Getting the Little One Here

I figured I would tell our little story about how we got little Jacob here with us...so here it goes...

Last Sunday night started off pretty normal for us.  After we ate dinner, I called my house (as I do every Sunday night) and was talking to my Mom.  I was laying on the couch chatting while Mark was playing the piano.  All of a sudden, and I don't know how else to put it, except for I felt like I was peeing my pants.  My first reaction was actually just being really embarrassed.  I got up (while still on the phone) and went into the bathroom thinking, "I have COMPLETELY lost control over my body!"  I soon realized that that was not what was going on.  My Mom was just chatting away and finally I just had to interrupt her and say that I thought my water had broke. 

I quickly got off the phone with my Mom and called Mark into the bathroom.  We called the hospital and they told me to come right in.  CRAZY!  We were so excited to know that this little boy was finally on his way, but there were still some nerves.  Mark quickly got our stuff together and we headed to the hospital. 

The craziest thing to me was that I was in zero pain.  As we were walking into the hospital, Mark said to me, "they are never going to believe that you are in labor - you should act like you have at least some pain!"  CRAZY!

They quickly admitted me and got us all set up in our room.  We called our parents and let them know what was happening and settled in for the night.  I was only dilated to a 3 so they knew that they were going to have to get things going faster for me.  I was still in no pain and thought it was so bizarre.  The nurse would just tell me when I was having contractions and it was so weird.

I feel like it was such a blessing that my water broke otherwise I might not have known I was in labor until further down the road.  Pretty much all of my labor was back labor and since my back had been hurting for weeks, I really hadn't thought anything of it.  By about 11:00 they started me on some medication to induce my labor. 

National Treasure was on TV and Mark and I just pretty much sat and watched.  I quickly started feeling the contractions but they really weren't too bad for awhile.  Finally, by about 1:30 I asked for my epidural.  I'll tell you what - THEY ARE GREAT!  It was amazing to me how quickly the pain went away. 

By about 3:00 they checked me again and I was up to an 8.  WOOT WOOT!  However, there was another woman on the floor that apparently was having a really complicated labor/delivery and pretty much it was all-hands-on-deck for her.  So they stopped the medication and we were just kind of waiting around.  By about 4:00 my epidural was wearing off and they came back to "top me off." 

Finally, at about 5:15 my absolutely WONDERFUL nurse Izzy came in and said that it was time to "push."  I don't know if it is just from movies or what but I always assumed once you got to that point it was like 5-10 minutes and baby is HERE!  I learned that I was quite mistaken. 

It took another three hours to get our wonderful little boy here - but it was, of course, completely worth it.  The only downer was that my epidural wore off around 7, so I went from feeling zero pain to a whole bunch.  But I will tell you what, there is no one I would have wanted more by my side then Mark.  He knew exactly what I needed and was the best support system I could have asked for.  It is amazing to me how I still get further and further in love with that man every day.   

And at 8:26 our little boy finally came.  He is practically perfect in every way.  We love him so much.