Best day of life

This is really long and boring, I realize. No one is making you read it. Scroll down for baby pics but be forewarned that newborns look like raisins/old men.

At my last regular OB visit my doctor broke the news to us that he didn't think this baby would come on his own terms and I'd likely need to be induced on the 20th. As much as it pained me to think of being pregnant for another week I tried my best to make my peace with the news and plan a few "last hoorah" type activities in the meantime. The biggest hoorah I was capable of was going to a restaurant (i.e. sitting and eating) so G and I decided we would go out to dinner on Thursday after the trade deadline. G's busiest time of year was set to end at 3 pm, then we would go to the hospital for a few routine tests to make sure baby was still thriving, and then we would go out to eat.

Fast forward to Thursday morning. I woke up having a few crampy type feelings. I tried not to get too excited but as far as I could tell they were contractions. When we got to the hospital they first did an ultrasound to measure the amniotic fluid levels. As per usual the tech is allowed to tell you nothing so she printed off a picture of our son sucking on his fist and sent us on to the non-stress test. This test was actually performed in the labor and delivery wing so they put me in a delivery bed (eek) and hooked me up to the monitors. Before the test even got going one of the nurses came in and said "You might as well go ahead and change into that hospital gown." (Exsqueeeze me?) She followed with, "We'll call and check with your doctor but we don't send people home with those fluid levels. I think you're going to have a baby tonight." Well that was really not what we were expecting to hear. They finished the non-stress test and thankfully everything looked good there and also confirmed that I was starting to have contractions.

We sat there for an eternity waiting for the word from the doctor and when that finally came G sprung into action to gather all of our things. He ran home to get our hospital bag and take out the trash per my instructions b/c it stunk. Meanwhile the nurses hooked me up to pitocin to get things started. A mere 15 mins later my doctor showed up and broke my water. There was no going back!

Things progressed rather quickly and since I was having my own contractions plus pitocin contractions I didn't really get a break in between. Awesome. Thankfully it's a small hospital and my anesthesiologist showed up quickly to administer the epidural. Filed under "not so good news" however, he wasn't very good at it. As soon as it was in I started to feel like I couldn't breathe. The nurse comforted me by saying "Oh wow, I've only ever seen this happen to one patient before." They gave me oxygen and told me to sit up so the drugs would drip down instead of up. This was not a particularly satisfying fix but eventually I sort of got used to the feeling and was breathing a little easier. Trouble was every time they upped the dose the breathing got worse. I really like breathing so I had them turn the dose down and refrained from hitting my pain button to give myself more. I wouldn't describe the sensation as numb. I'm sure the pain was remarkably dulled but based on what I did feel I am 100000% sure that I never want to try this naturally.

I really wasn't thrilled that this picture was taken.

At one point baby started having a racing heartbeat so they turned the pitocin off for a couple of hours and let him chill out. Once it was back on things progressed really quickly. I called the nurse in to tell her I felt a lot of pressure and she declared it was time to push. Eek! Never have I been more thankful to be a compulsive exerciser because that ain't easy.

The doctor arrived around 3:45 am and apologized for his bedhead. I'm sure this was because I looked spectacular and that made him feel bad. He checked out baby's position and said he was sunny side up. Unfortunately nature has designed the whole process to go more smoothly with their faces pointing down.  Perfectly calmly our doctor just reached right in and turned him around. Oh, great. After that he pretty much slid right out, you know as much as babies ever slide out.

Bennett Walter was born on 9/16/11 at 4:07 am and was 7 lbs 4 oz, 19 inches long, and with hair that makes old men jealous. He also had a record setting conehead.

Love.

Hard to keep a hat on the entire cone.

All I could think besides "Holy crap that is my baby, I am a mom, etc. etc." was "What is with all that hair!!!??" How is my child such a hairy monkey? I still have no idea but he is adorable so I don't care.

G went with Bennett to get all of his newborn tests while I feasted.

Holding daddy's hand while he gets all his tests done.

For the rest of our hospital stay everyone kept commenting on how shocked they were that the birth went so well. Even my doctor thought I'd be in labor for over 24 hours, rip in half, and still have a 5 lb baby. It was a rather sizeist crowd and I was proud to represent for little people.

How the rest of the hospital stay was spent.

Speaking of little people, we fell in love immediately and spent the next several hours just staring at Bennett and taking it all in. It was wonderful!