That's My Boy!

So, the last time I posted, she was at 6cm and 80% effaced. The baby was at zero station. Well, that was the last time I got a chance to post until now, and that was at 11:00am.

About 11:15, the nurse came back to check and see how the epidural was working. Just for good measure, the nurse decided to check on Emily's progress. Our jaws dropped when she said, "You're about 9 1/2 - 9 3/4 and just about ready to start pushing." We were literally flabbergasted, and I was ALMOST speechless.

It took them a few minutes to get everything set up, and at 11:30, she started pushing. After 38 minutes of pushing, we had a baby boy. Just like that. It was pretty gross, and pretty awesome, all at the same time.

My wife has a pretty bad tear, but she says she still feels much better than when she had the C-section last time.

Not much else to say, except that we thank God for a beautiful, healthy baby boy!

Closer Than Ever Before

The nurse came in just after 10:30. We were concerned that Emily was having late decelerations, same as she did last time. However, the nurse told us these are "early" decelerations, which aren't necessarily a bad thing. She checked Emily, and, sure enough, Emily had reached 6cm, 80% effaced, and the baby was at zero station. What does all this mean? It means we're closer to pushing than we ever have been before!

Getting Good Now

Now that they've started the epidural (at 9:20), the contractions aren't hurting her quite as badly. It's still not a walk in the park, but that's just because the epi hasn't kicked in all the way. She's making progress, but it's still a little slow right now. More later on.

Breakfast & Broken Water

After the doctor came in and told us it would be a little while before he broke her water, I headed on down to the cafeteria. And, as luck would have it, they had made tomato gravy, which is my absolute favorite breakfast food, especially served over a good biscuit with some bacon on the side. After finishing my breakfast here in the room, the doctor came back in. I think he was standing out in the hall waiting for me to finish, either because he doesn't like tomato gravy or because he likes it so much he knew he'd have a fight on his hands if he tried to take it away from me. Anyway, he came in and broke her water 8:08, immediately after which we had to find a bed pan for Emily. The contractions are coming about 4-5 minutes apart, and they're reading about 85 on the scale. When he broke her water, the baby was still at a -2 station.

Getting Started

Emily and I showed up at the hospital at 5:30am sharp. It only took us 6 minutes to get here from Baymont Inn on Hwy 98. We checked in and got in a delivery room (#10). They got the IV's started at 6:30 and started Pitocin at 6:53. Doctor came by about 7:15. Said he had a procedure to go do, and then he'd come back and break her water. I'm about to go down to the cafeteria and see if I can't scare up a biscuit!