his birth story

If you recall, her birth was a long, drawn out thing.  As my due date got closer with him, I started to become a little concerned that I wasn't prepared enough this time or hadn't put in enough time worrying about all the things that could go wrong.  I know, like that helps.  But I was concerned that the universe may test my blasé attitude.  But it didn't.  Yea!

I had felt that this little guy would come early throughout my whole pregnancy.  At 36 weeks I had that day of contractions after my first internal exam and that really bumped my preparations into high gear.  But nothing came of it.  Then I had a feeling he would come on the 28th and actually got excited (instead of freaked out).  Nothing.  By Monday I was starting to get a little bored with waiting.  It was a really busy workday, though, so that kept me occupied.  I don't know how women handle the wait if they're not working.

So Tuesday morning I woke up around 3:30 having a contraction.  Very minor but I knew it was real.  Even though I had done this before, I was still worried I wouldn't know real labor once it started.  I think it was because of all the Braxton Hicks I had been having.  Anyway, I kind of dozed off in between contractions but watched the clock.  About 10 minutes apart.  Then literally 3 contractions later, they were down to about 6 minutes.

That got me out of bed, er, out of the chair to start taking care of some last-minute preparations.  At about 6:00, I woke up Hubby to tell him this baby wasn't making it till August (which I was sure he'd do since he had missed my 28th prediction).  I swear, this kid likes making a liar out of me already.  We left for the hospital around 7:30, once Grandmother was able to take over duties for Chicken.

When we got to the hospital, I don't think they believed that I was in labor as they made me go to a different area to get examined before admitting me.  After several questions and a check, they said I was 6-7 cm dilated.  Things were progressing way faster this time.  They checked me in and I got settled in.  Told them I wanted an epidural and got one after I was sufficiently pumped with fluids (and after two tries--first one hit a vein).  I was told that my OB wouldn't be able to deliver due to her broken leg.  Boo.  I was very disappointed.  The on-call OB ended up being a very nice, personable, funny guy so that worked out.

After I finally had the epidural placed, the OB came in (after about an hour as he had another procedure) to break my water.  It was about 11:30.  At 12:30, I was ready to push.  That was crazy fast.  My contractions were 4 minutes apart then.  Thank goodness they hadn't slowed as much as they had with Chicken.  And I was able to push him out (unassisted!) in about 15 minutes.  I didn't have any kind of birth plan this time but I sure wanted to push that baby out of me.  I'm so glad that happened.  Seriously.  I'm still freakishly proud of this--just think of how obnoxious I would have been if I had an unmedicated delivery...

I can't believe how big he was!  My OB thought he was around 7 or 7.5 the Thursday before.  Uh, not so much.  Glad he came early!  We had a follow up appointment on Monday and he was nearly back up to his birth weight and had already grown 3/4 inch!  Crazy.

So he's here.  Today is his due date (and our 3rd anniversary!) so we took his "zero" picture today.  He's had some issues with being nocturnal but has been great other than that.  Great eater.  Super cute.  Touch of jaundice but it is getting better.  Big sister has done pretty well and calls him "My" since the last part of his name is hard to say.




Speaking of his name, we had 5 names going into this.  We actually kind of agreed on Miles but I probably had a little more pull this time.  It was my favorite name going into delivery but my favorite boy name from last time?  Didn't make the short list.  Funny how that happens.  His middle name is shared by my father-in-law (first name that he doesn't use) and my brother (middle name)-- the most important men in our lives growing up.  Hopefully he'll do them justice.

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crowd favorites

100 things--thankful

hey, would you like to see the nursery?