Brendan Patrick has arrived!

I woke up at 2am on June 30th feeing really crampy. No discernable contractions yet. As the hours ticked by, I started to feel more noticable stops and starts but I was still in denial that this was actually labor. At about 4:30 am I noticed a trickle of warm something or other but thought maybe I had peed on myself? Not a totally uncommon occurrence at that stage in the game! I went to the bathroom to check things out. The fluid was definitely clear and odorless so I decided this would probably be a good time to wake Kenny up.

I gingerly sat on the bed and turned on my bedside lamp and in a quiet voice said Kenny's name. Which he actually heard, by some miracle. I told him I thought my water broke and he shot up so fast I thought he might fling himself right off the bed. After he absorbed what I told him he asked what we should do. I decided I would take a shower because who knew when I'd have another opportunity. Afer I got out of the shower the frequency and intensity of the contractions started to pick up so we started to time them using the website contractionmaster.com. This site is awesome. You just hit the spacebar every time a contraction starts and stops and it will time them for you. So as I was putting makeup on and blow drying my hair I would yell out "spacebar!" as each one started and stopped. Turned out the contractions were already very regular, coming at just under 5 minutes apart and just under one minute long each.

Kenny, in his concerned, "I'm not delivering this baby at home" voice declared that we should probably call the professionals and see what they thought. I told him that we should wait until we had timed them for an hour because I didn't want to get to the hospital only to be told that I hadn't progressed enough and be sent home. So after about an hour and a half of timing I called the dr who told me it was in fact time to get to the hospital. I think this was at around 6:45 or so. Time gets a little fuzzy after that.

We got to the hospital around 7:30 and were put in a labor and delivery room. The contractions had started to get more intense by now and there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that this was the real thing. We waited for my OB to make her rounds so I could be checked. I think she got there around 8:30-9ish and I had already dilated to 7 centimeters. I was in shock. I made it very clear that I wanted drugs so they pumped me full of fluids then tackled the anesthesiologist so he could give me the good stuff. Once I had the epidural I felt 1,000 times better. I could see my contractions on the monitor but felt no pain. The dr checked me again about an hour later and I was 9.5 centimeters. She told me I'd be ready to push within the hour.

Finally at 11:30 I was told it was time to start pushing. So with Kenny holding one leg and my mother holding the other, I pushed every time I felt the pressure of a contraction. I found it difficult to figure out the correct way to push at first and was certain this baby would never make it out. I had horrible reflux throughout my pregnancy and each time I pushed I felt waves of acid coming up. I ended up throwing up a few times when I was pushing. I found that to be one of the worst parts of labor for me. When the baby's head finally made it down low enough and I was pushing him out I felt the worst pain I've ever had in my life.

The nurse told me to stop pushing at that moment. So there I was with what felt like a giant boulder coming out of me and all I wanted to do was push this baby out. The dr came in and told me I could push him out. She told me to lean forward and watch and I saw our son come into the world. It took an hour and a half but Brendan Patrick finally made his appearance at 1:06pm at 38 weeks 1 day.

It's been a crazy ride getting used to having a baby who is completely dependent on us. He's a great baby, only getting fussy occasionally, but mostly just sleeping or chilling out watching everything going on around him. I've started a new family blog and will be posting over there instead of over here. The address is gaskafamily.blogspot.com.