Henry - 10 Months

Things keep rolling along here.  Henry and I had our 9 month appointment.  He was 90th percentile for head circumference, 95% for weight (25lbs) and 99% for height.  He is wearing 18-24 month clothes.  He can fit into 12 month clothes but they are all to short!  I am doubtful we will make it much past a year in the rear facing carseat.

Henry is crawling!  He is better on the carpet, but is getting faster and more mobile daily.  He really prefers to stand.  I find him up on his knees a lot now.  We are crashing a lot more, which leads to lots of bumps and bruises.

Teeth!  We are up to SEVEN.  Three on top, four on bottom.  He gets a little fussy on days he is teething, but nothing that bad.  He still constantly has his hands in his mouth, so I am sure more are coming.

Sleep: Henry continues to go down at about 6:30pm and sleep till about 7:30am.  He is still getting up in the middle of the night about once a week to eat.  The dog and Allan wake me up more than Henry does.

Tricks:  WAVING!  Henry just started to wave yesterday.  So cute, makes me teary.  He loves songs, bouncing, being thrown around, peek a boo.  He LOVES the dog and says "hi" to him in the morning. He is ALWAYS looking for the dog (and laughing).  Henry LOVES the swings at the park and stroller rides. If he is fussy, we head out - I am shuddering at the thought of a cold winter.

Henry now HATES the exersaucer (which he used to love).  He also hates his highchair - but calms down once I put out some puffs or goldfish.  He is eating everything.  Still prefers most things pureed.

Our trip for the month was to NOVA/DC to see my sister and catch up with friends.  Henry is getting harder to deal with on the plane.  On this flight, he squirmed nonstop, barfed on me, fussed, and then fell asleep as we were landing (literally).  To say I was thrilled to be off the plane is an understatement.  Allan, Henry and I do NOT fit in two airplane seats comfortably.

Henry - 5 1/2 months

I can't believe Henry is 5 1/2 months! He is super social and a very happy baby. I feel like I am being suckered into a second baby, because I could TOTALLY handle two kids like him!:)

I love that I have this happy human. Of course my goal is to keep him happy and on a good schedule! He is currently sleeping about 11 hours a night and taking three naps. Usually two of the naps are short (30-45 minutes) and the third is longer 1-2 hours.

His new trick of the week is grabbing his feet and sucking on his toes (if his socks are off). He is rolling from side to side, but not over yet. I'm also seeing lots of fine motor development. He is holding toys and transferring them from hand to hand. He is sitting, but only with support. The jumparoo is his FAVORITE thing.

We are working on introducing solids, but it is going slowly. We have tried rice cereal, carrots and peas. He will eat a bite or two and then start spitting food out. His favorite thing is to suck on apple slices. I figure it will come.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE

South Carolina, February 2012

This blog started as a travel blog. I used to write "daily email updates" when I traveled (this was before blogs) and people loved them. I always said, it is not about what happened, it is about the story you tell. It was a fun thing to find an internet cafe at the end of the day and type up what happened while drinking a tasty beverage....This blog started as a way to keep all of my travel memories in one place. Never thought I would be posting about marriage and motherhood! Times change.

I headed to Mt. Pleasant to hang with the parents this past week. I was originally invited to Soliman Bay in Mexico but decided that I was not up for taking my first trip with Henry (solo) out of the country. I also did not have enough frequent fliyer miles to get me down there ( I did not book soon enough). Luckily, I found a $200 round trip ticket on Southwest (LOVE) and $9 a day parking at MIdway. How could I turn it down? Especially since I am still on *Maternity Leave*? iroll - sometimes I wish I worked for the school district still so I could have had an actual maternity leave. oh well!

The trip was a total success! Henry was a champ. I allowed plenty of time and made sure he was hungry so he was ready to eat through take off and landing. On the way down he slept through takeoff and landing and was awake and happy the entire flight. He started fussing as soon as we turned into my parents driveway.

