Sean's Birth Story

By request...here's our story:

Wednesday (January 17th) was my last day of work before starting my maternity leave and was my weekly checkup with Dr. Sam. Unfortunately we had made no progress and were still holding steady. Dr. Sam recommended scheduling an induction for the following week, January 23rd. We went home and prepared for a few days of rest and relaxation....or so I thought.

The next morning I woke up and began the day normally. After sending an email to my cubie at work (to update them on the progress and induction date) I sat down to the table to discuss our days activities with my folks. Almost immediately I began feeling some cramping but wasn't sure if it was real labor or not. An hour later we started timing the pains to see if there was any pattern. Still not believing it could possibly be the real deal we took a ride to get some groceries and low and behold the pains kept coming. On the way home we stopped for Arby's - hey a girl has to eat!! While I wasn't 100% sure this was it..i was beginning to get a bit excited! Contractions continued for the next 9 hours and had kept steady and 5-7 minutes apart. At 5pm I called Bryan and told him it was time to come home. He came right home and we prepared to go to the hospital. Then something weird happened-A lady came to our door who had broken down on Route 50, down the road from our house. This type of thing never happens at our house! Normally I have a lot of compassion for situations like these but I wanted to yell into the kitchen....."I'm in labor! Can't you go to a different house??!?" Instead Bryan called the lady a tow truck and she went on her way. By 7pm we were pulling into the hospital and getting all checked in. The contractions were coming fast and furious and when I found out I had dilated to 5 cm...they began hurting like crazy!! This was it!

Unfortunately after getting checked in and getting an IV I had a major contraction and barfed all over myself and the nurse at the same time. Not my shining moment. Mom and Bryan were troopers and cleaned me up promptly so we could get the show on the road (note to self..don't stop for lunch when you "think" you "might" be in labor). Next I received my epidural or as I like to call it...slice of heaven. It went in great and was very, very nice. By 12:30 am I was ready to push. Nearly an hour and a half later a sleepy doc arrived and within 10 minutes our little angel was born. I will never forget seeing him for the first time and how he responded to my voice instantly when Dr. Sam put him on my chest. There he was our little boy.

All in all 17 hours of labor and the actual birth were a blink of an eye compared to the feeling of God blessing us that night. While being a new mommy is hard work...VERY hard work, it has been worth every moment.

Seeing Bryan with our new son just reinforces all of the reasons I married him. I can honestly say it seems as though we were put on this earth to be Sean's parents.

More pictures and stories later:)