Two Weeks Early

I was hoping that my baby would come early, but it caught be by surprise when it happened anyway.  I thought I was prepared, having attended the Bradley Method classes and we had our hospital bag (mostly) packed as well as car seats strapped in both cars... but I also expected to have contractions.  I didn't really consider what to expect if my water just broke say... as I was making dinner?  Should have thought of that one 'cause that's exactly what happened... kicking off a delivery that took our birth plan and chucked them out the window.

We checked in at the Hospital and settled in for the night, being as I was not experiencing any "labor" pains.  I had until 6AM to show "improvement."

Our son's heart rate started dropping in the middle of the night with the contractions that were reading on the monitor but not rating on a pain scale for me, which meant oxygen mask for me, IV and 24/7 monitoring.  Not super conducive to relaxing or progressing in labor... which meant that 7AM brought on a pitocin drip, increased every 30 minutes until hard pains happened at 11.  12PM brought about antibiotics since it was now 18 hours past bag of water rupture.  By now I'm realizing my dream of having this baby naturally without medicine is becoming a dimmer reality.   My progress at this point had been minimal and we were told we could expect what seemed to be minute improvements each hour.  Meanwhile I'm experiencing painful contractions every 3-5 minutes. Out of sheer exhaustion and desperation we ordered the epidural around 12:30.  Best.decision.ever.  No regrets.

I woke up from a nap around 2:30 and was greeted with the happy news that "it was time."  40 minutes of pushing and at 3:48PM on Friday, November 30, 2012, Alden Gregory made his appearance.

Tipping the scales at 6 pounds 13 ounces, this 20 inch baby boy made us the happiest parents in the world!