Red wavy hair and dark blue eyes. His skin is very ruddy and his ears lower when he grins :)
I was having trouble going into labor on my own again, so my doctor scheduled an induction for Wednesday night, July 2nd. The nurse thought I just needed a little push, so she only gave me one quarter of a dose of medicine and let me rest. Well, Adam and Mom rested. I was too excited to meet Fritz! We read and walked around and played puzzles on my iPad. Finally at about 3AM the pains were getting consistent. I think labor goes faster when you do it yourself, so I waited until nearly 6AM and just did purposeful breathing and yoga. When I called the nurse to let her know I'd like an epidural, she came in and looked at the contractions on the monitor. "Um, are you feeling that one right now?" "Yes, of course I am." "WHOA--it's off my chart. You're some kind of superhero!" Yup--I was fast friends with Nurse Stephanie. The doctor wasn't actually home from his vacation yet, so they called him and he said he was still on his plane home from Paris, but he would get there as soon as he could. A medical student asked if he could be present and I said sure. Adam knew him from school and said he could assist if he wanted. Adam hadn't previously wanted to cut the cord or be doing anything except supporting me during labors. When the doctor got there it was about lunch time. He felt my belly and checked me and decided we were about ready to go and to tell him when I wanted to push. An hour later, I was sure the baby was coming. Adam decided to scrub in at the last minute to deliver the baby. I was excited! I only had to push for about twenty minutes. Fritz's shoulder got stuck on the way out so my doctor helped Adam and then our son was born! After the placenta was delivered it turned out that the suspicion that I had a circumvallate placenta was correct. It looked so textbook in fact that Dr. Park sent it off to pathology to be photographed. Nice to be famous I guess? It obviously hadn't impacted the baby. Friedrich William Burch was 21 inches long and weighed 9lbs 5oz at birth. By his two week appointment, he had grown three inches and put on 1lb 3oz. That's my big guy!
A note on his name for posterity's sake. "Friedrich" is for my father as well as President Uchtdorf. "William" references our Norman ancestors, a plant I love called Sweet William, and Friedrich Wilhem IV the German architect-philosopher king.
This boy is a good eater.
Meeting Baby Fritz
This is the "New Egg Suit" that all of our children have come home from the hospital in. Usually it doesn't fit quite this snugly...
