Birth Story

Christmas eve ended up being my last day of pregnancy. I shopped a little bit in the morning and then came home right around 2pm because PJO was already home from work. We took a nap and hung out, just happy to be spending a rare weekday afternoon together. We had dinner and drove to a neighborhood by LAX called Candy Cane Lane where we walked around looking at over the top Christmas lights. Our plan had been to go to Midnight Mass, but we got home at 8pm and I suggested we should just get ready quickly and go to the 9pm service since I thought we would be bored and tired if we waited to go until midnight.
We got ready and walked over to Church, barely making the start of mass. It was beautiful and I really felt content and happy to be officially celebrating Christmas. Walking home at 10:30 or so I felt a little crampy but otherwise pretty good. I got ready for bed and crawled in at 11 or so. I started noticing a few small contractions, so I decided to time them. I kept telling PJO he should go to sleep and that they would probably stop soon. The first one I timed at 11:15 and they were about 7 minutes apart. By midnight, they were 4-5 minutes apart and painful. We called Labor & Delivery on our way there.
After changing into a gown and being hooked up to the monitors, they checked me and said I was at 2-3 cm and very very thin. (I was 1 cm, 80% effaced 6 days ago, so I guess it was enough progression for them to admit me). That was about 1am. They started the IV and by 2:40 I had (and NEEDED) an epidural... it was the most wonderful feeling in the world. I felt even better than I ever did sleeping before I was pregnant. I was kind of surprised I didn't need any pitocin or anything. By 3:45am or so, I was already fully dilated. Everyone was shocked at how fast I progressed but since the baby was still doing great, they told me to let him drop down a little bit before pushing.
We did a few practice pushes around 4:40am. Apparently the baby didn't like it because his heart rate dropped and the nurses stopped me and told me to rest and labor down. He was still at 0 station. I felt completely comfortable so I was just hoping that all the waiting would make the pushing part easier. I faded in and out of sleep but remember being impatient to just meet my baby. I started watching tv to pass the time.
There was a shift change at the hospital at 7am, and the new nurse came in and thought we should start pushing and see what happens. At 7:26 I started and couldn't feel a thing. I finally managed to give a few good pushes and at 7:35 am a huge healthy baby boy was placed on my chest. It was such a weird feeling. I couldn't believe that anything I had just done produced a baby, couldn't believe he was mine and couldn't believe how much better I already felt without him inside of me.
As the nurses were cleaning him off, one of them looked at me and said "I think this is about a ten pound baby!" That was the first time I had any clue he was so big. And while he may not really fit into those newborn size diapers, it's even more cuddly cuteness to love. He's perfect in every way.

So here he is: Timothy Michael, 9 lbs, 9 oz., 20 1/2 in. long