Our Little Man Is Here!

Wow - didn't think it would be this difficult to find a few minutes to write a post about one of the most important events in our lives! This has been written over the course of a few days... :)

It's hard to believe it has been 15 days since the most terrifying, traumatizing and yet amazing time of my life... labour and delivery! Our sweet boy AJ (shortened for blogging purposes and to give him SOME privacy on the world wide web... ) was born on June 11th at 4:14am... and instantly filled our hearts.

My water broke Thursday morning, June 9th, around 6:30am... it came as a complete surprise as I had not had any contractions - not even the famed braxton hicks! I sent my Man to work as I didn't think anything much would happen before the end of the day, and even if it did, he could get home within an hour (hopefully). The dilemma was - do I call Mom and have her book her flight? I tried to find out on google what the majority of cases went like when the water broke first, and there weren't a whole lot of examples. But the few I found sounded like real contractions started within a few hours. So I called Mom and she booked her flight for that evening. Not a lot of time to pack! :)

Turns out, not much happened all day. I spoke with my midwife a few times and finally late afternoon she suggested I come in for a 1/2 hour of monitoring to check the baby's vitals, etc. It turns out I was having random MILD contractions - I thought it was just the little one stretching! She sent me home and said unless things changed, she'd touch base with me in the morning.  So instead of spending the night in the hospital having a baby like I had hoped, I was home. On the plus side, we were able to pick up my mom ourselves!

The next morning was agonizing... not painful. It was the waiting that was killing me... contractions started again, but were very sporadic. At least the intensity had picked up a bit so I was hopeful that things were happening. Things were happening, but not progressing... so around 2:30pm my midwife advised us to come into the hospital to augment labour as the random contractions could go on for days which wasn't healthy for our little one since my water had already broke. We were at the hospital by 3:30pm. Hooked up to Oxytocin by 4:30pm (likely earlier). And wow. Things completely CHANGED.  From this point until 4:14am I'll leave rather vague... those who have had children can imagine the experience (or block it out!), and those that haven't - well.... don't think about it. The end result is amazing. ;)

I hated being hooked up to IV's (my first experience with an IV of any kind) - completely limited my ability to move around. Not that I wanted to much, but bathroom visits were a pain because of all the equipment.  The drugs... I went from barely feeling anything to active labour quite quickly. No time for adjusting... not sure if anyone is ready for active labour contractions regardless. As they picked up in intensity, my Man "enjoyed" watching the monitor and advising me of when the next one was starting before I even felt it. Not sure I needed the advance warning! ;)  I was trying to go drug free (well, besides the Oxytocin I HAD to take)... I made it to about midnight and then became desperate. I made a feeble effort to try and convince myself to stick it out... I tried sterile water injections (pg 28) to ease the pain in my back... the injections *might* have been as painful as the contractions! Ow. Without allowing much time to see if the injections worked, my desperation grew... my midwife thought it was medically best for our baby if I had an epidural... it would allow me to relax and would then hopefully allow my baby's head to turn in the right direction and have things proceed. Her tactic worked and I quickly (!!!!!!!) agreed to an epidural. Thankfully the Doc arrived before too long and it was all done in a blur. But ahhh... the calm that came with the drug. Amazing. No other word for it. Anyway, to make a long night short - it was still a long ordeal after the epidural...  I had panicked moments that I was feeling very detached from our soon-to-arrive baby, but when our treasure finally arrived at 4:14am and he was laid on my chest... the flood of emotions... we are so very, very thankful!  And in love.  What a incredible gift from our God.

Proud Dad with his boy after a long long night.

Calling Arizona to share our great news with family :)

It was wonderful having Mom already in the city and E was able to pick her up and bring her over Saturday morning... she spent the rest of the day with me in the hospital.  My Man was exhausted so I sent him home for a nap in a real bed. He didn't stay away too long though, and was back for lunch and the afternoon.  Initially I had planned to stay in the hospital for the first night, but since we had already spent one full night there and then hung out all day, we were both ready to go home. By the time we met with the discharge nurse and got all the paperwork looked after, it was about 8:30pm before we escaped...  We could have stayed in longer, but because we used the midwives, we were allowed to leave much earlier since we were all healthy.

Our fantastic Midwife - Thank you!!

We came home to a very nice welcome. Jersey Girl had been by earlier and we walked in to balloons, flowers and supper in the fridge ready to be heated. Thank you!

The first night was kind of a blur... I started off with AJ in our room, but jumped up at the least little noise. I figured my man deserved a good night's rest, so I took AJ to his nursery and we spent the night there... me just enjoying holding him and sleeping in the recliner chair for the night. I know - not good habits, but figured it wouldn't hurt the FIRST night! :)


Dad surprised us by driving up Sunday night from New Jersey where he's having gospel meetings. He arrived at 3:18 in the morning and spent Monday with us before heading back to NJ early Tuesday morning. A super quick trip with little sleep, but he was able to see AJ while he was still so *new*.  We enjoyed our quick visit with him!

I think AJ was looking for milk... ;)

Life is certainly different with a newborn, and gives me a new appreciation for moms who have a newborn AND toddlers... I really don't know how they do it. I can just say - my Mom has been a life-saver these past two weeks... we might just not let her leave! :)

I suppose if I wrote a shorter post, this would have been up long ago... If you've made it to the end - thanks! ;)