Benjamin David's arrival

I know, I know, shame on me, he's 2 months old already.  But here it is:

The week before he was born, on Monday, I had contractions fairly regular for about 15 hours.  I thought this was the beginning of the end, but alas when I got home from work, I laid down and eventually they stopped.  Then nothing until Saturday.  Saturday (Sept 3rd) morning I had more contractions that started in the morning but by lunch had stopped.  That afternoon and evening my back hurt, but nothing that would make me think I was in labor.

At 1:30 am, we are both dead asleep and my water breaks.  Dave says he never saw me move as fast as I did getting out of bed and to the bathroom.  Sure enough we decide that my water has indeed broken and start making phone calls.  Dave calls Don to come over and stay with the girls and texted Linda while I took a quick shower.  We pack the few extra things needed to take to the hospital.  By 2:30 the contractions were starting up again and we were on our way to the hospital.  We were not sure if the front doors would be open at that our so we parked at the emergency room and were wheeled up to the 6th floor triage area.  By this time the contractions were picking up in both speed and intensity.  Surprisingly, I was only at 2-3 cm dilated.    We were in the triage area with nurse Patricia maybe 15 minutes before they moved us to the labor room.  

Very last picture of me pregnant. 

I knew I wanted an epidural, so the night nurse Laura worked on getting me the fluids and antibiotics (group b positive) needed and by 4:30 am the anesthesia team had arrived.  They did what they do best, and with a minor hiccup of the pump not flowing correctly, by 5:00 am things were going smoothly.  I went from 3-4 cm to 7 rapidly, as in 5-10 minutes, and then to 9 cm took another hour or so.  Then I started having back pain on the right side that went down to my leg.  The nurse checked every half hour or so and I was still at 9 cm.  After awhile, it was determined that I needed more pain medicine to see it through and after a bolus of pain meds, I was back in good form. This was around 6-7 am  The pain was gone, but not the pressure.  I kept feeling a lot of pressure and the feeling to push, but nurse Kendall said that I was still at 9.  She suggested laying on my side to get him to move a little differently to get past that last cm.  It worked and by 9 am we were ready for Dr. Price and delivery.  I pushed a few times and got his head out.  And pushed more to get his shoulders out.  I don’t remember how many times I pushed, but I do remember the doctor saying he/they couldn’t figure out which shoulder wanted to come out first.  But after another push or two Benjamin was born at 9:32 am.  Even though it was my third delivery, the feeling of the baby coming out is the most amazing thing.  The doctor and nurses almost immediately said what a big baby he was and were commenting on how big they thought he was.  He was a healthy 9 pounds and 21.25 inches long.  After Ben was checked out and cleaned up, Dave and I had about an hour with him by ourselves in the labor room, which was quiet and semi-dark.  He nursed wonderfully and we enjoyed that time.  It was a great birth experience and we are so happy he is here!

 First family picture

Ready to go home