
Well that tricky trickster thought a full day of false labor would be a good way to prepare me for less than two hours of real labor. Here's how it went down:
I woke up around 2:30 with my first contraction. After about three, I could tell that these were definitely of a more painful variety than I had been feeling on Monday. I woke Justin up so we could start timing them. They were already coming 4 minutes apart. We decided to get up and start getting stuff ready, and my water broke. We called our neighbor Noelle who graciously came to sleep on our couch and look after Colton. By the time she got to our house around 3:15 ish, the contractions were already coming about 2-3 minutes apart, and were much more painful than anything I actually felt when Colton was born. (I should point out that I got my epidural nice and early with Colton...) We got to the hospital around 3:30 am. Justin helped me into the lobby and then went to move the car. This is what they told us to do on the tour of the hospital. But when the next contraction hit, and I let out a little squeal of pain, I think it made the security guard uncomfortable enough that he helped me into a wheelchair and pushed me up to Labor and Delivery.
So it had only been about an hour since I'd felt the first contraction, but they were coming about every two minutes and lasting a very unpleasant minute. When I got to L&D, the anesthesiologist was standing there waiting. I could not have been more happy to see anyone. Unfortunately, they made me sign a whole bunch of paperwork before they let him come in. Justin got back from parking the car about this time, and I'll be honest, I may have been screaming just a little bit with every contraction. It kind of hurt. A lot. I was already at a 7 cm when I arrived at the hospital. They finally let the anesthesiologist in a little after 4 am. The epidural had just enough time to take a little of the edge off, because when the doctor came back in, it was go time. I think I pushed about three times, and he was born at 4:21 am. Justin then passed out at 4:21:30. Fortunately, he knew it was coming and was able to sit down and secure himself in a chair before losing consciousness.
Even though this delivery was a lot more intense than Colton's, it was over so quickly that it almost seemed like it didn't happen. I think by 7 am I was already untethered from all machines and IVs and feeling pretty good. Brian is perfect and healthy. He weighed 8 lbs 4 oz and is 21 inches long. (A mere three lbs heavier than his older brother!) We're so happy he's here!!
I think his torso is twice as wide as Colton's was. He kind of looks like a sumo wrestler in comparison.
Lots of dark brown hair!
They gave me lots of bling.
Brian got some too.
We forgot to take any pictures of all three of us when Colton was born, so we made sure to do it this time. Too bad you can't really see the baby...We'll take some tomorrow before we go home.
He's an awfully cute little burrito.
Welcome to the world little Brian!