Max's birth story!

10 days old

it's been a busy couple weeks around these parts:) i'm going to try and give this birth story thing a shot and give you brief update of how things are going!
on 11/21, papa_mona played flag football with people from work and i went and visited with the Q's...they have a new baby, L, who was born about 2 months before max. i spent most of the morning there and then after the game we went to homeslice for pizza...my fav! my back was really uncomfortable sitting in the booth which was really unusual for me...J called it at the time and said papa_mona wouldn't be at work on monday:)
after we got home, i started to get more and more achy, almost like i was getting the flu, which i was a little worried about. i took a nap and started googling early labor signs:) i went to bed and around 130am i started to feel some contractions (felt like period cramps) and around 2 i decided to get out of bed and lay on the couch so i could time them without bothering papa, and yes, there is an app for that (used the iphone to time contractions!). around 530am the contrax were getting pretty strong and i was debating on if i should get papa_mona up...i was walking towards the bedroom when i saw edward on the floor...i thought "you have got to be kidding me" and i decided i was getting papa up for sure so he could get edward outside:) it took papa a moment to wake up but he did and got edward outside and made me something to eat.
i called the oncall dr around 7 and she said i could labor at home for a few more hours and then head to the hospital. papa_mona and i got all of our stuff around and kept timing until 9ish when we got in the car and headed to the hospital.
we got sent up to L&D and got put in the triage room. they checked me and i was 4 cm dilated and 100%effaced. the nurse called the dr and she said to walk around for an hour and check again...so we did and by that time i was 5cm and i was admitted. we were the only couple there and we got to pick our room:)
grandma O (or mom_mom as papa likes to call her) was set to arrive that day at 6 so we had called big Csquared so she could pick her up at the airport...baby M has great timing:)
i kept progressing steadily throughout the day was handling the pain pretty well...i did a lot of walking and used the labor ball. my water broke on its own around noon on the 22nd.
around 5, i was just over 9 cm dilated but had anterior lip on my cervix that was staying put. over the next couple of hours we tried different positions to try and get the lip to fully dilate. the dr. came and checked me around 7 and i just had about a quarter of the cervix left to dilate but i couldn't push until i was are fully dilated.
by this time, the contrax were pretty fast and furious and i didn't know how much longer i could go (it was getting very hard for me to relax)...let me just say that papa_mona was beyond wonderful this whole time, coaching me and helping me get through the pain. around 830pm, we tried some practice pushing and they tried pushing the last bit of the cervix out of the way but it wasn't working. at this point, i decided to get an epidural so i could hopefully relax and get dilated all the way and meet our baby boy!
the epidural was like a little slice of heaven...i couldn't really feel the contractions and it was so much better. after an hour they checked me and i was 10 cm dilated and almost ready to go. the epi had slowed my contractions a bit and they needed to be strong and closer together so we could do some serious pushing and get baby M into this world. they started me on some pitocin and around midnight it was time to start pushing (they had shut the epi off so i could feel the contrax and do better with the pushes). the first thing the dr said was that baby M had a full head of hair:) i pushed around 20-30 minutes and got to see my little guy enter the world at 1229am on 11/23/09.
papa_mona cut the cord and we were just so happy that max had arrived. i had to get a few stitches but couldn't feel anything because of the epi so that was nice. papa watched as they did all weighing, etc with baby M. i fed him right away and he latched on pretty good and it was just wonderful. giving birth was by far the hardest and most rewarding thing i have ever done. i was/am very happy with how everything turn out!
baby M got his circumcision on 11/24 in the am and we got to leave the hospital that day around 5pm...it was nice to be home and back in our own bed!
side note, mom_mom made it in just fine and it has been beyond wonderful, helpful (there really aren't enough words) having her here to help!!!
a brief update on how things are going...the pedi did find bilateral iguinal hernias so baby M will have to see a specialist on the 18th of this month and probably have surgery at 3-6 months to have them corrected. he also stopped peeing and pooping when we brought him home from the hospital because my milk hadn't come in. have a couple calls to the pedi, we started to supplement with formula and he is peeing and pooping like a champ. my milk still isn't in like it should be so we are still supplementing after every feeding and i'm pumping after every feeding to try and get my supply up. we have settled into a pretty good routine and he is a wonderful baby!!!
we are going to try and take pictures on wednesday and i'll try and post on thursdays but we'll see how that goes:) here are a few pics to tide you over til next time!!