Coming home, he ate through takeoff and landing and napped on and off through the flight. Getting up at 4:00am was brutal (but worth it for the cheap flight.) I was also lucky that people were more than happy to help me with my luggage on the plane and Southwest made my life easy with curbside checkin. The flights were not totally full so I had an extra seat next to me both ways. It was really pretty easy! Let's hope Henry was not luring me in for the kill. Phoenix next month is looming....


I did not do much other than (try to) get a lot of sleep, do "two a day" run/walks around the 2.4 mile loop my parents live on, and hang out. My Mom and I saw The Artist and The Decendants. My Dad and I went downtown one day to drop off quilts at the quilt show and eat BBQ (yum). I also visited Belk for more "free clothes". Belk in SC is a season ahead of Chicago so I love to go and shop the clearance racks. Five tops for $50 and a pair of Born boots for $35. Woot! I need some help to hide the muffin top:(

My Mom hosted a "sip n see" for Henry to meet some of the ladies my Mom hangs out with and who have known me for years. It was great success and Henry was a champ being held by lots of strangers. He totally conked out by the end of the party though...


My parents were amazing and I did not want to come home. It was SO nice to have 24/7 help with Henry so I could go for a run, take a shower, try to sleep another hour at 5:00am (my mom is an early riser). My goal is to keep going to bed early so the midnight feedings don't kill me. Henry is sleeping for up to 7 hours at a stretch, but he goes down at 7:00pm so he is up at 3:00am! boooooo If only I could keep him up and start the 7 hours at 10!:)

8 Weeks

Henry turned 8 weeks old on Wednesday. He is growing like a weed and eats like a beast. I am seeing more smiles and love it when he "holds on" while I am carrying him. More and more of a personality is coming out, I live for his smiles - which are not as frequent as I would like.

Allan and I have been working on a consistent bedtime and bedtime routine. At this point, we are trying to start the routine between 7 and 8 at night and it consists of: bath, lotion rubdown/massage, food. He usually crashes pretty hard and sleeps for about 5-6 hours. I am trying to decide if I want to start waking him up at 11 or 12 for a *snack* in an attempt to get a little more sustained sleep but have not tried it yet. It is clear that the more he sleeps, the better he sleeps. On Wednesday, he did not sleep well during the day and we had the worst night since he came home, he was up every 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Thank God I got him back on track and he slept better on Thursday.



Henry continues to eat A LOT. I am taking fenugreek to try to boost my milk production but there is no way I am making enough so we are still also giving him formula. Honestly, I am glad given that he is a slow nurser and I HATE pumping (although I am getting a little more mellow on the pumping). In the last few days, Henry is starting to *urp* up MUCH more than he ever did. I am trying to make sure we are diligent about burping him, which does help. He has started burping like a sailor (LOUD) which makes me laugh.

I can see his vision really improving and he is much more content to lie on his playmat or sit in his bouncy seat and bat at the toys. I am going to try to upload a video...

Thursday Fun

Today was the day I have been waiting for for weeks....MANI/PEDI! My toes were in sad and sorry shape and needed a little TLC. Amy and I went together and she was nice enough to hold Henry for me while I was getting my nails done. Henry did his best to charm everyone in the salon and I don't think there would have been any shortage of ams willing to cuddle him:)


Amy also came to the rescue tonight and babysat Henry while I went to my first Crossfit class. I bought a Gilt City voucher for five classes. It was fun and exhausting. I am going to be interested to see if I can walk tomorrow. 65minutes, 601 calories burned. It feels good to be moving and working hard again!

Six Weeks

Yesterday, Henry was six weeks! I can't belive how fast the time is going by. We saw the Dr for our one month appointment yesterday. I was supposed to bring him in last week, but pushed it a week since I had my OB visit as well and though I could kill two birds with one stone. Good news on all fronts!

