New Beginnings

So I've been meaning to start a blog for who knows how long, but have not really made the commitment to sit down and post something-- it's much funner to read other peoples' blog postings! But with the birth of our son, J decided that I needed to sit down and start it up, so here it goes...

I guess what better way to start it off then to post about the birth of our little baby boy, LM. He was born at 7:24am on May 4th, and weighed 7lbs 7oz and was an extremely long 20in (supposedly that's about average, but when he stretches out like superman I now know why he felt all over my stomach).

I went into labor at 1:30am. J had just gone to bed at 1:15, and so when I had my first contraction, my poor husband was asleep and I didn't want to wake him, thinking there was no reason because I had been instructed that the average labor is 14-17hrs long. I dutifully pulled out a piece of paper and grabbed a stop watch and timed my own contractions for the next two hours. The first 3 were 10 minutes apart, but then they started dropping down to 7 min, then 5min, and within the first hour of labor, they had already dropped to 3 min apart. It was all in my back (he was posterior) so I was on my hands and knees by the side of the bed, pushing on my own back while my husband slept. During one of my contractions, I cried out a little too loud and it startled J who rolled over to the side of the bed by me, asked if I was ok, and promptly (before I could respond) fell asleep again. A couple of contractions later however, he was awake, and he started packing his coaching bag for the hospital, while pushing on my back when I'd call out to him.

Now, we had gone through Bradley birthing classes, and wanted to try to go "au natural"-- J for the sake of not wanting the baby to have any drugs in its system, me for the sake of not wanting to fall victim to the hospital's version of acupuncture. But I was in so much pain during the contractions, and thinking "I'm only 3 hours into this 14 hour labor", and I kept telling Joel I was not going to be able to make it. He was such an encourager though and just told me to keep on keeping on! Finally though at like 4:30 am, I told him I "really couldn't take it any longer"... so my lovely doctor of a husband was going to check to see how much I dilated, but before he could do it my water broke. We decided it was definitely time to go to the hospital!

At the hospital, I was found to already be dilated 7cm! Fifteen minutes later and I was upto an 8-- so by AZ law, there went my freedom to get an epi had J even thought about letting me. Once at the hospital though, it really wasn't all that bad in terms of pain, because I had J (and my mom's) undivided attention at pushing on my back. As long as they pushed really hard it didn't hurt, but if they let up then I not only had pain in my back but in the front as well. I think the hardest part of the labor was trying to control my body from pushing out the baby when I was at 9cm (which seemed like eternity, but wasn't probably longer then a half hour).
6 hours of labor and 5 needle stabs later (trying to put in one IV that I couldn't negotiate my way out of-- even my wonderful husband tried for me, what a trooper, although he thought I was silly for not wanting one), our beautiful little Baby V was born.


One proud papa! So sinceI'm planning on creating a digital scrapbook for the baby, I didn't buy the traditional baby book, hence my husband had to improvise in terms of where to put Liam's footprints!


Here we are with our OB, Dr. Charles. Notice her Nike workout shirt. She had just gotten to North Mtn when she got a page from the hospital saying one of her patients was in labor. She knew I was at 7cm, but the nurse said that I had an epi, so she figured it would be a while before I delivered. At the top, she got another page wondering where she was because I had been at an 8 for a little while, she ran all the way down, and delivered my baby on her day off, before rushing back home to take her kids to school and let her husband know she was ok and hadn't fallen off the mountain!


Grandma. My mom was in the room for the delivery. One of us had been a posterior baby so she knew the right Rx to help me feel better during labor!

Grandpa. He had been sick for the previous 2 weeks, so he would only pop in and out of the room for fear that he would get the baby sick.


My sister not only had wanted a Cinco de Mayo nephew, but she had said that under no condition was the baby allowed to be born on Monday morning, because she had two mandatory classes that day... but the baby waits for no one! So she missed the delivery (she had wanted to see it really bad) but came shortly thereafter and was able to see him! Note Joel in the background... my dear sweet husband asked my permission to leave to get himself breakfast, and came back carrying TWO smoothies for me (yes, even after pregnancy I was still craving them!) Yummy!!