The Pictures and The Story

Starting on Friday morning and all through the afternoon and evening, I had short, 30-second contractions. We decided to go to sleep that night and call in to the hospital the next morning. But at about 11:15 pm I felt a big kick and my water broke and we decided NOT to wait until the morning to call the hospital.

But when I called, they were full!!

They told me everything sounded okay, and that I should wait for a few more hours when they would have a room available. Over the next two hours, my contractions got really intense, longer, and much closer together, and we arrived at the hospital at about 2:00 am. Just after a discussion with the midwife about pain medication, the baby's heartrate began to slow down when I had a contraction, but it didn't rebound like it was supposed to between contractions. So there were suddenly about 6 people in my tiny little delivery room, they put an oxygen mask on me, and turned me over and over until they found a position that kept the heart rate as normal as possible.

I will spare you the rest of the gory details, but the baby was born at 4:41 am--less than three hours after we arrived at the hospital. Because of the heart rate issue, everyone seemed to forget about the pain medication, and I never did get any--so I was really happy that it was all over quickly!

We came home on Monday afternoon, then had to go back to the hospital on Tuesday afternoon. Jaundice is pretty normal in babies, but it can be dangerous beyond a certain level. Nathan's level got a little high, so we took him in to hang out in the nursery under the special lights that help relieve the jaundice. It wasn't too bad--I got to feed him every 2-3 hours like usual, but got to go back to my room to sleep in between (at home, he often cries for some of the time between feedings and no one can sleep).Now we are home again and trying to figure out a routine and how to make this all work. It's a good thing he's so cute!