Baby Henry

He is here! (notice I choose to ignore the fact that I have been absent from my blog for about, hm, five months. *sheepish smile* I will update on those days later....) Anyway - HE IS HERE! And he is such a beautiful, sweet-tempered baby. I am absolutely in love with this guy, and so thankful for the sweet kids I have been blessed with. We are home from the hospital and everyone is great. The story of his delivery is kind of a fun one..... Last Tuesday, I was 38 weeks and had my weekly check-up. This pregnancy has defied all others of mine as I went full-term on my own, with no help from terbutaline or progesterone. I was feeling good, uncomfortable, but in no rush. The baby would come when he would come. My doctor checked me and was surprised that I was dilated to a 4. I wasn't having consistent contractions - just Braxton-Hicks now and again. My being dilated to a 4 made him nervous, as my labors progress VERY quickly. He admonished me to be sure to come right in whenever I had consistent contractions and not labor at home. I agreed and called Matt with the update. He was excited and a little nervous to, as I was having random contractions before my appointment and started to again. He came straight home and he and Sammi watched me like a time bomb. I felt in my gut that I wasn't in labor, but my doctor's admonitions resounded in my ears, and at about 5pm we went in to Labor and Delivery to check it out. I asked Matt if we could go to the mall and walk around there first to make sure these contractions were the real deal, as I suspected they weren't. Matt was nervous about that, so I said "okay - we'll go to the hospital, but they're going to make me walk and I HATE walking around the hospital." Sure enough, we got there, I was still at a four and they sent me walking. We broke the rules, and walked outside for an hour, grabbed a milkshake and some Chick-fil-A, and went back. There was still no progress from a four, the contractions had actually let up and so we were sent home. I tried not to say "I told you so." :) Well, a couple of days pass, bringing us to Friday. I kept up with housework and school with the kids and tried not to feel guilty about disappointing everyone every day by not having the baby. (it seemed the kids, and even Matt, were in constant suspense. It got kind of annoying after awhile.) After picking up the house, Matt and I went to Costco as I wanted to walk around a bit and get a roasted chicken (seriously - SO GOOD) and pineapple (I LOVE fresh pineapple and had also heard that it induces labor. I figured, what the heck!) We came home, Matt made some goodies for the BSU game and I got the kids ready for dinner and bed, ate my own dinner and went to sleep. Nothing exciting. I woke up at midnight because Charlotte needed water. I got her a drink and went back to sleep. I woke an hour later, 1 am, from a contraction. It wasn't too bad, and Matt was taking up WAY too much room, so I told him to move over. As I shifted around I realized my water had broken. This put me into immediate action as I knew that once my water breaks, things go pretty fast. I wasn't too worried, as the contractions didn't seem too bad. I woke up Matt, we grabbed the bag, called his mom, told Sammi she would be there soon, and headed to the hospital. The contractions were about 5-7 minutes apart and not too bad. I even thought about paging my doctor, but, I didn't want to wake him up too soon, so I figured they would call him when we checked in. Matt called Labor and Delivery to give them a heads up, and then proceeded to speed and run a light (again, not because it was intense yet - I think he figured this was the only time he would get to.) We arrived at the hospital at 1:30am and they got me straight into the "check-it-out" room. On the way there, Matt had convinced me that I deserved a "no-pain" delivery, and after a contraction that had a "bite" to it, I decided he was right. I wanted an epidural. But I knew that the window would be small to get one, since I go fast. I called out as politely as I could, but urgently, that someone needed to check me NOW. The nurse hurried in and confirmed I was at a 7 and ready to go. She said "now let's get you a wheel-chair". I bounced up and said "That's okay! I can walk! Let's go!" (I was trying to get us there as fast as possible - time was of the essence!) We got to the delivery room with just one stop while I breathed through a contraction, I went to the bathroom, washed my hands, got on the bed and said "Okay, I'm ready for my IV - let's do this. Is he on his way?" (meaning the anesthesiologist) They assured me that they called him and the doctor. But, just as the nurse began prep for my IV, I had a contraction. And I knew. I knew it was getting too close. I panicked and said, rather loudly "IS HE ON HIS WAY?! I NEED THE EPIDURAL NOW!" Unbeknownst to me, the nurse could no longer attempt an IV as I was convulsed in my contraction. The other nurse checked me and said "She's fully dilated" I looked at her, panicked and said "ARE YOU SERIOUS!!!!???? I DON'T WANT TO DO THIS!" She said "You've done this before - you can do this!" I wanted to slap her, but was racked with another contraction where I thought I yelled the S-word (Matt later assured me I didn't - I must've just thought it with a vengeance). The nurses then began bustling around me, telling me not to push. I thought this comment especially stupid and wanted to slap all of them, but simply growled "One of you is going to have to catch this baby, because he's coming!" and was then racked with another contraction as Henry was born at 2:02am. 1 hour from when I first woke up. Doctor Lovelace came in about 3 minutes after he was born, chuckled and said "Congratulations!" I assured him I didn't labor at home and I was very glad to see him. Henry was so beautiful and a healthy 8lbs 12 oz and 21 inches long. After the delivery we all had a good laugh, I apologized for the swear-word I didn't say and we relived the intense moments. Good times. :) It was pretty crazy, but such an amazing experience. (And to anyone who says I had an "easy" time, watch out. :) Since I don't want to spend time organizing the pictures, I'll just explain them in order: 1) Me on tuesday for our false alarm. I am huge. 2) Our first pic with Henry, about 10 minutes after he's born. 3)The kids meet Henry 4) Baby Henry