The Arrival

Yes we are alive! Ha! Well sorta, just kidding. I have not forgotten about this blog. I actually think about it all of the time. I have so many entries that I want to write, that are just sitting in my head. And I will get caught up eventually. But as most of you know the first few weeks at home with a newborn are somewhat hectic.... is that an understatement? Oh and add an active three year old. So I'm sitting here right now. The house is totally quite. Everyone is napping, yes, even Joe. I should be napping myself. But seriously, that is easier said than done. I manage to get a 'second wind' right when I have an opportunity to either rest or be productive. Today I chose to be productive. I'm sure in the middle of the night tonight during a 'feeding' I may regret that. Oh well.

Ok so back to it. This little blog of mine. My journal almost, if you will. I know my poor parents if anyone are dying for me to add some updates, pictures, etc. So here we go... I'm sure any minute someone may start to cry. Meaning either Cooper or Gwen will wake up, but I'm going to give it a shot.

Lets start with her arrival. My official due date was August 8th. Well that date came and went with hardly any signs of labor in sight. Up into that point I was very thankful for the extra time before her arrival. Like I mentioned in a previous post, we had some really good family time. Doing fun things. But lets just real. Once the due date past, then I started to get a little anxious. A little nervous. And ready, already.. ha! So Joe and I kept discussing should I get induced by a certain point, should we keep waiting, etc. So finally the week of August 12, I called my doctor to discuss getting induced at the end of the week. So we set the appointment for Friday, August 16th. Come out on your own, or your getting kicked out. Honestly I really, really didn't want to get induced. I had a long labor with Cooper, and was induced for medical reasons. But on the flip side it seemed like if we got to pick having her on the weekend was so much easier. Easier for family to come in town, Joe not having school, etc. So the week went by, each day I went to work. Just like normal. I think everyone at work was more nervous than me about me being there. I felt good, and didn't want to use up my vacation days for nothing. I went through the week with a few random pains, so no 'real deal' contractions. Then Wednesday arrived. We had tickets to the Cardinals game, Joe was going to take Cooper and some of his family. I had no interest in being stuck downtown if I were to go into labor. So instead I made plans to eat dinner with a few good friends. We met near my work, had a great visit. I ate some spicy nachos and the rest is history. Just kidding. I did have nachos though. Dinner was great. And I headed on home. Cooper and Joe didn't get home until about 10:30. And sure enough... 10 minutes after they walked through the door I had a contraction. A real one, so I thought. So we put Cooper to bed and I just kinda kept an eye of it for the rest of the evening. We headed to bed around 11:30 and sure enough the contractions we becoming more frequent and more intense. But I didn't want any false alarms in the middle of the night. So I let Joe go to sleep and I stayed up watching tv and timing them. Sure enough by 1:30 we were calling the doctor, loading up the car, and getting Cooper out of  bed and into the car. We dropped Cooper off and Diana's. And headed to the hospital. In the meantime the contractions continued to progress. I had a gut feeling that this was it. And a slight fear they would send us home, but I was taking any chances.

We got there they admitted me... and from there time 'flew'... literally. We got settled into a room about 2:30 or 3. I debated about getting the epidural. Then my water broke, then I got the epidural.. and sure enough 45 mintues after the epidural.. I started to have some strange back pain. Well I shouldn't have back pain.. I just had the freaking epidural. The nurses check me and said "Oh my... your dilated to 10, she is ready to come out. My doctor wasn't even there yet. Good thing he lives down the street from the hospital.

Anyway.... Gwen arrived at 6:02 am. Whew... what a fast labor. I'm not complaining at all. The whole thing happen so fast Joe and couldn't quite believe it. But she arrived and she was beautiful and perfect and we were totally in awe. Born on August 15th, 2013. So much for being induced on August 16, she had her own plan.

Hang in for the next entry... I'll add so pictures from her arrival.