He's here!

Our cute little boy is here!  I'm sitting here in the hospital using a computer they loan out (isn't that cool) and I thought it would be easier to update this blog while I'm here instead of home.  Adam's at work (he has to cover for a guy who broke his pelvis so he's super busy), Grandma w and j & j are watching my kiddos, and baby is in the nursery getting checked again.  So nice. 

I'd include a picture but don't have the stuff to download everything yet.  He's a super cute little kid.  He's got a lot of dark hair but I think it will probably fall out and come in blond like our other kids.  He has blond roots.  He's also got a dimple on the same side Luke does, the right.  He looks a lot like Jacob  but has the profile of Jane and I.  Don't ask me what parent he looks like cause I've got no idea. 

So, the story.

I was having a few contractions on Wed off and on, nothing too serious.  By wed night they were about 20 minutes apart but not very hard at all.  Adam didn't even know I was having any.  After taking a shower that night, just in case I went into labor sometime soon, I went to bed.  I woke up around 4:30 with contractions again but they were 12 minutes apart.  Nothing to worry about.  I tried to sleep in between but around 7am went to the couch.  They were getting a little harder but I could still talk through them if I had to.  Around 8 minutes apart by now but not too hard.

This kept going until 9 or so but I wasn't sure if I should go to the hospital or not.  My other kids' labors had contractions 5 or less minutes apart so I thought I'd wait till then and then go to the hospital.  It was pretty inconvenient for a lot of people for me to go to the hospital today so I was somewhat apprehensive about making the arrangements.  But I figured I'd better at least find out if I was dilating.  For some reason, I was totally under the impression that I wouldn't be the required 4cm dilated to be admitted to the hospital and I would have inconvenienced everyone for nothing.

However, we sent the kiddos to the neighbors (thank you, thank you!), called Grandma to come up from PG, and headed to the hospital.  Well, we did stop by Adam's work for about 15 minutes so he could get a couple things passed off to someone else in case we really were having a baby.  I was still having contractions about 8 min apart, getting a little more intense but nothing too bad.  I felt really pretty good in between contractions so I wasn't too worried.

Adam came back to the car and we headed to the hospital, another 20 minutes.  We got there and I got out of the car in the parking garage.  I figured walking into the hospital (instead of valet parking) would help speed things long, just in case.  I looked down and noticed how low my belly looked.  Guess he must be dropping I thought.  At least I know something's happening.  I made it in and contractions are coming a little more quickly but still manageable.  Adam had to drag me into and out of the elevator during contractions so we wouldn't have to wait and have it close on us.  Adam checked me in while someone took me to a room.  They had a gown laid out on the bed for me to put on and the nurse asked me to pee into a cup.  I went into the bathroom, got my clothes off, tried to pee and couldn't and found myself pushing instead.

My water broke immediately and I felt him coming down.  I yelled for help and the nurse came running in and got me to the bed.  She yelled to Adam to get some help and he went and got all the nurses at the desk.  I pushed once and his head came out.  The on call dr. came in, I pushed once more and he was here.  Ta da.  A total of 4 minutes in my room.  Really way too fast for my taste.

I should probably mention I looked into some hypnobirthing techniques and I think that really helped me relax, maybe a little too much because I didn't really realize how strong my contractions were getting.  I never really tensed up and practiced relaxing during every "pressure wave" and visualizing him coming down.  I guess it worked.  So there's a plug for hypnobirthing.  However, I was totally unprepared to be pushing and totally freaked out.  I pushed our baby out too quickly and tore and hyperventilated a lot.  My arms went numb and my fingers got all twisted up and I couldn't straighten them out but a few minutes later I was fine.  My dr. came in a few minutes later and sewed me up and told me next time, when you're having contractions, come straight to the hospital.  I totally agreed.

Recovery: my easiest so far.  I don't know if it's because of the lack of drugs and stuff or some other reason.  No catheter (had one with Luke and Jacob because of swelling), no shaking, have been walking around the hospital quite a bit, not too tired, and all other good things.

There's the story in a nutshell.  Thanks to everyone who helped out.  And I'm sorry if you didn't hear we had a baby yet and you should have.  We're trying not to text too much because we have to pay for each one so I posted on facebook instead hoping that would get the word out pretty well.