Henry weighs 10lbs 6oz and is in the 50% for weight. His head circumference and length were in the 60% percentile. The Dr. commented on how alert he was and how cute he is. I can't help but agree! I also got a good report from my OB, am cleared to exercise and don't have to go back for six weeks. A mammogram is in my future this year since I am going to be 40.

This week, Henry is even more alert and I can tell his vision is improving. He is starting to be happy in his bouncy chair and on the play mat batting at toys. He can clearly see them:) I am also starting to see smiles, which completely melt my heart....

5 weeks - or when I hit the wall....

I've been wanting to do a post about all the things people (and books) told me that would (or would not happen) and how, for me and this pregnancy, it was just not true. The most recent has been hitting the wall between 4 and 5 weeks. Everyone told me that the first 2-3 weeks would be the hardest. Well, not for me.

I am not sure what happened this week. I know that the weather changed and I have not been able to get out for a walk every day. Allan gets home after dark and the snow and ice have also kept me indoors. My gym membership is on hold till March but I am going to reactivate in February after I see my Dr next week and get an all clear. I did go out an run 2 miles in 10 degree weather on Thursday night - it was the best part of my day. Clearly I NEED the physical exertion to maintain my sanity.

Let's review all the things "people say":
1. Morning sickness will be gone by 12 weeks, 20 at the latest. Um, nope, I continued to be sick my entire pregnancy - even with Zofran helping, I was nauseous for 10 months solid. I threw up my entire labor.

2. You will gain a ton of weight, it will take 9 months to get it off. Again, nope - I topped out at 23lbs and FOUGHT for every one. I was below my pre-pregnancy (PP) weight at 10 days post baby and have since leveled off right around where I was PP. I need to firm up and do want to lose the 10-15lbs that I wanted to lose before I got pregnant (to be fabulous at 40), but that is another story.

3. First time Mom's have slow labor and you will push for 2-3 hours. Try 12 minutes and a resident telling me "not to push" while they tried to get the room set up in time.

4. It will take you a while to bounce back after having the baby. I felt better 2 weeks post baby than I had for pretty much the entire pregnancy. So much for the idea of "Irish twins". Mentally, I can't handle the thought of getting pregnant again. I don't want to wait very long since 40 is looming in June. Even hitting the wall this week, it is better than being pregnant.

5. Babies poop up to 6 times a day. Only ONE day so far have we had more than one poop in a day. Usually it is more like every 24-36 hours (which is supposed to be fine). Thank you lactation consultant for completely stressing me out over this one.

I am listing out the above only because I need to keep reminding myself to not believe any of the the things that *they say*. It just gets my hopes up for the crash. The two that are looming right now are:

1. Babies *peak* in fussiness at 6 weeks. Henry is definitely getting more fussy and I was telling myself that I could deal with it since the *peak* is coming. Then I thought, why should ANYTHING follow conventional wisdom.....fingers crossed that this one does.

2. Every pregnancy is different. See above #4 and the "Irish Twins - I am old" debate. I don't want to wait too long to try again and am actually ready to get the "all clear" from the Dr. next week (again, I feel better now than for most of my pregnancy). I am just terrified that I won't get pregnant again and also terrified of what could happen if I do? What if the next pregnancy is WORSE! gah!

Sleep deprivation is an ugly thing. I am getting enough sleep that I feel like I should be ok, but it really smacked me down this week. I fell down the stairs (more than once), get really emotional (my anxiety over things like dishes in the sink is brutal), have parked the car and walked away with it running, and I drop EVERYTHING (except the baby, Thank God). I was supposed to go for a late lunch today with a friend but am going to cancel. I don't have the motor skills to drive in the snow right now. I noticed not being able to focus well yesterday while driving in good conditions. I need to not take chances.
Even River is exhausted....


