He was born 3 weeks early. I probably would have been way caught off guard, but I had a feeling he was coming sooner. On Thanksgiving I started having some pretty intense contractions, but they didn't hurt so I figured I was okay. When I went to the doctor the next week he said I'd been doing my homework too much and that I was already dilating and effacing at 35 weeks. So they put me on medicine to stop it until 36 weeks when his lungs would be developed enough that if he came early he would be fine.
So, last Sunday I started having some real contractions. Before we went to bed on Sunday night I told Todd that I was pretty sure we were going to have the baby the next day. I don't think he believed me. I tried to sleep but I ended up staying awake all night timing my contractions. They were really irregular all night, and then at about 5 am they all of a sudden started being exactly 3 minutes apart every time. Eek! I woke up Todd and we left for the hospital, not really realizing the next time we pulled into our driveway we'd have an extra member of the family with us.
(This is me faking a contraction, if it were real I would look way uglier and I would kill my husband for taking the picture!=))
The labor was...intense. Thank heavens for epidurals. Everybody talks about epidurals like they are the scariest thing, but let me tell ya, I'd take a wussy needle in the back over those contractions ANY DAY. The labor went by really fast, I don't remember a lot, but it felt like the pushing part only lasted like 5 minutes. I was SO relieved when they took him out and put him on my chest! He was adorable even all covered in goo! He is perfectly healthy. 5 lbs 13 oz. I wasn't allowed to hold him for the first hour after he was born because I was being...repaired, that was hard, but I'm kinda glad because looking forward to holding him gave me something to keep my mind off the pain for that hour. Then finally he was mine! Having a baby is an AMAZING thing! It is incredible to go through that intense pain all day, and when it is over, you could care less because the reward for that pain is SO much more than worth it. It's amazing to me that a day in the hospital filled with pain and scariness can be the best day of your life.
We are so happy to have our little guy with us. It is seriously THE best Christmas present ever!!! When people say Merry Christmas to us now, we kinda have to remind ourselves that Christmas is still coming, because to us it felt like we got our Christmas on December 15th.
To add to the awesomeness of having a baby for Christmas, the first day we had him home it snowed all day long. We had the best day just hanging out with Luke all day and watching our back yard become a winter wonderland! We are very blessed.
