Henry is born!

Wow, in a feat of human ability, Henry managed to surprise the hell out of us this morning! We were, of course, getting set for my induction of labor that was to start at 9:30 pm on Monday night. I was upstairs in our bed and David has relegated himself the bed in the basement so as to get better sleep (he was overly concerned about every turn I made and was sleeping poorly). Here is the play by play:
5:04 I wake up and feel hungry, then like I have to poop. Go back to sleep.
5:11 wait a minute, this feeling like I have to poop feels like a contraction. 7 minutes apart. okay.
5:16 There it is again, I'll see if I have to pee.
5:17 water breaks just as I'm getting to the bathroom
5:20 call Dave's cell, "water broke, contracting, get upstairs please"
5:24 Call Dr. Murphy's office and give the details about water and contraction timing.
5:26 Dr. Murphy calls back, "go ahead and go to hospital, it'll probably be 4-6 hours"
5:40 Call Becky to see if she can get Charlotte. yep.
In the meantime, contractions are closer and closer together. I try to use my cell phone's stopwatch feature to time them. I get a little confused but see that contractions are 2 minutes apart. Dave is throwing stuff together. Bags are mostly packed. Can't find phone. I'm on the floor every couple of minutes grunting.
6:00 Becky arrives and takes Charlotte, I think. It gets hazy here. We get into car and drive to hospital. Take a wrong turn, bend the traffic rules slightly.
6:15 check into triage. I ask for my epidural for the first time.
6:17 The nurse checks my cervix (in between contractions). I am at 5 or 6. I ask for epidural. They have to give me an IV fist (in between contractions). I don't know how long and IV takes, but we started just after one contraction and I still had another while they were working. Those suckers were right on top of each other.
6:20 I ask for epidural again. I tell dave that I feel like I have to push. They start wheeling me to delivery. I tell nurses I feel like pushing and scream like a maniac, possibly frightening all other patients.
6:25 I ask for epidural. They examine me. I'm at an 8 or 9. They say, "call dr. murphy again".
6:30 The lady comes in to have me sign stuff for epidural. I don't care what the risks are!!
6:40 They check me and I'm complete. I give up on epidural and just say "drugs, drugs, drugs" all the while being a complete coward. They say, breathe in through nose and out through mouth. concentrate on breathing. Very difficult. Moaning felt better. Plus, I wasn't sure they realized how much pain I was in. Instead of asking for epidural I said I want a doctor!
6:42 Doctor comes in (dr. Hicks I beleive) and they drop the bottom half of bed, pull down the death star looking search light from the ceiling and put my legs up. I'm instructed to push with contractions. I mutter plenty about how I can't and don't want to and how it really hurts. I can feel baby in my vaginal canal and it feels pretty bad.
6:45 dr. says we need to do a small episiotomy since I tore last time. I guess they gave me a shot of lidocaine for that. I head the snipping but didn't care. I am pushing on contractions.
Doctor puts some sort of lube on and in a few more pushes (with lots of horrible screaming from me, and the medical staff insisting that I"m doing "great" (liars)
6:56 Henry is out! Thank God it doesn't hurt any more! Whoops, there goes placenta (that felt weird).

Henry is 9 lbs. 9 oz, 20 inches. Great skin tone, he might not be as olive as me, maybe closer to Dave's coloring. Dave thinks he looks like Charlotte. I think he just looks like baby :-)

I got sewed up (with a little more lidocaine). And got to order a fantastic breakfast with cinnamon french toast, then showered (gingerly) and was moved up to my room. I have my cell if you'd like to call :-)

I feel pretty good. Just on motrin for the cramping and "bottom pain" (along with the ice packs). Baby Henry is doing well, seems to latch on okay, not great, but hey, he's not even a day old! Charlotte has fared well today with Becky and is currently with daddy getting our car seat and they will be back to visit shortly. My friend Chrsiti even brought a balloon and a "I'm a big sister" pin. She also took the picture at the top.