It Was The Best Of Times, It Was The Worst Of Times

It's twelve days later, and I'm finally feeling up to blogging again. Actually, I've been dying to blog. But as all mommies out there know, finding the time to do anything other than take care of baby, sleep and occasionally eat is quite a challenge at first. So finally, here is the story of Chase Michael Webb's entrance into the world. (Minus some of the more disgusting details)

May 18th at 5:00pm, I checked into the hospital to spend the last few hours of my 27th birthday being induced.

It started with the IV (I am not a fan). Then my doctor came to check on me and place Cervadil (which was supposed to start the dilating process). Again...not a fan. After that, it was just a waiting game. We hung out with family until visiting hours were over, and then I tried to get some sleep.

I woke up at 3am with mild contractions. Nothing major, but they were consistent every 2-3 minutes, and never let up. Needless to say, my sleeping ended at that point. Five am started the Pitocin, and then the fun really began. The contractions got consistently stronger, and by 8:30 I was ready for my epidural. Let me just give a big shout out right now to anyone who gave birth without one...you are my heroes...I could not have done it! I was feeling great after that, in spite of the four bags of stuff now dripping into my arm and the catheter that followed the epidural. I had a little nap, and then spent a few hours visiting.

At 2:00 my Doctor came back to break my water. Things progressed very quickly after that. I went from 2cm to 5cm to 7cm to fully dilated. And despite the epidural, when it was time to push I knew it. For those of you who haven't experienced it, I will simply tell you what I told my nurse. I felt like I had to take the worst poop of my entire life.

When the Doctor finally got back, it took about 20 minutes of pushing, which was completely exhausting. We were making progress, but at some point we lost Chase's heartbeat. So my Doctor informed me that, contraction or no contraction, I was having that baby now. So snip snip pull, and sweet baby Chase was free!

This is my "Is it over?" face.

Six pounds, thirteen ounces and nineteen and a half inches long. Perfect, handsome, and looking just like his Daddy. Not that I had any idea what he looked like. I will be completely honest, right after the delivery I was in such bad shape I don't even think I looked at him. Plus, I was not about to hold him until he was cleaned up. And unfortuntely, I was shaking so bad it was quite awhile before I was even able to hold him. But let me tell you, it was worth the wait.

A big shout out to my mom who spent 3 nights in the hospital with me, took all the pictures (at the expense of being in any of them!) and even watched the delivery (even I had my eyes closed). And another one to all of the friends, family and friends who are really family who came to see us in the hospital. I couldn't be more grateful for all of the love and support we have received!