On Tuesday, July 7th, I went to the doctor for my weekly check-up. Though I wasn't due until June 30th according to their calculations, I had a very strong feeling that my baby was coming early—three weeks early to be exact. But when the doctor informed me I was at 1 cm. and I said, "So you don't want to keep me and let me have him today?" he just laughed and said, "No, no. You've got a few weeks to go."

A few weeks, my foot.

Here I am Wednesday morning just before I headed to work. I was super-swollen, super-hot, and super-ready to have that baby already. Lucky for me, he was ready to stop baking too ...

That night while watching So You Think You Can Dance, I started to feel contractions. Caleb started noting the times and we saw they were coming every 7 to 11 minutes. I was talking to Dad on the phone and he assured me that these were just Braxton-Hicks contractions and I would probably have them a few more times in the next few weeks. Well, you too were mistaken, sir.

I woke up at 1:15 Thursday morning assuming I just had to go to the bathroom (as I did a million times each night), but with the vague recollection that something painful had occurred. Thinking nothing of it, I started to go back to sleep and then I felt DEFINITE pain. "That seemed quick," I thought. So I eyed the clock and waited for it to happen again. A mere four minutes had passed—it was time to raise the alarm. So I calmly informed Caleb that I was possibly in labor.

His response was less calm, as he leaped up and hurried around, but I insisted that we wait a bit because I didn't want to show up at the hospital and it end up being false labor. He was convinced it was the real deal and promptly began shaving. (He knew Mom would be taking lots of pictures and since he'd been sick for the past week, he somewhat resembled a grizzly bear.) In the mean time, I sat on the bed and turned on Cheers. Of course, since the contractions were now four minutes apart, it didn't take long for me to experience another one. As I went to tell Caleb that I thought it was indeed the real deal, my water broke. Much to Caleb's alarm, I decided to take a shower and blow-dry my hair. (I didn't want to look super-greasy in all those first baby photos. You'll see soon that my plan didn't quite work ...)

Despite my dawdling, we were at the hospital by 2:00 and eagerly awaiting pain medication. As I've told many people, with each contraction I thought I was going to die, and then was even more discouraged when I realized I wasn't going to die, but continue to go through this in ever-increasing frequency. Needless to say, I was overjoyed when I got the epidural and proceeded to take a care-free nap.

Before I knew it, it was baby time. Apparently I pushed longer than was expected (almost two hours), but I was fine, calmly discussing the purchase of Wrigley Field and watching Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Sports Center. Then, at 10:32 I had a perfect 6-lb. 3-oz., 19.5-inch redheaded baby boy. It was crazy. I didn't cry, but I think that was mostly because the whole thing was so surreal. But enough story. Let's get to some photos.

3 comments

1. Jenn on 9/14/09 10:52 PM

   love the story!! glad to get some news from you so i can live vicariously ;)

    
2. Mama Matteo on 9/15/09 9:33 AM

   Hey
   thanks for the story, its always fun reading how each Delivery story is different(much more fun than actually living through it yourself). and the pics were great, lets see some more!

    
3. kevinandemilyray on 9/15/09 3:45 PM

   Fun stuff! Loved both posts! Now you will understand how hard it is to keep up a blog when you're a mom! Glad you're loving it though :) It's a small price to pay