McHy Triplets

When Paige was born, she was the first of three little granddaughters within six months of each other. The three girls became the McClure "triplets". We always thought this was such a unique thing to our family and would never be seen again. Since then, we added six brothers and sisters to our family and lo and behold...another set of triplets!
From left to right...Henry Hyer (son of my step-brother Chris), Van Bromley (son of my step-sister Molly) and Bode Vincent. Henry was born in August. Van was due four days after Bode, but actually came three days before. We are so excited for these three boys to grow up together!

What were we thinking?!?

When Paige was born with her club feet, we were so lucky to find Dr. Steve Santora at Shriner's Hospital. I have not run into many people who understand the amazing things that are performed there. Shriner's Hospital is run completely by private donations and the doctors there perform the orthopedic procedures necessary without all the taboo of insurance companies. Being there has made me so grateful that although Paige's feet are a big deal to us, they are relatively minor.

We always knew there was a possiblity that the serial castings Paige had at birth might not be sufficient to completely correct her feet. We have continued yearly follow-up care and were told last spring that it was time for something more. We thought we had carefully scheduled this surgery...Paige was off track and wouldn't miss much school, I would be on maternity leave from work and could stay home to care for her. However, as it got closer, I realized it was a BIG DEAL! Paige went into surgery Wednesday morning. Claire had slept over at her Aunt Valerie's because we had to be at the hospital at 6:30. The staff was amazing. They had gifts waiting for her on her bed and explained exactly what was going to happen. It reminded me a lot of last week's episode of Grey's Anatomy where George was dealing with the defiant child and finally just showed him everything and the boy wasn't scared anymore. Paige was most nervous about the stitches and getting a needle in her arm. She had some medication and a gas mask and was out long before the IV went in. The plan was to clip a muscle in the ball of her feet to help turn them out. However, once that was done, her foot placement still wasn't quite right, so Dr. Santora also did some tendon lengthening in her calves. So what we were told would be a 3 hour procedure turned into 4 and 1/2.

Paige slept so hard that we had to request her to come back from recovery. She was so excited the night before that she hardly slept, not to mention that she was woken up hours before normal that morning. She came out with hot pink casts and pretty loopy. I knew she wasn't all there when she didn't even notice Bode was there. She stayed until Thursday night, when they tried to give her Percocet and she decided to come home. Her recovery thus far has been trying to say the least. We are really trying to be patient but also teach her some manners in asking for help. The lessons seem to be going well since she really can't do much for herself. Bode seems to be the best medicine for her. Her first night home, they snuggled up together in our bed with her whispering in his ear, "You have the best big sister". She has a wheelchair that brings her a lot of attention, but she spends most of her days in bed. Which means, I have seen everything Disney ever made, TWICE, I am champion of Old Maid, and we have been through three boxes of crayons. This is bound to be a LONG six weeks!

Bode's Big Day

I can't believe nine months has flown by so quickly! It seems like just yesterday that I was having blood drawn at the lab to find out in front of all my work friends that I was PREGNANT!

Towards the end of my pregnancy, my doctor kept telling me, "This is a huge baby. There is no way we are going to make it into October." But every week, I would catch up in average size a little bit and my due date remained the same. He finally scheduled me for an induction on Friday, October 10, 2008. We took the girls for a sleepover with their cousins at my sister Marnie's the night before. However, Marnie was at work all night, so Uncle Rob got to brave the storm of the Vincent girls! Steve and I went to dinner at Tepanyaki (a place we would NEVER take our kids) and then decided to see a movie! It was nice, but I was having strong contractions every hour. We tried to get some sleep, but I was too excited to meet my baby boy! We got to the hospital around 7:15 and by 8:00 I was in bed with Pitocin and my first dose of Clindamycin (for my Group B Strep). Then we waited...in fact Steve looked over at me and said, "So, we have some time, what do you want to talk about?" I started to get a little uncomfortable around 10:30 when my doctor came in to break my water. He told me that he and anesthesia would be in a C-section from 12-1 so I should get my epidural now. I had no problem with that! The anesthesiologist came in around 11:15 and it is amazing how well those can work! I was instantly comfortable and ready for a nap. My dad stopped by and took Steve for a walk so I could nap (and they could eat!) My nurse checked me around 1:30 to find me at a 6. Ten minutes later I rolled over to my side because I was feeling a lot of pressure. Another nurse came in to adjust the monitors and found me "complete". Luckily, Steve and my dad walked in just then and my doctor wasn't too far behind.
This was by far the easiest delivery I have had. In one contraction I pushed 4 times and out came our bouncing baby boy! He weighed in at 8 lbs. 7.2 oz and 20 inches long. Our biggest baby yet! Maybe I don't remember very well, but it sure seemed like the nurse kept him over in the corner for an awfully long time. It turned out his glucose was low and they had to instantly feed him some formula to try and get it regulated.
I was lucky to have my dad there with me during the delivery. I know my mom was there in spirit too. However, this time was a little different...my stepmom Terry was also there. She made it just in the nick of time and ran in just as Bode was born. They are such amazing grandparents and neither could be more excited to have another grandson.
Paige was instantly in love with her new brother and Claire gave the reaction I thought she would, "I'm done. I don't want him anymore." She loves him to pieces now! Nearly all the cousins were there, so I think both of the girls were distracted.
After my epidural wore off, I developed a terrible headache and a pain between my shoulder blades. The only comfortable position was flat on my back in the dark. It lasted through the night into the next morning. It killed me to hold Bode for feedings, and I couldn't bend my neck to look down at him. I felt awful. Here I had carried this baby for nine long months and now I couldn't even enjoy him? As it turns out, I had a small nick in my epidural space causing the pain. My anesthesiologist had gone home at the end of his shift Saturday morning, but felt so badly about my pain came back to help his partner give me a blood patch. (It sure helps that my sister knows them all! I love special treatment!) One of the doctors went back into my epidural space while the other drew blood from my arm to inject into my back. It was worse than getting an epidural, but by the time I sat up I felt instantly better. I was so glad to feel better and have the rest of the day to snuggle my boy!

He has been great here at home! The girls can't get enough of him and I am wondering if I will ever get tired of holding him and looking at him! For now, I am just loving every minute of it!

It's A Boy!

This will be short and sweet (just like him), due mostly to lack of sleep and the heavy use of Percocet. However, we are thrilled to announce the arrival of Bode Stephen Vincent!

He was born on Friday, October 10 at 2:33 pm weighing in at 8 lbs., 7 oz., and 20 inches long.