me and my "favorable cervix"

I know I said I was going to blog again after my last dr appt but that night became very exciting and nerve-filled that I decided to postpone the blog. I didn't want to jinx anything. The dr appt went just as the previous few had. weight check, blood pressure check, pee in a cup, measure tummy, listen to baby heartbeat, check cervix. The nurse told me my blood pressure was slightly elevated but the dr didn't see it as a being a problem. He did, however, tell me that I was 4cm dilated and that I had a very favorable cervix and asked if/when I wanted to be induced. Jokingly I said, "how about right now?". He then joked back that it couldn't happen that night because he was the on-call dr that night and he didn't want to be in the hospital at 3am delivering a baby. He "needs his beauty rest" he said. He then said "how about tomorrow morning at 7am". You can imagine the look on our faces. We always knew it could happen just that quick (or quicker) but to actually have that option staring us in the face was very unreal. Since we were already 4cm's I said sure, why not. If I had been 0cm I would have waited as long as I could to give my body the chance to progress on its own. So it was set - in about 14 hours I would be in the hospital getting ready for my baby! On our way home from the dr we called our immediate families to let them know the exciting news. I'm sure it was as surreal for them as it was for us.

It was then time for my last supper and I knew just what I wanted. Mall Pizza & Auntie Anne's. There's this little pizza stand in the Christiana Mall Food Court that's been around for as long as i remember. Its changed names a few times, but it has (and will always be) "mall pizza" to me. I think its actually called Cosimos, or something. So we had our pizza then did a lap around the mall and on our way out we stopped and got my salted cinnamon pretzel (yum).

We spent the rest of the night watching tv together and just hanging out. We tried to go to bed at a decent hour but neither of us got any real sleep. We were like kids on xmas eve.

We set the alarm for 5:00am but I was up by 4am. I laid around for a while then decided to just get up and get my day started. We left the house around 6:30, got to the hospital at 7, was registered and checked in by 7:10, changed into my gown and hooked up to the Pitocin (med to induce labor) by 7:30. Five hours later and I still wasn't experiencing strong contractions so we decided it was time to break my water. Almost immediately contractions started. An hour or so later I got an epidural. It wasn't strong enough. An hour later they upped it (or whatever they do to make the epidural work). 30-ish minutes later I was pain free. I contracted for a few hours with ease. The epidural really is an AMAZING thing. Eventually I started to feel small contractions again. At first I thought it was just a hot spot and I was fine with that. I could definitely handle that small amount of pain, no problem. But then I started to feel legs again. I could wiggle my toes again. The abdominal pain increased with each contractions. It didn't take long to realize my epidural was wearing off/running out so I called the nurse right away and told her it was time to call anesthesia again. She checked my cervix and looked me in the face and said, "its time to push. too late to top off the epidural". WHAT!!!! I wasn't ready for that at all!!!!!!!

A few minutes later I began to push. At 7:10 (about 2 hours later) my little guy entered the world! The dr placed him right on my stomach/chest and announced "Its A Boy!". The nurse wiped him off while Kevin cut the cord then they took him over to the warmer where the other nurses checked his vitals. Kevin made sure I was alright then went over to the warmers to see our baby. Once they determined he was perfect they brought him back over to me and I got to really hold my little guy! We are so lucky to have such a beautiful healthy baby boy!!!

Trent Mason
7lbs 7oz
20"
7:10pm

A couple more hours passed and the proud grandparents and uncle Paul were finally able to come up and see our little bundle. Finally, at 10:30 we were transferred to our recovery room. I could go on and on with all the boring details (yes, there are more boring details) but I wont. The bottom line is that Trent Mason is here. He's Healthy. He's amazing. He's the cutest little thing. And we love him to pieces.
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The resident pediatrician at the hospital was the one to check on Trent and release him from the hospital. We take him to see the pediatrician we chose for him tomorrow morning. It will be my first trip out of the house (aside from a walk around the neighborhood yesterday) so I'm a little nervous but also anxious to get outta here.

I really could go on and on.......just one last thing:

Kevin and I honestly did not know we were having a boy :-)

click this link to see some pictures:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8ActXDds0ctGV-