Wednesday I woke up with what I now think was a migraine (I got sick, light hurt my eyes, I literally could not get out of bed and had to let Henry cry for 30 minutes while I waited for Advil + Tylenol to kick in). It was scary. I could have called a neighbor, but I was literally not functioning well enough to think! Also this week, I felt like I might be starting with Postpartum Depression. I am TERRIFIED of this given my family history of PPD and SAD and my own history of depression (and self diagnosed anxiety issues). Thank God I woke up on Thursday feeling better. Today I also feel OK, even with MORE wake up calls last night. One more reason I NEED to get to the gym.

Here is the good news:
1. I still think Henry is the cutest thing around, he is healthy and growing. I think I started seeing a smile this week (it was intentional and repeated 2-3 times). I am hoping to see it more, even though it makes me cry. He bats at his toys and is awake and alert more of the day.

2. I am feeling good physically. I fit into my clothes (even with muffin top). With my sister in town over the weekend, I had my hair cut and reblonded. It made a huge difference in how I feel about myself.

3. I have amazing friends. PEO did a food drive on Sunday which literally SAVED me. Someone came over yesterday with two bags of food from Whole Foods and a baby present. More food is coming on Sunday. I love to cook, but this week pulled the rug out from under me and having meals in the fridge and freezer saved me.

4. I have amazing family who will drop everything and fly out if I say I need them.

5. Allan is an amazing man who I love and trust my my whole heart. I love how we are still trying to take care of each other.

6. Spring break trip to Phoenix/Sedona is booked (using points)! Just working on details now.

7. Hospital bills started coming (yikes - 4 days in NICU!). I am thankful that we can pay them (even though I will still stress about money).

8. I found a babysitter who will work for this spring till Allan is off for the summer. I am ready to start going back to work part time in Feb. Things are BUSY at the office:)

This week I want to focus on working Henry's sleeping schedule (within reason), taking more pictures, and writing down thoughts at least every other day.

My current obsession is trying to decide if I should go to Mexico (with Henry) in late Feb. I can mostly use miles to fly and have a free place to stay. Henry's passport has been applied for, the pediatrician gave the all clear. Why am I hesitating?

Two Weeks

I can't believe that two weeks have flown by so quickly! We are home and adjusting well after a rocky start and admission to NICU. My parents left this morning, I am getting some decent sleep at night (usually two 3-4 hour chunks) and Henry is growing like a weed. I'm still worried about breast feeding. Henry is not satisfied afterwards and we are doing more supplementing with formula (after managing to pull back last week). I am not sure if he is hitting a growth spurt, if my milk supply is not enough (and if not, why), or if it is some combination of the two. I've been letting him feed longer and doing more switching back to first side if he is still awake to let him *finish* that breast. I am also trying to pump if I don't think he ate enough. Tomorrow I will try to pump between feedings to get things going.

I have been feeling pretty good. My goal for the week is to take daily walks with River of at least one mile. Dailymile.com has been helping me track my *mileage*. Horner Park is my sanctuary. I don't care if it is cold, rainy, dark, or wet. Taking the time for a walk with the dog with no phone/music/talking has been invaluable. Running will have to wait till I heal up a little more. I also need to keep building my fitness by walking.


As of this morning, I am down 24lbs, so -1 from prepregnancy. I'd still like to lose another 15 to get back to my WeWa goal weight. The problem is that I am not hungry and know I am not eating enough. Is this why Henry is not satisfied after nursing? ugh. I am going to a breast feeding drop in clinic on Monday and hope to get some help there.

Friends came over tonight and brought us pizza and beer (for Allan). One is an amateur photographer and took lots of cute pictures of Henry. Allan and I looked like death, so not many of those will be posted.....

One Week

Henry turned one week old yesterday. We are already seeing changes, he is more awake, more alert, is tracking better with his eyes and using his hands more. For the first time today, he actually got a finger in his mouth by himself! The other big change we are seeing is that his blue eyes are already turing brown:( They say that babies look like their fathers for biological reasons - Henry is no exception!

