It's time!

Allie and Charlie agreed that getting up at 4am to have a baby was way too early!

Here's a look at what 41 weeks pregnant looks like - I'd say I look like I'm ready to have a baby.

After being told to hold off on coming into the hospital Thursday morning, I finally received a call around 11 saying they had a room ready for us. Chris had decided to go on into work that morning - so my Mom drove me to the hospital where we met up with Chris.

We arrived at the hosptial around noon on July 15, 2010. Hard to believe the time had come where we were going to become parents.

Enjoying a tasty orange popsicle...and I'm smiling and no epidural - so this must have been fairly early in the day. :)

Labor was like nothing I expected - and fortunately - I was expecting the worst. I honestly thought it was such an awesome day and enjoyed every minute of it. Well - okay maybe if you asked me if I wanted to keep having the pain of contractions - I probably would have declined. But something about knowing that the pain was going to lead to the birth of my son - I really was okay with it. And I'm sure it didn't hurt knowing I was going to get an epidural...even though I didn't expect to have to wait 2 hours after requesting it.

We got admitted to our L&D room fairly quickly after arriving at the hospital. The nurse got me settled in with my gown and monitors and asking me the thousand questions that they have to ask. Around 2:30 the nurse started my IV - a slow drip of pitocin to get things started. Not long after the IV was in my doctor came in to check on me. I was at 4 cm so she went ahead and also broke my water. No turning back now!

Contractions were not bad at all for the first hour or so and that all started to change around 4pm. That was the time that I started to think...so how do I know when I want the epidural? I knew that I wanted to go as long as I could without it, but wanted to be sure I could still get one before I was in too much pain. Hard to know what too much is...especially when you don't know how much worse the next contraction will be.

By 4:30 - Chris and I decided - it was time to go ahead and ask for the epidural. We let the nurse know and she started the fluids. We had learned at the comfort measures class that they have to give you at least a bag of fluid before the epidural. I ended up getting about 4 or 5!

So at 4:30 - we're thinking that by 5pm I'll be all set. But it's almost 5pm and we haven't seen or heard anything from the anesthesiologist. My nurse stops in and informs me that he's in a c-section and wrapping up. He should be by to see me in about 15 minutes or so. So as the contractions start coming on top of eachother...thanks pitocin...I'm dreaming of the clock reading 5:15. 5:15 comes - and nothing! My nurse said she doesn't know what the hold up is, but would be happy to give me some pain medicine to take the edge off. I declined...thinking the epidural is coming anytime now. 5:45 - still nothing, but contractions that feel like they don't end. I finally decide I've got to get up - why I didn't think of this before I have no idea. But standing up made the contractions so much more manageable. Chris rubbed my back and I was able to feel a little more control. Although I was starting to wonder if I'd ever get the epidural. I was really impressed by how intense contractions are and while I respected them - I really wanted that epidural. After two hours that felt like eternity - not a moment too soon - the anesthesiologist arrived and by 6:30 the epidural was working wonders. Wow. I told him he must like being the doctor that everyone loves to see coming. :) I am so glad that I got to experience real pain with labor - and I'm also so glad that I got to relax with the epidural.

I was checked after getting the epidural and had progressed to 6 cm. As I lay there all nice and relaxed, monitors started to go off because my blood pressure had dropped too low. Also - Jansen's heart rate would drop whenever I would have a contraction. The nurse came in and had me wear an oxygen mask and had me lay on my side. She also gave me some medicine to raise my blood pressure. She had to come back a couple more times - readjust me to the other side and then make me lay completely flat on my side and also give me a couple more doses of the medicine. Thankfully those things worked and my blood pressure, as well as Jansen's heart rate stayed where they were supposed to.

The night did not seem to last long - although I'm really not sure what we did to keep busy from the time I got the epidural until it was time to push. We had some love and support from my Mom & Dad, Brian & Jennifer and Mammaw out in the waiting room. As it got later, Mammaw and Brian had to head home. And Jennifer and Dad were about to leave when the nurse came by to check me - I was "complete" - dilated to 10 cm! I believe this was about 10:30 or so. Not long after that I began to feel the urge to push so we started to prepare for delivery!

We pushed with the nurse for about a half hour she said it was time to call in my doctor. The next thing I knew - my doctor was there and before I knew it I was holding my sweet, precious son on my chest. It was such an awesome moment! And I have to say - Chris was absolutely amazing...not that this surprised me all that much because I think he's pretty much absolutely amazing all the time. But - I just want to recognize that sharing this experience with my best friend and husband was incredible. Jansen is so lucky to have him as a father.