Morgalicious Morgans: Boston's Arrival

Sunday (May 19th) I woke up having a contraction. This was not entirely out of the ordinary, but I'd be lying if I didn't think to myself, maybe I'll have the baby today....
This is partially due to the fact that Tim told me that it would be so convenient for getting work off if I had the baby on a Sunday. I was really hoping to have him on my due date, which was a Sunday (May 26th). That way Tyler would be able to finish his last week of school and things would be much less complicated. All of my babies have been late, so I really anticipated having him some time during the week following my due date.
Throughout the day I had more contractions, but they weren't very painful and were in no way regular. After church, and some lunch, Tim went home teaching, and I went to work unburying my kitchen from a mountain of dishes. I had spent the day before running errands, so I got very little housework done. While I was cleaning the kitchen I had several more contractions and I thought again, maybe I'll have the baby today.
Tim went to work around five and I loaded up my cute kids and we went over to my parents. I had to pick up an electric sander from my Dad so Tim could get started painting the baby's dresser the following day. Being 39 weeks pregnant, I called my mom and asked her if she wouldn't mind feeding us while we were there (you're allowed to invite yourself to dinner when it's your mom... and when you are enormously pregnant). Because I had been having more contractions, I briefly considered not going to my mom's and staying home and making sure my house was clean, just in case. I even thought of packing a hospital bag and bringing it with me.. just in case. But I decided against it and went to my parents house with nothing but the dishes done.
I spent a few hours at my parents house. We had dinner, my kids played with their aunt and uncles, and we got the sander and headed home. I was still having contractions but nothing consistent or too painful, so I didn't think too much of it. Once I was home, and my kids were all in bed. I did some blogging, and folded some laundry. It was while I was folding laundry (around 11PM) that I noticed my contractions had gotten much more painful. I decided to time them and they were about 6 minutes apart, but not consistently. I finished folding laundry and decided that I'd better go to bed. I figured unless I was in real labor, they would go away once I laid down and relaxed.
I was able to fall asleep and I think my contractions even slowed down a little. I was still having them, but it wasn't until about 1:30AM that they were so strong that they were waking me up. At that point I was pretty sure I was in labor. We live about 40 minutes away from the hospital, and Tim was about 40 minutes away at work. Not to mention I had a house full of sleeping children and it was pouring outside. All of those factors had me stressed. In the past I've had rather quick labors. But.. my contractions weren't consistent. Sometimes they would be as far apart as 10 minutes. After a few more hard contractions I texted Tim. I asked him if he was busy. He said no. I told him I was going to call him. I kept doubting that I was in real labor, and I didn't want to "cry wolf"... so I waited until after I'd had another contraction to call him. I told him I thought I might be in labor and maybe he ought to come home.
Once I knew Tim was on his way, and there was no way I was going to get any sleep, I figured that might be a good time to pack a hospital bag. So, in between contractions, I threw some clothes and toiletries together. I know, I know... I shouldn't have waited until a week before my due date to pack, but I really had no expectations of having him before his due date. Tim arrived home at about 2:30AM and then we had the great debate on what to do with our kids. It was already arranged that they would go to my parents house when I had the baby, but it was the middle of the night and I hated to pull all my sleeping kids out of bed. Plus, I knew I wanted my Mom at the hospital. Finally we decided to call my sister and brother in law who live a short distance away. I felt so bad waking them up but they were very nice about it. My sister-in-law, Kim arrived at our house around 4:00AM to stay with our kids so we could go to the hospital. While we waited for her to arrive, Tim packed some things for himself, and I packed bags for each of my kids (I know, I was ridiculously unprepared) so that they could go stay at my parents house for a few days.
I was dreading the car trip to the hospital. If you've ever had hard contractions in a moving vehicle, you know why. It hurts. But once we started on our way, 15 minutes went by and I hadn't had a contraction. I started to really doubt I was in labor. I even thought about going back. I had another contraction which strengthened my resolve that I was definitely in labor, but my contractions did seem to be slowing down and I wondered if we had left for the hospital too soon.
We arrived to the hospital and got all checked in around five in the morning. The nurse checked me and I was only at a three. I was sure they'd just send us home, but my contractions were regular so she told us to go walk around the halls for an hour and they would check me again. Tim had been up all night at work, and I had only gotten a couple of hours of sleep, so that hour seemed really long. We were both so tired and my contractions seemed to be slowing down. At that point I was hoping they would just send us home (even though I was feeling really bad for pulling Kim out of bed for nothing). But when they checked me I was at a five, so they admitted me. At this point we called my mom to meet us at the hospital.
Once I was all checked in and I had an IV put in, they checked me again and I was at a six. At that point my contractions were quite hard so I asked for an epidural. Part of my motivation in going to the hospital early was that I didn't want to have to wait a long time and endure most of my labor with out an epidural (like I did with my others). If I was going to get one, I had might as well get one early. But the anesthesiologist was stuck in a C-section ... which is the same thing that happened to me with Jaxen. Seriously... what are the odds?? Luckily, I only had to wait another half hour and I was still at a six when the anesthesiologist arrived.
Once I was numb, me and Tim both laid down and tried to get some sleep. At that point my mom had arrived and was quietly crocheting ( a blanket for Boston) and Kim had gotten the kids up and sent Tyler off to school. A couple hours later, the resident doctor checked me again and I was still at a six. I should have felt more disappointed about this, but I was kind of glad because it meant I could sleep longer. They decided to break my water to speed things up. After my water was broken they waited another hour and checked me again. I was still at a six. I'd never had that happen with any of my other deliveries. My contractions were slowing down, so they decided to put me on a small drip of pitocin. Once the pitocin kicked in my contractions increased in intensity and I started to feel a lot of pressure. It hadn't even been ten minutes since they had started the pitocin, but I asked them to check me and sure enough I was at a ten. My doctor was still 20 minutes away, so they quickly turned off the pitocin and I did my best to not push. It felt like forever. Even though I had an epidural I knew it was time to push and I felt a lot of pressure with every contraction. I think trying not to push was probably the hardest part of the whole labor.
My doctor arrived just in time. I pushed twice and Boston was out. Right after I had him they immediatley just unbuttoned my hospital gown and laid him on my chest and put a blanket over both of us. Boston immediately stopped crying when he was on my chest and just snuggled there calmly. One of the first things I noticed was his big hands. They looked especially huge right after he was born (he's since grown into them a bit). He was so content to lay there while we got to know him. After a while they took him and weighed him (8lbs 1 ounce) and measured him (21 inches long) and did the Apgar score (9 and 9!). The nurses put a diaper on him and wrapped him up and then gave him back to us. He was so calm and sweet right from the beginning. He was perfect and healthy. Everything went really well. We are so blessed.

And now... for a outrageous number of pictures....(I should mention that a lot of these were taken by my brother Chris or other family members).