All right. Pull up a nice, comfy chair. Grab a beverage and a snack. You're gonna be here awhile, 'cause I got lots to say. For everyone's convenience, I'll break things up into sections.

Part 1: the BIRTH!

      On Thursday morning, my water broke a little bit. I was sleeping, so I wasn't sure that's exactly what had happened, so I thought I'd wait a little and see what developed. Nothing else happened, so I figured it was nothing. I started having a lot of contractions during the night on Friday, though, so I called the hospital first thing in the morning and told them what was going on and asked what I should do. They said I should come in and they'd check me. So we were going about our morning routine, getting ready for the day, when a few minutes later Dr. Mazarei called. She surprised the heck out of me by calling because she was still supposed to be on maternity leave. I had an appointment for the following Monday, and she was calling to ask if I could come in Friday instead since her nurse practitioner wasn't going to be there on Monday, but she needed me to be in by 11. I hung up the phone and told Steve we needed to leave right then because it'd be cutting it close to get there in time. Luckily we had packed a bag the night before just in case, so we grabbed our bag-just in case-and headed out. We managed to make it there in time and the doctor checked me out, only to find that indeed I had ruptured my water, and told us we needed to go straight to the hospital. She called her on-call doctor, Dr. White, and filled him in. So we headed over to Tri-Cities (a familiar place by now) and checked in. They got me settled in a delivery room and hooked me up to a fetal monitor. I wasn't really having contractions at that point, which isn't really all that surprising considering I was still on my medication to prevent them. Things went on like that for a few hours before we realized that they had recorded that my water broke Friday morning, not Thursday. So we corrected that info and they said, oh! That changes things! So the doctor ordered a pitocin drip for me. That was at 5:00. That was when I consider that my labor really started. I started having some mild contractions, but nothing big. At 7:00, the doctor came in and I was able to meet him for the first time (!), and he checked me to see how dilated I was. In the process, he ruptured the last of my water. I was only dilated to a one at that time, and he said that I would probably be delivering in the early morning. "Seven would be considerate." I told him that Will wasn't the most considerate individual lately, so don't count on it. He ordered my pit drip to increase to a 2 (it can go up to 20). Now, as any of you who have had a pit drip know, you get pretty quick results, and they are never fun. I was planning on having a natural childbirth, but I wasn't counting on the intensity of a pit drip to have to deal with as well as regular contractions. Half an hour later, I was literally screaming for an epidural. I handle pain pretty well in general, but this was so far beyond what I could deal with that it was ridiculous. Steve was really wonderful the whole time I was dealing with the contractions. While I was having one, I'd be so hot I'd start sweating and want all my blankets off and a cool cloth on my forehead. Between contractions I'd start shivering because my body was working so hard, and I'd need to be covered back up. The contractions were only a minute apart, so he really didn't have much time to adjust between each. On some of the more intense ones, I actually threw up everything in my stomach (which is why they won't let you eat anything), and he had to hold my little puke pan and wipe my mouth. Now that's love. We could see via the fetal monitor when a contractions was coming and going and its intensity. The graph goes up to 100, but there's a digital readout that gives you a number the contraction is at. Most of them started quite low, around 10, and shot up to 120 or 130 within a few seconds. It just left me no time at all to adjust to any of the pain. Luckily for me, the anesthesiologist came in about 15 minutes later and gave me a wonderful epidural. I was so exahausted by this point just from that hour and a half of intensely painful contractions that I actually slept for a little while. At 9:30 the nurse came in and checked me again to see where I was, and she got this really odd look on her face as she was checking. She seemed to double check what she was doing before anouncing that I was fully dilated and she would let me rest for another half hour so Will could drop a little more before I started pushing. So, at about 10 she had me do a couple of pushes to see where Will was, then said, "Oh, there's the head right there. Stop pushing, and I'll call the doctor." So then we had to wait for the doc to show up. When he showed up, I said "You gave the baby a time frame, so he had to beat it." They had some people from the nursery be notified that they'd need to come check the baby as soon as he was out, and I started pushing. Fifteen minutes later, Will was born. This was 10:54 PM. Now remember, I started labor at 5. We're talking 6 hours total. Speed racer!

Part 2: Just after the birth

     The pediatrician took Will to the side and checked some things on him, only to discover that Will's lungs were a little to immature to do okay without help, so they wrapped him up, let me hold him for the first time for about a minute, then took him to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Steve went with them, snapping pictures. About ten minutes after the birth, the doctor was done with me and back on his way home, the nurses were taking all the medical paraphenalia out, Steve was with the baby, and I was left all alone. It didn't last long, but I was thinking "Geez, I have the baby and suddenly I'm not important anymore." I knew this would happen, but I didn't think it would start so soon! A few minutes later the nurse came back and so did Steve. It was only about an hour after they stopped the epidural that I was up and walking (waddling) to the bathroom, so they were able to move me to a postpartum room for the rest of the night. It was a private room with a pull out sofa sleeper for Steve (albiet not very comfortable). We went up to visit Will for a brief time, then headed to bed. They had him on a respirator which covered his nose. He was pretty much dead to the world after his ordeal, and we were awfully beat ourselves, so we didn't stay long. Will is built just like his daddy, long and lean. He looks so small compared to the other babies around him, even though he's not really all that small. He was 6 pounds 2 ounces at birth, 17 1/2 inches long. He's very strong. It's really easy to see his little muscles when he's moving around, and he can even move his head on his own. He's actually in really great shape aside from his lungs. To make a long story shorter, I'll sum-up. We don't know how long he's going to be in NICU, but it'll be probably somewhere between a week and two weeks. He's steadily improving, and is no longer on the respirator. He still has an oxygen tube going to his nose, but it's no longer anything but room air being pushed into lungs. As long as he improves at this same rate, he'll be off it altogether probably tomorrow. He's got some jaundice, but it's not bad and not really that unexpected. They have him under a photo light to counteract that. It always makes me wonder if he feels like a rockstar under all the bright lights. They have a couple of velcro patches attached to his temples so they can put on a cloth blindfold while he's in the light. He really doesn't like noise and light, although he's getting better about that. I haven't been able to breastfeed him yet, but I am using a pump and they're giving him just my breastmilk. They're slowly increasing the amount he's getting and decreasing his IV. As soon as his respiratory rate is a little lower, they'll let me put him to the breast. Steve and I have both been able to hold him for a good hour plus.

   Unfortunately, I'm starting to get all fuzzy brained, so rather than struggle to make sense about what I've got to impart, I'm going to save it for a little later. I'll be sure to keep everyone updated, though!