Best of both worlds

Well... I ended up getting cute toes AND a new baby by Thanksgiving this year.

To answer the basic questions...

It's a BOY.

He was born on November 22nd (11/22) at 2:09 am.

7 lb 7 oz.

19 inches long.

And, yes, no epidural.

Justin and I went in for our regular appointment Friday afternoon and I was showing more signs of preeclampsia, and they weren't on the border any more. My blood pressure was still slightly elevated, but I had WAY too much protein in my urine and I gained 5 lbs that week. So... the doctor said, you'll be heading to the hospital following this appointment and I'll meet you there.

All of my attempts to induce labor myself now seemed a) a little silly, and b) maybe NOT what I really wanted.

However, it was too late to turn back at this point.

Once my water was broken, contractions started within the hour, but I didn't think they were very strong. I made a little bit of progress, and they started me on the lowest dose of pitosin. Contractions stepped up a notch, dialated another centimeter, and they went to the next dose of pitosin.

Contractions started to get more intense, it was taking some real concentration to relax and breathe through them, but I let Justin sleep for an hour or so, because I thought we'd be at this for a while, and the next step up would require more of his help.

Well, at 1am (6 hours after breaking my water) I got up to go to the bathroom and switched sides I was laying on. The nurse checked me, I was a 7. She walked out of the room, with her warning that if I felt an urge to push, to come and get her.

3 contractions later (about 5 minutes) Justin ran out to get her. I was complete... and they were short doctors. A short period of frenzy followed as our nurses called my doctor, tried to find a substitute -just in case, and prepared to possibly deliver baby on their own.

My doctor made it after I was in position and had actually pushed during a couple of contractions. Probably about 20-25 minutes later, maybe 10 or so pushing contractions, and we had our baby boy.

Pretty intense, but pretty short time period. I guess that's the way to go!

We're still in the hospital at the moment, but we're hoping to leave later this evening. Once we're home, I'll hopefully post more pics. For now, mom and baby are doing well. I know I'm pretty bias, but he's pretty dang cute. I love his hair -not sure HOW he ended coming out with so much of it. He's a pretty content baby, which makes feeding a little difficult, but we'll get the hang of it soon.

By the way... I won't be using his name on this blog... so if anyone has any nickname suggestions, let us know... maybe that'll be our next blog poll.