becoming a mom

Tom has done a great job of taking the social media reigns and letting folks know about our new addition, so I thought it was about time for me to come back to the blogosphere and share a bit more about our journey in becoming parents.

Here I am about a week before Everett was born. I look at these pictures and I'm like, how did an almost 10 lbs baby live inside of me?!?!

I was fairly blessed in my third trimester to not be too uncomfortable, but once I neared the 39 week mark I was starting to feel like it was time to get this little guy out! Then on Wednesday night, July 20th, I started to feel like I was getting contractions. I couldn't sleep from about 2am to 5am because the contractions were coming at regular intervals of 6-8 minutes a part (they need to be at least 3-5min a part to go into the hospital). The next day I went in for my weekly doctor's appointment. I was really hoping that the doctor would check me out and then tell me to stay. Despite the contractions still coming, that was not the case; the doctor said I was dilated 1cm and "ripe" for labor but it wasn't time yet. We left being told the baby could come in a matter of hours or a week. YIKES!

Thursday night we had a great dinner with family and I did my best to grin and bear the contractions. We went to bed and once again around 2am I woke up with regular contractions. This time they were more painful and coming on quicker. I was walking laps in my basement to try to handle them. Finally I decided I needed to wake up Tom because I thought this may be the real deal and needed help timing my contractions. Sure enough...my contractions were coming on about every five minutes. We waffled for a while about going to the hospital because our hospital is 45 minutes away and I really didn't want to drive that far for a false alarm. Around 4:30am we decided we should go for it. We checked into the hospital around 5:30am. They checked me out and I was dilated 2-3cm, so they said they were going to keep me and that our little man would be coming that day.

For the first few hours at the hospital I battled through the contractions fairly well. I even told Tom that this wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and that maybe I could do this without an epidural.
Man, did I eat those words! The doctor broke my water and then the contractions really started to come on strong. It was rough!!! And I confessed that I was too cocky before. :-)

I got an epidural around 9am and for the next few hours I was able to relax, see some family, and mentally prepare to meet our little guy. I started pushing sometime after 1pm and things progressed really quickly. He almost came out before the doctor had time to put her gloves on! After pushing for about 35 minutes our baby was born at 1:51pm on Friday, July 22nd.

I can't describe the feeling of seeing Everett for the first time. There is truly nothing like it. I remember seeing the doctor pull him out and up for me to see and he started crying right away. It was such a beautiful, life giving cry. I instantly noticed he had a full head of dark hair (just like I did). I also remember the exclamations from around the room:

"Oh my goodness, this is a big baby!"
"Look at how big those feet are!" (This was also said about me when I was born.)
"This is one of the biggest babies I've seen delivered."

Then they put him on my chest and I got to hold him for the first time. It was such an overwhelming feeling of joy, love, and awe. I instantly fell in love and became a weepy mess.

Then they told me how big he was: 9 lbs 12 oz and 22.5 inches long. WHAT?!!!! I was shocked! My doctor had told me on two different occasions that he was confident I'd have an average size baby that would not be 10 lbs. We were guessing he'd be around 8 lbs! Boy were we all way off! I still can't believe a baby this big came out of me!!!

We are so thankful for Everett. He's such a healthy, happy baby boy. Becoming a mom is truly a miracle. I'm thankful to the Lord for giving us this little man. I'm so proud to be his mom.