Right on time
Who says baby's never come on their due date?
Well, whoever they are. They are wrong.
Mr. Hunter knew that I was quite ready for him to make his debut, and he clearly already knows better than to keep me waiting.
It seems very weird that just over 2 weeks ago, I was still pregnant and feeling like I was going to be pregnant FOREVER.
Actually, that is a bit of an overstatement. I was not quite to the point of "get this baby out now," I was much more in the "please come out soon" camp. Had he not decided to come out, I probably would have gotten to the "get out now" point within a few days.
My doctor, who is awesome, was trying to keep my expectations in check, and had estimated that the baby would be a bit late at my last check up, since he didn't seem to want to move.
I had clearly made it much to cozy for him. My bad.
So I had firmly believed that I would be late with this little guy, and if I was going to be late, at least I was going to enjoy my time, instead of sitting around wishing for him to come out.
I actually had wanted to attend an auction on Saturday the 6th.
Chris had persuaded that was not the best idea I've ever had. Good call on his part.
So when I woke up in pain in the wee hours of the morning on Friday the 5th (my due date), I didn't actually believe that I was in labor, I thought to myself "Really? More pain that leads nowhere... ugh."
Well, I was wrong. This pain lead to a baby joining our family.
I didn't know what contractions were going to feel like, and for the few weeks leading up to my due date I would wonder "is that a contraction?" My doc said that when they happened, I would know.
All the pain was in my lower back, and I naively thought it would be in my front, so to be honest when I felt them, I didn't know. It took me a while to figure out that my back was hurting for about 45 seconds every 6 minutes.
If the pain hadn't been so regular, I probably would have tried to go back to sleep and hope it went away.
After about 45 minutes of pain, I decided that indeed these were contractions, and that I should start timing them.
Well, being that it was 3am, and I didn't really want to wake Chris or the puppy yet (in case it was a false alarm). I laid in bed and did what any person with a smart phone would do.... I downloaded a free contraction timing app. God bless the 21st century and our new-fangled technology.
I laid in bed timing my contractions for about 45 minutes before Chris woke up to the gleaming light that was my cell phone, shining in his face to ask what the heck I was doing.
When I told him I had been having contractions for over an hour, he didn't initially seem too concerned, but that was because he was still pretty much asleep. As he woke up further, he was in full soon-to-be-dad mode.
Now, we were up, so heck, the pup should be awake too. I wish I could have got a picture of Ketchum's face when we turned on the lights at 3:45am. He was not pleased.
Around 4:30am we finally got out of bed, mostly because I could no longer sit in bed and wait out each contraction. I had to move around and wince in pain as they got worse and worse.
The fun part was, that now, I was also feeling nauseous along with the pain of contractions, so while Chris made himself coffee and breakfast, all I could think of was throwing up. Awesome.
I finally called my doctor at 6am when I was having contractions that were coming every 4-5 minutes. She told me she would meet me at her office at 8am unless things got a lot faster or more painful.
So we had 2 hours until heading in, which gave us just enough time to pack a hospital bag and install the car seat in the car.
Yes, I realize that most people do both of those things weeks in advance.
We didn't, and we all survived.
Poor Chris, he was trying to install the carseat in the dark.
I finally was able to stomach the thought of food and Chris made me some peanut butter toast and hot chocolate. I didn't realize that would be the last food I would eat for nearly 24 hours.... but at least I didn't throw it up!
We got to the doctor's office (which happens to be around the corner from the hospital), and I was feeling not great, since the contractions were now 2.5 minutes apart and quite painful- still all in my back.
It only took a few minutes to check me and confirm that I was indeed in labor and that I needed to head to the hospital, so that is exactally what we did.
Apparently October 5th was a busy day for births, because the childbirth wing at Northwest Hospital was nearly full!
The only open room was teeny-tiny and only has a chair for the dad to sleep in.
They gave us the option of waiting for another room that was being discharged any minute. We decided to wait.
