Birth Day!

As much as I may have been dreading reaching my induction date and actually having to be induced, here it was! Wednesday, July 18, 2012. Corynn went home with grandma Peters the evening before, so we just had to get ourselves up and out the door in the morning. I must admit that it was kind of nice to be able to pack our bags without urgency the night before and not have to frantically call grandma to watch Corynn or call my husband to get home from work ASAP and rush out the door. We left the house with excitement around 5:15am, but not without a few photos to document my last day of this pregnancy!

We got to the hospital around 5:30am, arrived at the maternal/child unit, were shown into Labor/Delivery room #1, changed clothes, got hooked up the monitors and away we went! Around 6:30am they started me on pitocin to increase my contractions (which had only been Braxton Hicks ones up to this point). Up until 8am, nothing significant happened; the contractions were about 8 minutes apart, but I still was only feeling a little pressure, no pain. So Kevin and I watched a movie to pass the time.

Shortly after 8am the doctor came in to check me and break my water. At this point I was dilated 3 1/2 cm (I came in dilated 3 already). I had kind of been hoping that my water would break on it's own during this pregnancy since I didn't get to experience that with Corynn either, but once I felt the gush of fluids that seems to never end, I was very glad I had not created a huge puddle in public!

Half an hour later the nurse came in and informed me that the baby's heart rate was dropping during every contraction which was either a bad thing or just meant that the baby had dropped significantly since my water was broken and the lowering HR was normal. After checking me again, she confirmed that the baby had dropped way down in the last few minutes and I was now dilated to a 4.

From 8:30-9am the contractions intensified significantly and were coming as close as 2 minutes apart! I was definitely experiencing pain and wasn't sure how long I wanted to tough it out before requesting an epidural. When the nurse informed me she would need 30 minutes to pump me full of fluid before I could get an epidural, I figured I better make my request sooner than later, so at 9:05am I asked for the drugs!

By 9:40 the epidural was in place and I was feeling some relief!

Thank you epidural - I could smile again!

By 9:55 I was 9cm dilated and less than 10 minutes later I was fully dilated and the nurses were starting to swarm around the room in preparation for delivery. At 10:22am I pushed for the first time and 4 pushes and 11 minutes later the baby was here! The doctor held up the baby, immediately I could see it was a boy, the doctor confirmed it, the baby was placed on my chest, and we were elated!

7 pounds 8.4 ounces - 20 inches long
Dark hair, long fingers, and dark blue eyes

Eventually they cleaned him up, weighed and measured him, and then snuggled him up for us to hold!

WELCOME TO THE WORLD

STEPHAN JEREMIAH NICKEL!

(pronounced STEH-finn)

I think I was in shock for a couple hours after Stephan's arrival because of how quickly my labor and delivery progressed. I had psyched myself up for an all-day affair, thinking maybe by noon at the earliest we might have a baby, but never guessing that by mid-morning he'd be in our arms! It took me a while to comprehend that we'd actually had a BOY too, after I had recently prepared myself for a girl since Corynn was so convinced that she'd have a sister. But it could have also been the fact that I was feeling pretty tired by 10:33am, after waking up at 3:30am and not being able to go back to sleep before leaving for the hospital. (Around 9am I was really ready to take a nap, and after getting the epidural the nurse said I might be able to if things didn't progress quickly, but as we all know, that wasn't the case, so no nap was had.)

Around 11am Kevin started making phone calls to our immediate family and off and on from 1pm to 8pm we were visited by many family and friends!

The most important visitor was very excited to hold her little brother!

We were so happy that our newest family member arrived safe, healthy, and quickly!

One more photo from Stephan's first day (in the hospital)

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers as we anxiously anticipated this wonderful day!