Fruit of My Labor

Okay, so I know I'm a jerk for waiting this long to show you all the prize, but I'm sure you all have it in your hearts to forgive me. After the baby came, I was in no mood to boot up the computer at all. Ever. But now things are starting to normalize a little, so I'm ready to share pictures. Let's face it---that's what you've all come here today to see anyway!

I know I could go into pretty graphic/vivid detail about the whole experience, and I probably will at some point, but this post is more for those who want to get the gist of it. So here it is:

I went in for a non-stress test on Thursday morning at 9:00. They didn't like how his heart rate responded to some minor contractions, so they told me that they were going to send me to labor and delivery to have my induced. Which was so weird because I didn't expect to be having a baby on Thursday at all. We headed over to L&D, I got on a hospital gown, and at 10:30 I was hooked up to pitocin. My mom and Murray were with me, and my mil joined us soon after. We all visited and chatted while my contractions gradually grew stronger and stronger. Although it was 3:00 before they were intense enough for me not to feel like a wuss asking for the epidural, the time actually went by very quickly. Once I had the epidural, time continued to pass quickly, if not more comfortably. I even took a little nap while my body prepared itself for labor. I'm telling you, the epidural is my new BFF.

By late evening, my body was ready to start. I was still really comfortable because of the epidural, although I hated how my dead legs just felt like huge lumps of fat attached to the lower half of my body. If you had told me that I would have been sitting in the hospital for about ten hours waiting for push time, I would have thought it would feel like an eternity, but really the time passed quickly and pleasantly. It was all rather relaxing.

And to tell you the truth, the actual pushing part was much easier than I'd expected, too. Because I was still completely numb and painless below my belly button, the whole pushing experience felt kindof like a workout with a personal trainer---an upper body workout, since I couldn't feel my lower body. And after about an hour of pushing, I heard my doctor whisper something to the nurse about doing an episiotomy if the baby didn't come out in the next push, and that was motivation enough for me---the baby came out in the next push.








I don't have a blog name for him yet, but baby was 8 lbs 14 oz, and 20.5 inches. He's brought immeasurable joy to our lives so far.

(And lest you think that after an easy pregnancy, I've made labor and delivery sound like it's easy, let me assure you: labor and delivery were easy. Recovery the next couple of days was awful.)

(Also? I'm back to wearing my old jeans today. Thank goodness for gestational diabetes!!)