On my front, I am feeling better and better. I got on the scale yesterday and have lost 16 of the 23 lbs I gained during the pregnancy. Pregnancy clothes (pants) are already starting to fall off. One of my goals for tomorrow is to dig out some of my "fat" clothes for the transition. The bummer is that even having lost 16 lbs, I am still a good 20lbs from my WeWa goal weight. On one hand, I have not been that weight for years so don't know if it is realistic, on the other hand, I am actually motivated to work hard and get out running, so why not have a goal - to get back to goal?

I took a really nice walk with River today. I did not even care that the weather was miserable. It was so nice to be out and moving without pain. The Dr said no exercise other than walking for six weeks, which is fine. I just want to commit to taking the dog out for two 20-30 minute walks a day, especially while my parents are here and I can't even get near the baby anyway.....

Terrific Tuesday!

I got the best news ever today! The maid has room to come and clean every week (as opposed to every other week). I realize that I am spoiled, but I will give up A LOT to keep the maid. Somehow, I can keep the place picked up, but then lose my motivation to clean. Having her come also helps me keep things picked up and cleaner. I am so much happier with an clean house:)

Now my "photo bomb"
Coming home from the hospital.


Tummy time was a great success! Henry had gas last night and we looked online for help. This worked! River wanted in on the fun.

Tummy time last night seems to have sealed the deal. River says "this is MY baby!".

The "lost 24" hours, part 2.

After Henry was taken to NICU, I tried to get some sleep. Unfortunately, I was not able to settle down until after 4am. At 5:45 my OB came in to check on me. (talk about early rounds!). At 6:00, I took a shower - my first since Tuesday morning and we headed out at 6:30ish. Allan was actually off to a 7:10am Dr's appointment. We had been trying to get him in before the end of the year (and deductibles reset) and decided that he should just go. I headed to NICU.

I met an NICU nurse who was so nice and got me oriented towards the NICU. I had not been in an NICU since I worked at Rush over 10 years ago. There were "pods" and within a "pod" were six small rooms. It was like he had his own private room and we had privacy while we were with him. The good news was that she had gotten Henry to eat about 15ml, the bad news was that his sugar was still not anywhere near good. We decided (and agreed) that although breast feeding is important, getting good nutrition in Henry and his sugars up (so he could get out of NICU and come home) was the priority. I was able to feed him a bottle and he ate almost 2oz! I was thrilled to see him eat and felt that we were on the right track. I stayed for about 1hr 15 minutes and then headed back upstairs to try to go to sleep.

Honestly, at that point, I hit the wall. Allan got back to the hospital at about 9ish and had doughnuts from the Doughnut Vault! Yum! Having a donut made my day. I was so thankful that he had also run out the night before for Chick Fil-A since getting food became problematic. You needed to "order" it and it then took an hour to arrive. The problem was that you needed to be in your room and we were bouncing back and forth between NICU. We eventually found our system, but I did not eat all that much for Wednesday or Thursday.


While I hit the wall that morning, Allan was a champ. A lot of Thursday is sort of foggy for me. We went down to NICU for each feeding and the nurses were fabulous! The nurse that came in at 8:00am was also a lactation counselor (a step down from lactation consultant) and was a HUGE help in getting Henry to latch on with nipple shields and I felt like we were making progress. I would (attempt) to feed Henry for 10 minutes (we did not want him tired), and then would pump while Allan fed him a bottle. Honestly, it was wonderful that Allan could also be so involved in the process and get bonding time with Henry. The nurses were AMAZING with teaching us not only breastfeeding, but how to take a temperature, correctly diaper, hold the baby, etc. The bummer was that they had to constantly prick his heel for the sugar readings.

Our routine was as follows: Henry ate every three hours: 30 minutes before Henry was scheduled to eat, I would get up, go to the bathroom, etc. We would then leave to get to NICU and make sure we were there about 10 minutes before feeding time. We would change his diaper, take his temp, and the nurse would check his blood sugar. I would BF for 10 minutes, Allan would feed him his bottle while I pumped, one of use would cuddle/kangaroo with him, we would leave and get back to to the room with about 1hr 45min till we needed to get back down there.