Let me tell you how fun it is to sit in a waiting room and have contractions.
Super fun.
I was giving every nurse that walked by the sad-puppy-dog-eyes in hopes they would hurry and get me into a room.
We finally got a room and settled in around 9:30am.
Then we waited.
Not exactaly sure what I thought was going to happen, but since we were at the hospital, it seemed like things were supposed to start happening faster.
Not so much.
We waited and waited and waited. And all that was on TV was Two & a Half Men, and Frasier. After a few hours of those shows, I would have rather watched the weather channel.
At 1pm my Dr came to check on me.
I had been in labor for nearly 11 hours and I was not feeling awesome. The contractions really hurt. Like REALLY hurt.
And, to add an element of fun to the mix, a woman next door to me was screaming. SCREAMING, like someone was peeling her skin off.
I looked at Chris and we both knew, that there was no way I wanted to to go through whatever that woman was going through. I had felt contractions for 11 hours, they were not fun, and I hadn't even gotten to the "really bad ones."
Give. Me. The. Drugs.
Chris was doing a happy dance over in the corner, because he had been pro-drugs the whole time, it was me and my horrible needle-phobia that had prevented me from asking them to shoot me up with drugs the moment I got to the hospital.
I was not "trying to go natural," all I was trying to do was have this baby and keep my sanity.
Drugs = sanity.
The drugs worked, I was able to get the epidural and life got infinately better.
Chris decided to "document the trip" at this point. This is the extent of the "birth photography" that happened.
Then it was back to more waiting and more bad TV.
While we were waiting, we finally made up our minds about the names. If it was a girl, we were going to name her Harper and if its a boy, Hunter. The other names on the table were Hudson and Henry for boys.
We were pretty set on the middle name, West, after my mom and her parents (Grandma and Grandpa West).
My doc came back at 6pm and checked me and broke my water (apparently real life isn't like the movies where your water breaks while you are out at lunch, or hailing a cab).
She came back 2 hours later and even though my body was ready, the baby was just not moving down. So we needed to give the baby some help. Luckily Pitocin did the trick and the baby got into the right position within an hour.
At 9pm, the doctor came back and ordered me to take a nap. I'd been in labor for 18 hours and all I had eaten was that PB toast and hot chocolate at 6am. I needed rest.
I was able to get about an hour of sleep (thank you Mr. Epidural). Chris, on the other hand, paced the room while I snoozed.
When I woke up, I was starving.
Like, code red hungry. Give-me-some-food-and-no-one-gets-hurt hungry.
I was watching TV and a commercial came on for Ruby Tuesday's $12 Filet and Lobster combo, and I would have given my right arm to eat it. Yes, $12 steak and lobster was sounding incredibly appealing at that point.
Every so often I would imagine eating some delicious food, and I would tell Chris what I wanted. I distinctly remember wanting a cinnamon twist doughnut and diet coke. It sounded like the most delicious snack EVER.
But, since I was about to have this baby, food was not an option.
At 10:30pm the nurse said it was time to start pushing. I was feeling rested and really ready to meet our little baby.
I, not ever having had a baby before, assumed that when you start to push, that the baby would come out pretty quick.
Clearly I had no idea how this whole having a baby thing goes. I was thinking 15-20 minutes...
The nurse told me that on average it would be about 2 hours.
I'm pretty sure I was in shock.
Seriously? Two more hours?
It was almost 11pm and I REALLY wanted to have the baby on Friday the 5th.
When midnight came and went, I decided that this baby really wanted to come out on a Husky game day, and that is exactly what he did.
Two hours and 3 minutes later, Chris got to announce to me "Its a boy," which was the best part.
After cuddling and kissing our little guy, I realized that I could finally eat.
I had actually forgotten about my ravenous hunger. I was distracted by these little feet!
My first request was something to drink. The ice chips I had been eating for hours, were not cutting it.
