Thursday July 23rd, our little pickle decided it was time to enter the world! Julian Joseph was born at 9:56 pm, weighing 8 lbs even and measuring 21 1/4 inches long. He was in quite the hurry to get here too! I had my regularly scheduled OB Appt at 2 pm that afternoon where I found out I was 3 cm dilated and 80% effaced (I had been 2cm and 70% at the previous appt 10 days earlier, so this was decent progress I thought). They sent me on my way, and proceeded to run a few errands in town, including a brief stop at Walmart for some groceries. As I was driving the 20 minutes home, I felt a distinct POP in my belly. I couldn't figure out if he had just kicked me, or whether this was what I've been told your water breaking could feel like. Either way, I had ice cream in the trunk - we were heading home. I returned home about 10 minutes later, stood up to get out of the car and quickly realized that it was NOT just a baby kick I had felt. That suspision was immediately confirmed by the start of some pretty intense contractions. Lucky for me, Eddie pulled into the driveway 2 minutes later and we proceeded to get our rear ends to the hospital.
By the time we'd arrived, my contractions were 4-5 minutes apart and very intense. I still remember them asking me, as they wheeled me into the L&D room whether I "thought" I might be in labor. I kindly told them that I WAS in labor. No thinking about it. They checked me soon after - I was 5cm dilated. That's when we sent off for the anesthesiologist for my epidural. I was VERY uncomfortable. Things moved pretty quickly after that...next thing I knew I was at 8, then 10 centimeters, then pushing...then voila! A baby! From water breaking to finish, my labor totaled just over 4 hours. Amazing how you can anticipate something for MONTHS and then it takes a mere 4 hours to be here and done.
Unfortunately I did have some post-birth complications. Due to a condition called placenta acreta, part of the placenta did not detach after Julian was born. I ended up losing a lot of blood and had a very scary 2 hours where the possibility of surgery and blood transusions loomed over my head...but thanks to my doctor and my body finally doing what it was supposed to, neither of those things had to happen. I got to (finally) hold my baby boy, enjoy a whole one hour of sleep, and spend the next day and a half recovering and getting the hang of handling all things baby!
Here's some photos from the hospital:
Saturday evening we came home and have spent the last several days just settling in and getting used to this whole parenthood thing. Sleep is a little challenging, but overall we're just enjoying our new family status and loving every minute of our time with Julian. Who knew you could spend so many hours a day just staring at a baby?? We had no idea. He has us mesmerized :)
As for the bathroom...we're still chipping away at it slowly. It wasn't easy coming home to a construction zone, and I'll admit the chaos is maddening when you're exhausted and just trying to get on a something resembling a schedule - but what can you do? I know the bathroom will EVENTUALLY be finished..but Julian won't be a little baby forever. We get done what we can! We have a toilet. We have a shower. Is a floor really ALL that necessary?
At least one thing is done - the nursery! Here's the long-promised photos of that:
I'm SO glad my mom and I spent what would be my last pregnant weekend getting that done! It's been a nice refuge when I feel like I just can't stand looking at the rest of our house any longer! I still have one small project left to do - I had purchased wooden letters to spell out his name over his crib, and had just finished buying the paint for those when my water broke - so I'm thinking that particular project is going to be delayed. That's ok though...as Eddie pointed out - we're not bound to forget his name any time soon ;)
More updates and photos to come..I'm sure. Stay tuned!
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