By Thursday afternoon, we had our first "good" sugar reading (above 65). We kept at it and they started weaning him off the glucose IV on Friday at 1:00. I was discharged late on Friday night (11:15pm) and we were back on Saturday morning. We were discharged and took Henry home yesterday (Friday) at 2:00pm.


We are so thrilled to be home, but I still feel like 3:00am Thursday morning to midnight Friday were just lost. I am so happy to have a happy ending and have a healthy baby at home. I guess this scare made me appreciate him all the more!

The "lost 24" hours....part 1

The last day or so have been completely crazy but I am trying to write down what is happening since I can tell I am already forgetting things!

We did some "recovering" in the labor and delivery room and I started trying to breast feed. The nurse was helpful, but I never really got Henry to latch on or do any good sucking. We were moved to a room on the 13th floor and my new nurse was really helpful. She and I managed to get Henry latched and sucking on my right breast (now to be know as the "good breast" or GB), although I don't know that he got much. At our next feeding, at 8:00pm, we had less success:( As it turns out, my nipples are pretty flat and hard to latch onto. The nurse gave me some "soft shells" to try to get my nipples to pull out more and I started wearing them. I was not stressed though, I figured this happens to lots of people and that I could get a lactation consultant to come in the morning to help me out. Everyone says how hard this is, we just had to make it through the night. Unfortunately, the 10:00pm feeding did not go much better. The nurses took Henry off for a glucose check and told me that he was low (in the 40's). At about midnight, we were given a bottle and told that Henry's sugar was still to low and he needed to eat about an ounce/30ml and they would check him again. He needed to be in the 50's or they would call the NICU.

At 2:00am, his sugar was still not up. He had eaten a decent amount from the bottle, but I think he had ended up urpping most of it up (tiny stomach, first food). The nurse told me we could give it one more try and I went with her to the nursery and we got about 15ml of formula in him. He was just tired and not interested at that point. I left him in the nursery so they could check his sugar in an hour and went back to bed. Unfortunately, Allan had completely hit the wall at about midnight and while I could wake him up, I decided not to since he was so out of it when he was awake. At 3:00am, the nurse came and told me that his sugar was still not up, and was actually dropping. He was being taken downstairs to the NICU. :( I woke Allan up so we could both kiss Henry goodbye. It was really hard. Henry was awake with both eyes were open for the first time (that I had seen). After he was gone, I made Allan get in the hospital bed and cuddle with me. I am surprised it did not collapse under our combined weight.

I had been told to give the NICU nurse about an hour to get him checked in and settled down. I called down at about 4:00am and was told that Henry had eaten about 15ml and was sleeping. They were going to feed him every three hours, so his next feeding was at 7:00am. I was told that I could come down anytime, but that he was sleeping and the best thing would be for me to sleep as well and come down at about 6:30am so that we could get introduced to the NICU and be ready to go for the 7:00am feeding.

Welcome to the World, Baby Boy

I took this picture last night and had intended to have a blog post titled "Induction Attempt #2" today since eggplant parmigiana is a time honored southern tradition for starting labor. We went to Topo Gigio on Wells after a basketball game and had our *last* dinner as a couple. I had been feeling a little weird all day but as Allan had been saying to me "you feel weird all the time", so I did not think much about it. I did feel the need to clean up before going to bed and throw stuff away, try to tie up some loose ends via email, etc.

As normal, I did not sleep well. Lights out at 11:30, up to pee at 1:30. I was lying in bed, listening to Allan snore and felt something *funny* and then felt lots of liquid. I jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom where it felt like I was peeing out a gallon of water. Totally clear, did not smell, I just kept peeing. Even after I was done, I kept leaking. Yes, my water had broken. Allan and I called the Dr., packed up, made a few (dog related) phone calls, walked the dog, and were at Prentice an hour later. I was definitely having contractions, but nothing terrible or that painful. I NEVER would have gone in to L&D or even called a Dr for these contractions, even though they were about 5 minutes a part.


