Samuel has Arrived

Samuel made his arrival a few days early! He is healthy and happy and was born on Friday, October 29, 2010 at 12:11 pm. He weighs 7 lbs 7 oz and is 20 inches long.

I thought I'd write the story here before I forget it. :)

I woke up Friday morning at 5:00, not feeling well. At 5:00 and again around 5:30, I had what I thought may be contractions. They weren't too painful, just uncomfortable. I hopped in the shower - still planning to go to work. I had another contraction in the shower and went to wake up Brad. We decided we'd stay home from work and figure out what was going on.

I called my work at 6:15, telling them I wasn't going to be coming in that morning - but I might be back that afternoon because I wasn't sure if I was really in labor. Brad started timing the contractions. He timed three of them and they were only 3-4 minutes apart. Again, they weren't really painful - just uncomfortable and took my breath away. Brad called my doctor who said to head into the hospital. We grabbed our bags and some last minute things and we got in the car.

We got to the hospital around 7:30 and went into the triage room. They hooked me up to monitors to see my contractions and were going to decide if I was going to stay at the hospital or not. At this point my contractions were getting more painful and closer together. They took my whole medical history and blood pressure, heart rate, etc and finally checked me. The nurse saw that I was almost 8 cm dilated. The nurse rushed me across the hall to a labor and delivery room and started prepping me for an IV. They were pretty frantic because the doctor was not at the hospital yet.

Around 8:30 I was finally set up in the room and the nurses were trying to get blood work and IVs done so I could get an epidural for the pain. IVs are never easy for me and they had to try on both hands to get an IV that worked - it was very painful, especcially during a contraction. The nurse checked me again and found that I was completely dilated. They said if I wanted I could start pushing and have the baby right then, but I was in too much pain and overwhelmed, I wanted the epidural before pushing.

The epidural was not painful at all - and it worked immediately. The doctor came and broke my water and told me to rest. I rested for a couple hours - my parents and Brad's parents came in for a quick visit.

At 11:00, the doctor told me it was time to start pushing. Samuel made his arrival at 12:11 pm.

We stayed in the hospital overnight and then went home after dinner the next day.