WE HAVE A BABY- February 1

So, I had a doctor's appointment in the morning of Thursday, January 28. I was barely dilated to 1 cm. I had maybe some contractions over the weekend, but they felt like the braxton hicks ones I'd been having for a while. I went back on Monday, February 1 and was actually dilated to a 3! My doctor stripped the membranes and basically told me he expected to see me at the hospital that night having a baby! But if not, I was to go in the next day for an ultrasound to what was going on.

I went home and had contractions off and on all day. And I could tell they felt different than the other ones. I don't think I really expected anything to happen quickly since when I was dilated to 3 cm and gotten my membranes stripped with Mackenzie, it still took 4 days before I had her. My mom and I even told Morian to go to work because really, it wasn't very likely the baby would come that day.

Well, right around dinner time, my contractions started getting harder and closer together. They were definitely more painful. So I decided to pack a bag, just in case. And I tried to time them, which was kind of hard, but they seemed to be coming about every 5-8 minutes. I finally got to the point where I had to squat down and breathe through the contractions, which I was very much feeling in my lower back. Which is what I had to do with Mackenzie, so I was then pretty sure it was happening that night. I just needed to wait for Morian to get home from work so we could go to the hospital. And of course, of all days, he was later than usual getting home because he had to make a stop at the store on the way. He scarfed down some dinner and we headed out to the car. We made it to the hospital at about 8:45 PM.

Morian dropped me off at the entrance to the ER and went to park the car. As soon as I got out of the car, I had a contraction, so I hadn't even made it inside when Morian caught up with me. We checked in and got taken to a room where they hooked me up to the monitors to check the baby's heart rate and checked me out as well. I was dilated to about 5-6 cm. I felt like the nurses were taking their sweet time asking me questions and getting these set up and with each contraction I was practically doubled over in pain! I wanted to shout, "Hello! I'm having a baby here! Can we hurry things up a bit?!" We finally got wheeled up to the labor and delivery room on the 4th floor a little after 9 PM. (I think. I'm a little fuzzy on times!) They checked me again and I was at 6-7 cm. My contractions were getting even more painful! The nurse asked if I wanted an epidural and I said yes, if they can do it in time. So she made the call and said it would be about 45 minutes. So, I kept feeling like I needed to push with my contractions, but of course, the nurse is like, NO pushing! But sometimes I just couldn't help it and I could tell my body was just doing it on its own! 

Around 9:30 or so, the nurse checked me again and I was at 8 cm. At 9:33 (I made sure to make note of the time!) I was in the middle of a contraction and I felt a little pop and then a huge gush of water. I was like, "My water just broke!" It was the weirdest feeling; my water didn't really break on its own before. (Well, with Devin they broke it but I had an epidural so I didn't feel it. With Mackenzie, it was bulging out of me, still intact, until they told me I could push once to break it and as I did, Mackenzie slid right out.) So the nurse was like, "You're having a baby before you get an epidural." And after that, I definitely felt the need to push with each contraction and viced that to the nurse.  So she called out to another nurse in and told her I felt like I needed to push but she had just checked me and I was at an 8. Well, the other nurse checked me and was like, "Nope, she's ready to go!" But I still couldn't push because I had to wait for my doctor to get there. They all said he was pretty quick about getting to the hospital, but they had the on-call doctor go to the front desk and wait, just in case he didn't make it there in time. So I'm waiting, and dying through each contraction and still kind of pushing because that seemed to manage the pain better than just breathing through it. As soon as my doctor showed up, they got my legs up and said I could push through the next contraction. I did, and I could feel the baby close, but he didn't come out. On the next contraction, I pushed and out popped a head. Then shoulders. Then the rest of the body just slid right out! 

Connor William Black was born at 9:57 PM on February 1.

 They put him on me and let me hold him while I delivered the placenta (which came really quickly and a lot less painfully than it did with Mackenzie). Then they took him to clean him up a bit and then they brought him back to me. 

 He was beautiful! The cutest little ears, super dark blue eyes, brown hair... I was in love!

Proud papa again!

 He weighed 7 lbs 11 oz and was 20.25 inches long. My biggest baby! Yet, he still seemed so small!

 We hung out in the labor and delivery room for a couple hours while they got a room ready for me in the postpartum area.

We got moved over sometime in the midnight hour. When he wasn't sleeping, I just enjoyed holding Connor. He constantly had (and still has!) his hands up by his face/mouth. Something carried over from the womb. We have a couple ultrasound pictures where you can see his hand by his mouth!  It's cute, until those little hands get in the way of nursing!

 So actually, we didn't decide on his name until the morning of the 2nd. We'd had a few names we were considering but we said he needed to have a name sooner, not later. Meaning, no more taking home nameless babies! So we counted to 3 and said the name we were most leaning towards. And we both just happened to say Connor. Nothing special about that name, except it was one that we both agreed on! We chose William as his middle name as a family name. From Morian's dad's side, my dad's side, and my mom's side.