We were checked into triage, they established my water had broken, and we were put in a room, waiting for a room on the L&D floor. The good/amazing news is that MY Dr. was the Dr. on call for the practice and he was going to be the one to deliver me!:) Happy Days! Unfortunately, the storm that came into town had also brought many other women into labor and our short wait for a room, turned into a three hour wait. This would have been fine except my nausea came back with a vengeance after my water broke. I finally ended up taking one of my own zofran (the nurses wanted me to wait to get upstairs), but it was to late. Before I was sent up stairs, they established that my cervix was dilated to 2cm - up from the 1 it has been for the last 10 days.:(

We made it to the L&D floor at about 5:00am. The Dr. came in and started me on Pitocin. I was a little against this but understood his reasoning, we needed to get the contractions going more consistently to get the baby out of me since my water had broken. I had been told,....if they do anything to speed up your labor, get the epidural first. (good advice, take it if you are ever in this situation). I actually asked about an epidural at that point but was not in much pain so the Dr said to wait. Things progressed and by 7, I wanted the epidural. It was weird, it was not that I could not tolerate the pain, it was that I did not want to. Part of it was that there was no end in sight. The other thing was that my blood pressure had been VERY high since I was in triage and there were concerns regarding pre-eclampsia. The whole point of waiting for an epidural was that I would be able to move around, they were worried about pre-e so I was not allowed to get out of bed.

Unfortunately, by the time I asked, someone else was in line ahead of me and by the time they were in the room and setting up, it was 8:00am, I was VERY uncomfortable, and spent most of the process throwing up. Not pretty. Allan was kicked out and I told him to go get some breakfast and take a walk. He later told me that he was scared by the sounds I as making when he left. The good news is that I thought the epidural was GRAND, and felt soooo much better and in a nicer mood. Then nurse upped the pitocin and I was very bummed to hear that I was still only at 2cm at 9:00am when they checked me.

I spent the morning in a daze, watching tv, looking out the window, talking on the phone a little. At 9:00am I realized (or processed) what they were telling me. While my water had broken, my body was not ready to go into labor and that was why they were really pushing the pitocin. Essentially, they were forcing my body into labor. I was also made to realize that this would be a LONG process. At that point, my goal became to have the baby before 5:00pm when my Dr. went off call and a new Dr. would deliver me. It was determined that the baby was "happier" if I as on my left side, so I pretty much hung out there and felt my legs getting numb.

I sent Allan out to get some food before noon and walk around. A new nurse came on shift at noon and we talked a little about the process. Again, I settled in for a long term, first pregnancy labor. Allan got back at about 12:20 and we hung out. The medical student came in, and at about 12:30 a resident came in to introduce herself and check my progress, which I thought was great. I had been told they don't check you that much because there is some risk of infection - which made sense, I just wanted to know if I had made any progress since 9:00am. The nurse had told me at noon that they would wait for me to tell them when things felt different....which I thought was crazy, because I had an epidural! I had a hard time shifting around in bed so she could check. Things had been feeling a little different for the prior 30 minutes, but I figured it was just the contractions getting stronger. I could feel the baby getting lower and the nurse had to keep moving the monitors down.

The poor resident started to check me and pretty much went white. She asked how I felt and when I said ok, she said that I was 10cm dilated and she could see the baby's hair. It pretty much started a crazy fire drill where they told me not to push (it now felt like I needed to) while they found the nurse, Dr and got things set up. By 12:45 they had me ready to go, less than 4 sets of three pushes later, Henry was born at 12:58pm! 7lbs, 15oz, 20.5 inches. Lots of black hair!