One week ago today....

I'm an aunt again!! Congratulations to Suellen and Todd on the arrival of their baby girl this Saturday. We can't wait to meet and hold our new niece and to introduce you to your new nephew. Wild that the cousins will have birthdays 5 whole days apart!! Gotta love those November babies.

Thinking back to last week I wanted to post Ian's birth story while it's still fresh on my mind. Last I posted before Ian's arrival Kirk and I were awaiting our scheduled induction. Little did we know that Ian would have other plans. He still arrived on Monday 11/10 as had been set up but turns out that no induction was necessary. Sunday morning 11/9 I woke up around 5:45 am with lower back and abdominal pains. They weren't terrible just noticeable. I got up, piddled around, and then headed back to bed where I noticed the pains were coming somewhat frequently. I went back to sleep but woke up each time I had a pain to see how far apart they were. Between 8-9 am we were up to 5 minutes apart for an hour. At this point I started to wonder if we would have to head to the hospital that morning. I got up and did a few things and noticed that the pains were starting to come less frequently and not regularly anymore and I was convinced that something was definitely going on but we would probably still be heading to the hospital the next morning as scheduled. Kirk and I had planned to go to the mall and do some last minute errands but I decided I didn't really feel up to it and started doing laundry and household chores like a mad woman. Fast forward to Sunday afternoon with most of the laundry and chores now done I was convinced that I felt better and was now ready to head to the mall so off we went to Williams Somoma. We then went to Zaxby's for what would be our last dinner as a childless couple, fancy I know, and headed home to watch a movie and spend one last quiet night before our induction. All throughout the movie I noticed the aches and pains I had been having off and on all day were now coming rather frequently. At this point I started logging all of the times I would feel something and noted that while they were frequent they were not coming at regular intervals. At this point it was late so I headed upstairs to get ready for bed. As time passed I noticed I was getting a bit more uncomfortable. I started paying attention to the times again and noted that from 10-10:30 I was consistently noticing something every 5 minutes. It was at this point I told Kirk we needed to start writing down times. Over the next hour the pains were consistently 5 minutes apart for an and while I was getting a bit more uncomfortable I still wasn't convinced that we should head to the hospital, after all we were going to be there at 6 am the next morning anyway and I was determined to just wait it out. I got into the bath for awhile which was fabulous and really helped me to relax then decided it was time to head to bed since we would need to be up really early the next morning for our induction. I headed to bed and quickly determined that rest was so not happening for me that night and the pains were now coming rather predictably anywhere from 3-5 minutes apart, it was at this time Kirk and I decided that maybe we should just go ahead and get to the hospital, I was still worried that I was going in too soon but we rationalized that we were going to have to be there in a few hours anyway so off we went.

We arrived at the hospital between 12 and 1:00 am. At this point I was uncomfortable when a contraction would hit but was able to easily breathe through it, as long as I could stand up during the pains I was okay. Sitting during a contraction at this point was just not super pleasant. Once we got to the hospital they got us back to an L&D room rather quickly and hooked me up to monitors for contractions and the baby's heart rate. Contractions were coming every three minutes at this point and I was 5-6 centimeters. This is when I realized that perhaps it was a good thing we went ahead and arrived at the hospital when we did. I did after all want the epidural and had I waited much longer to get to the hospital I may have found myself in the situation of not being able to get one. My L&D nurse was great and worked me up quickly and pretty much immediately got me hooked up with an epidural which was fabulous. After the epidural nothing much happened until my OB/GYN came in around 7/8am, broke my water, and started me on pitocin to get the contractions going again. This was the downside of the epidural as it noticeably slowed down my labor. Finally around 11:30ish my nurse came in and informed me it was time to push and at 12:37 pm little Ian arrived. After Ian's arrival my Ob GYN informed me that Ian's cord was wrapped around his neck once and he had a "true knot" in his umbilical cord which luckily wasn't tight and never caused his heart rate to drop during his delivery. He also presented Occiput Posterior, meaning face up. Our Dr. told us that many times when a baby presents this way it winds up having to be delivered via C section so, all told seems that we were very lucky to have had such a good delivery. As someone who was absolutely terrified of labor I was pleasantly surprised that every bit of it was very manageable. I had heard all of the horror stories during my pregnancy and all the details of women being in horrible pain but can honestly say that this was not my experience at all. Yes the contractions hurt but they were only for a short period of time and once they were over I was okay. Once I got the epidural there was absolutely no pain. I could still feel some contractions but nothing I would call painful. I had the most fabulous labor and delivery nurses who really put me at ease and best of all my regular OB/GYN was able to deliver Ian.

It's surreal to think that just a week ago today Kirk and I experienced one of the most amazing moments of our lives when we welcomed our son. At long last he is here and we are just trying to take it all in and enjoy every minute we can with our sweet little baby. My days are now filled with changing diapers and feedings around the clock and while it is exhausting and overwhelming at times when you are lying there cuddling your sweet baby against your chest and watching him sleep you know that it is all worth it.....