor appointment a few days later and he was already over 7 pounds.
I was fortunate in having a pretty easy labor/delivery.Yesterday I was talking with a friend of mine who had a baby a few months ago and we were discussing how difficult those first couple months are. She said she would rather go through labor (which she actually did all natural) once a week for 8 weeks than go through the rough parts of the first 8 weeks over again. I completely agree. Its amazing how much you "forget" about those first 8 or 10 weeks. So many of those long nights with Rebekah are coming back to my memory now. Rebekah had settled into a pattern around 2 weeks or so where she would fuss/cry from about 10 until 2 then sleep from 2:30 until about 8:00 or 8:30, until she got to be 7 weeks (at which point she started staying up until 6:00 in the morning every night, only sleeping for 10 or 20 minute increments all night--which lasted a week or so before we started to jump into sleep training a little ahead of schedule). For some reason, all I remembered was this pattern she had gotten into (which was manageable) but forgotten those first two weeks (which were miserable) and how many nights she had exceptions to her pattern where she would be up until 4 or later or would not sleep on her own. Or the long evenings where she would start fussing around 6:00 pm and I was stuck to my nursing chair for almost 8 hours.
So far, Andrew is different--its hard to say who was more difficult at this point. Andrew doesn't have a set time he fusses; its sometimes at 3:00 in the morning, sometimes its at 9:00 in the evening. He's a much better nurser, but he eats so fast that he gives himself tummy aches and so I spend more time burping him than nursing him, since it takes forevor to get the burps out, but if they don't come out, he is pretty unhappy. Rebekah nursed for over an hour but was easy to burp. She spit up a lot; Andrew has spit up about 3 times since he's been born. She wouldn't let me sleep until about 2:30 but then would sleep in long chunks pretty early on (apparently I was similar as a baby). Andrew, on the other hand, only sleeps for about 2 hours at a time (sometimes an hour and a half) but you can usually fit in a 2 hour chunk sometime between 11 and 3:00, which is when you can get better quality sleep (something I read about after I had Rebekah). I have noticed that however long the baby sleeps, you have to subtract about a half hour and that is how long you get, since it takes a little time to make sure the baby is in a deep enough sleep to put down and then some time you get yourself to sleep. So I don't think I have slept more than 2 hours at a time since Andrew was born.
I'm very lucky that Scott is here to watch Rebekah and I can take a nap in the morning while Andrew sleeps. Generally, I'm ready to shoot myself in the middle of the night but by the afternoon, I feel like a human being again. Given that by 7:00 in the morning, when Rebekah wakes up, I usually have only had 3 or 4 hours of sleep at the most, I wonder how I would deal with a newborn and a toddler without Scott at home too. I know that a lot of people have family come help (which we don't), but still....
One of the biggest challenges I've had is that when I first got back from the hosptial, I had a pretty bad case of insomnia and could not sleep even when I had an opportunity. There is nothing worse than needing to sleep and knowing you have an opportunity and not being able to. I had gotten so overtired that I could not fall asleep. I eventually got over that (an answer to a lot of prayers). Our next challenge was that Andrew would not sleep by himself, but would only sleep on our chest (which doesn't work well since neither of us can really sleep like that). Sometimes he does this all night, including two nights ago (I had him until 4:00, at which point I woke up Scott and he took him for a few hours), but most nights its just for the last little stretch between about 5 and 7 where Scott will have to hold him for him to sleep.
Despite all of this, it is just amazing how much you love your little person. Being a mother is such a gift. Sometimes I look at my little family and cannot believe how fortunate I am. It was the sweetest thing watching Rebekah see Andrew for the first time and how gentle she was with him. She loves to "help" when I feed him or burp him.
We love our little Andrew!!!