Meet Baby O!

I'm sure most of you have heard by now, but I wanted to personally introduce our Baby O!  Here's a few pictures and the story.

My first time holding Baby O

I woke up Sunday morning about 5:00 am with some contractions, but since they weren't very bad and my due date was still a week away, I figured they were just false labor, and tried to go back to sleep.  About 5:15, my water broke, but I wasn't sure if it really had or not, so I went back to bed, but couldn't really sleep, so I kinda timed my contractions.

Sleepy baby

By 6:45, my contractions were getting closer together and I was pretty sure my water had actually broken earlier, so I woke up Clint.  Of course, he wanted to call the midwife right away, but I wanted to stay home as long as possible, and I knew the hospital would want me to go in since my water had broken, so I told him to just go back to sleep while I took a shower to relax.

Proud Daddy

While I was in the shower, my contractions got rather uncomfortable, and I ran out of hot water about 7:15, so I got out to try something different.  When he heard the water shut off, Clint came in to check on me, but I was still doing fine, so I didn't want to call the midwife.  While I dried off, Clint took a really quick shower.

After Clint got out and got dressed, he started timing my contractions for me and helped me get dressed.  By this time, I was having trouble moving during contractions, but I still didn't want to call the midwife.

We're both a little tuckered out

By about 8:30, my contractions had been about 3 minutes apart for 45 minutes, and we were starting to worry that the neighbors might think I was getting murdered because I was yelling pretty loudly, so I let Clint call the midwife.

Our first family picture

During those 45 minutes, I did have moments where my resolution to have a natural birth wavered.  I just kept thinking that first time labors were supposed to take a really long time and if it was that painful already, there was no way I could handle several more hours of contractions.  Luckily, I have an amazing husband who was there to encourage and comfort me through my moments of despair.

His first night

After Clint talked to the Dr. (it turned out that it was an ob/gyn on call at the time) he started packing up the car to go to the hospital.  I had packed some stuff up for the hospital (the day before) but we didn't have everything together, plus it took some time to get everything into the car, so we probably left our house about 8:45.  While Clint was packing the car, I started to feel the urge to push, and my first thought was, "We have to get to the hospital NOW,  I don't want to have this baby at home!"

About to go home

Luckily, we only live 5 minutes from the hospital, so it was no big deal getting there quickly.  When we did get there, they checked me in the triage room and said baby's head was +2 (really low), so they ran me over to a birthing room.  Before I could get in bed, I had a contraction and kind of doubled over on the floor.  Someone said that as fun as it was to have a baby on the floor, I needed to get in bed.  When I told them I couldn't move, Clint just picked me up and put me on the bed and then they pointed out that you could see Baby O's head.

Getting into his first real clothes

 After that, I pushed for a while (I don't know how long, but it didn't feel like very long) and at 9:27 am, Baby O was born!  He weighed 7 lbs 1 oz and was 20 inches long at birth.

Getting into the car seat

So, we were at the hospital for about half an hour before he was born, and I think that was just perfect.  In fact, Clint called my parents to tell them we were at the hospital and then called to tell them Baby O had been born and the first thing my mom said was "We haven't even left Eugene!"  We couldn't get a hold of Clint's parents at first (I guess they were at church, of all the places to be on a Sunday morning!), so he sent them a picture on their phone to tell them the news.

At home

 We came home Tuesday afternoon and things have been going great!  I really couldn't have asked for a better birth experience or a better baby boy!  He is eating well and has gained some weight back and is doing all the other things that brand new babies are supposed to do; eat, sleep, poo, pee, cry, and be absolutely adorable!

Baby O