The Gestation of Augustus Swain Pucillo

A few days before her 31st birthday, and one day before she was to begin a weight loss and half marathon training program, Lauren got the excitement of a positive home pregnancy test for what would be the last time ever. She and Zach had brought home a souvenir from their New Year's trip to FL with the family. Hooray! And so Lauren still stuck with the healthier eating and Mini training but didn’t restrict too many calories or push too hard on runs. She had a pretty easy pregnancy and at the halfway point, was down 15 pounds and finished the Mini in 2:24, four minutes faster than she’d run the Monumental Half 6 months earlier. The most exciting part of this pregnancy was that they decided to find out the sex of the baby before the birth. They’d found out at 38 weeks with Lolli, at 19 weeks with Poppy, and at birth with Ozzie. Lauren wanted to do something fun for Zach and the kids, so she went to Sneak Peek and got a gender ultrasound at 15w 3d. Much to her shock and delight, it was a BOY!!! She hated to have a preference, but she’d been reeeeeally hoping for a boy this time around to even out the numbers and make room-sharing easier. She couldn’t believe it! She had a lot of fun sharing the good news with Zach, Lolli, Poppy & Ozzie by mostly white Sixlets into pink and blue balloons – except for one balloon, which got blue candy – and having them pop them open to see what was inside. Poppy found the colored candy and announced, “Blue – it’s a boy!” So fun! To reveal the sex of the baby to everyone else, they did a fun photo shoot that involved an idea Zach had come up with. The girls were having a fabulously girly tea party while Oz was running around in super hero gear wielding a weapon and being all boy. The caption? “The call for back-up has been answered!” Yay - Oz was no longer going to be the only boy surrounded by glitter and pink  The trickiest part of this pregnancy was coming up with a name. Zach and Lauren agreed early on that the baby could be given the middle name Swain. It meant a lot to Lauren since obviously all the kids have Zach’s last name. And even though it doesn’t quite fit the 4-letter, 1-syllable rule, it’s pretty close (Kate, Lynn, Zane, Swain). They settled on Theodore for the first name and Lauren hoped for a cute rolly polly baby. However as the pregnancy went on, Lauren kept feeling more and more disconnected from Theodore/Theo and they were back to square one on the naming. Around the 26 week mark, Zach and Lauren got to go to Jamaica with Zach’s coworkers. What a fun trip! Lauren went crazy on the food there and spent 36 hours sick in the hotel room but other than that it was a blast. They snorkeled, went on a catamaran, swam in the ocean and pools, and ate and ate. Zach played golf and went out with friends. After that they decided to redo the downstairs of their house and much effort went into laying the new flooring. It was a lot of work but the pregnancy didn’t interfere too much. The weather was really hot though and Lauren slacked off on her eating and running. However July and August were cooler so she got back on track, training for the Hendricks County Half Marathon on September 13th. It was hilly, lonely, windy and cold but she finished it in 3:16 at 38w, 5d pregnant. This beat her 3:33 Mini time at 38w 2d with Oz, so she was pleased. In the end she finished the pregnancy 3 pounds above where she started, a big change from the 45-55lbs she'd gained with her each of her other 3 pregnancies. The other kids had been looking forward to the new baby’s arrival. Poppy wouldn’t quit calling him Theodore even though she knew that likely wouldn’t be his name. Lolli was excited about the birth. Ozzie would ask, “Baby come out?” most mornings. Eventually Lauren and Zach settled on Augustus as the baby’s name. Lauren had loved that name when she was pregnant with Oz but Orion won out. Lauren's prenatal care was overseen by Lynda, the same midwife from Poppy and Ozzie's birth. But her main care provider was Shannon, an almost-midwife who had actually been the one present for Ozzie's birth. Augie’s birth was planned to be a home water birth in the living room because it's Lauren's favorite room in the house. She bought a cake mix and posterboard to keep the kids occupied during her labor. They ordered a GoPro camera with Zach's points to film the birth with. She bought a cute nursing sports bra and water skirt to wear during labor. They hired a doula/photographer for support. The home visit went well, everything looked healthy for Lauren and Augie, and they were given the green light for birth at 37 weeks. All that was left was the wait 