It has been quite a while, hasn't it? Well, in case you didn't hear yet, I recently popped that baby boy out. And by "recently" I mean 4 weeks ago today. And by "popped out" I mean not popped out. More like worked very, very hard to get an 8 pound baby out of a very small hole in 7 hours.

I started having contractions Tuesday night (April 3rd - 4 days past my due date) just before midnight. I had been waiting so long to finally have contractions and go into labor that I waited a good hour or so before telling Scott what was happening. At 3am the midwife on call said that I was in active labor and that I could come in. 

3:30 we got to the hospital but had to wait in a Labor and Delivery room because all the birthing rooms upstairs were being used. The midwife on call came to check on me at about 4am and all I remember about her was that she was highly annoying and caused me a great deal of pain. She started asking me some dumb question when she came in and I didn't answer her since I was clearly in the middle of a contraction. Right when it finished my water broke so I hobbled over to the tiny bathroom to take care of business. When I finally came out she asked me how I was doing and I told her, "I think my water just broke". Her reply, "Why do you think that?" I don't remember my exact tone at this point but I do remember wishing I was physically capable of performing a round house kick to her face right then. I think I said something along the lines of, "Well, I just had a lot of fluid and blood come out of there and there really hasn't been much coming that way in the past 9 months"

She proceeded to check how far along I was and I believe it was at this point that I decided that I hated her. I shudder just remembering. Yeesh.

Well, I was 6 cm dilated - on my way. Just after this adventure they moved us upstairs. We had a wonderful, large room with a Queen sized bed and they were just filling the portable tub for me. Ahh. This was how it was supposed to go down. There is a very long blurry stretch in my memory of laboring for a few hours, about 3, before going into transition. Transition is what they call Active Labor, because before we were just cruising along being lazy I guess. It's usually when you are around 8 - 10 cm dilated, your contractions are longer, stronger, and closer together (joy!), and sometimes it's when the baby starts to descend. I might also call it Hell for short. I do believe there was a moment when I turned to Scott and told him something like, "Never again. This is horrible. We are adopting from now on".

Transition probably lasted about 2 hours for me and I thought I might just rather die. I was so tired and it took all of my concentration to not make noise and just breathe through the contractions. I really thought the...more colorful side of me might make an appearance at this time, but I think I was just so concentrated and tired that I saved myself. 

Finally the midwife (new one!), a midwife in training, and my AMAZING nurse (I would name my daughter after her if her name wasn't Berkley - she understood) came in and announced that it was time to push. I could not have been any happier. At last! I had heard so many stories about "I pushed three times and my baby popped out!" - really, how long could this take?

Well, about 25 minutes into pushing is when I think I started making, "Seriously?! What is he doing?!" comments. The worst part was with all the people in the room (Midwife, midwife in training, Berkley the Incredible, my mom, Scott, and my sister) after every push, I mean, every push, I would receive multiple, "That was so good Heidi! Great pushing!" to which I would perk up, "Oh yea? So is he almost out??" -- "Uh, no. We just caught a glimpse of the top of his head. But it went back" DEAR LORD. Stop telling me I'm doing such an amazing job if nothing is happening! The next time someone says how great it's going there better be a baby flying out.

45 minutes of pushing and finally, at 10:36am, my baby boy was born. Praise Jesus. I wanted to be alert and joyful but I was so tired, it was all I could do to remain conscious. 8 pounds 10 ounces, 21 inches long, full head of hair. I was in love. 

The worst part is, I can tell...I can already tell that although I have not forgotten how painful labor was (no drugs baby), I will somehow be conned into doing this all again. He's just so cute, I know I will want another one. Fortunately, the next one is supposed to be easier. And really, I had a pretty short labor. 7 hours is not that bad when I compare war stories. And now I have this:

10 pounds in this picture. I'm super in love and he is just the best baby. Such a good little spirit, he's hard not to fall in love with.

So that is the story...next time I won't gross you out so much. But next time might also be at 3:30am while I'm up with him for a half hour. So...there may not be quite enough of a filter at that hour. Let's cross our fingers. 

Loving being a Mommy

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