The birth story...

After my mother-in-law came in to town we headed to IKEA and walked my pregnant butt all up and down that store. IKEA is huge. We bought a crib. We came home and just sort of crashed. Saturday, the 16th we stayed home and just hung out. I convinced my brother that "if you build it, he will come" so that he could help us put the crib together. As we began putting it together I started feeling small contractions.

Sunday morning, the 17th I woke up at 3am with a contraction unlike any I had felt before and thought "ow! Oh my goodness, this may be it. I think today is the day". As the day wore on, I tried napping, I tried eating, I tried to get my mind off of things, and just relax as the contractions kept coming and getting more intense. In the afternoon my mom and mother-in-law went to the store, and JT, my brother and I stayed at home playing some video games. Pausing when I'd get a contraction. When I had to pause twice before passing a level, we realized we should start timing contractions. We timed them and they got longer and closer together. My mom-in-law came home and checked me. 3 centimeters.

Around 6pm I was about 5 centimeters. By the time it was around 8pm I was 7 centimeters. That was the moment we decided to go to the hospital. As we were getting everything together and got in the car and to the hospital, my contractions slowed. I had to brace myself a few times because of contractions on my way up to the labor and delivery room.

It took me a few hours to get back into the groove of contractions. Finally around 12am I was at about 8 centimeters, and there I stayed for too long. At this point the nurse from heaven came in and checked me while I was having a contraction. Nothing like having something up in there when your uterus is contracting. There was a lip that wasn't going up over his head. So I was supposed to bare down while she pulled my uterus up over his head when I was having a contraction. Pain. Oh God, the pain. I just followed directions. Get up and rock, I got up and rocked my hips. Sway, I swayed. Back on the bed, I was back on the bed. Legs up, I put my legs up. Lift your bottom and push, I did. Chin to your chest, legs up, and push. I did. I kept hearing, "You're pushing in your face, you need to push in your bottom" uhhh, OK? How does one go about pushing in the face? How does one direct the pushing to your bottom? Finally I realized they wanted me to do whatever it was that was increasing the pain. Oh, you want me to make it hurt more? Gotcha.

I kept pushing until I hear my mother-in-law telling me how much of his head she can see. "I can see this much!" as she holds up a dime sized circle shape with her hands. Then quarter sized, then half-dollar sized, then bigger, and bigger...and bigger. For some strange reason I didn't realize that we were pushing him out yet. I just thought the uterus was going up over his head. I was wrong. I kept thinking that I just needed a quick break to just catch my breathe, because after you hold your breathe to push, trying to catch your breathe when it's over without hyperventilating is actually kind of hard. But the contractions were coming one on top of each other, there was no stopping. I even heard the nurses commenting that "poor thing, she's getting no breaks". Next thing I know, my Dr. is standing at the "head of the table" and I have a baby on my chest. I'm in awe and I just can't believe it. They ask me to talk to him, and all I can say is 'Hello....Oh my God...Hi baby boy' as he stares right into my eyes.

My mom is a ball of tears, my mother-in-law is a ball of tears, they're hugging and kissing JT and me and I'm still in awe. They see The Kid, they rush out and let my brothers and aunt and cousin, who have been waiting in the waiting room the whole time, come in and see him. It's a blur, but I distinctly recall telling the nurse from heaven that I will name my daughter after her. She totally helped me beyond the call of duty. At this point my family leaves and we get to just hold The Kid after the nurse bathed him. At that point I held him and it hit me. I teared up as I told JT "He's ours. He's finally here." I cried and I just couldn't contain myself anymore.

Our little family is doing well. We're starting to get into a schedule. We couldn't be happier and we're all so in love with each other. It's amazing. And I wouldn't have it any other way.