I texted my little sister, who was sitting in the waiting room with the rest of our family, requesting a red Gatorade and a diet Coke from the vending machine. She came through, and I was a very happy mom.
After downing the Gatorade in a few seconds, I was able to think about food.
What exactally is still open at 1:30am?
Dick's Drive-In.
My little sister and Chris's little brother, headed out to pick up burgers and fries for us. It was the best meal imaginable.
I was extremely happy. Both for my dinner, and because our family was all there waiting to meet our little guy. It was great, even though it was 2am and we were all exhausted, except Hunter, he was wide awake.
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Chris and I couldn't be happier about having him join our family, although I could be happier about the design of the hospital gowns....
We spent all day Saturday and half day Sunday in the hospital before we were finally discharged. We were VERY ready to go home and experience our new normal life.
On our way home, we stopped and get milk shakes and burgers...apparently burgers are our "go-to" meal.
Hunter has spent the bulk of his first few weeks sleeping and:
He also has been hanging out with his new best buddy: Ketchum. They are never more than a few feet apart. Its the sweetest thing. We have established the "one lick" rule. Ketch gets one lick and then we tell him to "leave it", and usually he does. He's actually now, self regulating.
We've been out and about quite a bit since he's been born. He LOVES his stroller (I love it too), and Ketchum loves it because he is finally getting walks again.
Well, whoever they are. They are wrong.
Mr. Hunter knew that I was quite ready for him to make his debut, and he clearly already knows better than to keep me waiting.
It seems very weird that just over 2 weeks ago, I was still pregnant and feeling like I was going to be pregnant FOREVER.
Actually, that is a bit of an overstatement. I was not quite to the point of "get this baby out now," I was much more in the "please come out soon" camp. Had he not decided to come out, I probably would have gotten to the "get out now" point within a few days.
My doctor, who is awesome, was trying to keep my expectations in check, and had estimated that the baby would be a bit late at my last check up, since he didn't seem to want to move.
I had clearly made it much to cozy for him. My bad.
So I had firmly believed that I would be late with this little guy, and if I was going to be late, at least I was going to enjoy my time, instead of sitting around wishing for him to come out.
I actually had wanted to attend an auction on Saturday the 6th.
Chris had persuaded that was not the best idea I've ever had. Good call on his part.
So when I woke up in pain in the wee hours of the morning on Friday the 5th (my due date), I didn't actually believe that I was in labor, I thought to myself "Really? More pain that leads nowhere... ugh."
Well, I was wrong. This pain lead to a baby joining our family.
I didn't know what contractions were going to feel like, and for the few weeks leading up to my due date I would wonder "is that a contraction?" My doc said that when they happened, I would know.
All the pain was in my lower back, and I naively thought it would be in my front, so to be honest when I felt them, I didn't know. It took me a while to figure out that my back was hurting for about 45 seconds every 6 minutes.
If the pain hadn't been so regular, I probably would have tried to go back to sleep and hope it went away.
After about 45 minutes of pain, I decided that indeed these were contractions, and that I should start timing them.
Well, being that it was 3am, and I didn't really want to wake Chris or the puppy yet (in case it was a false alarm). I laid in bed and did what any person with a smart phone would do.... I downloaded a free contraction timing app. God bless the 21st century and our new-fangled technology.
I laid in bed timing my contractions for about 45 minutes before Chris woke up to the gleaming light that was my cell phone, shining in his face to ask what the heck I was doing.
When I told him I had been having contractions for over an hour, he didn't initially seem too concerned, but that was because he was still pretty much asleep. As he woke up further, he was in full soon-to-be-dad mode.
Now, we were up, so heck, the pup should be awake too. I wish I could have got a picture of Ketchum's face when we turned on the lights at 3:45am. He was not pleased.
Around 4:30am we finally got out of bed, mostly because I could no longer sit in bed and wait out each contraction. I had to move around and wince in pain as they got worse and worse.
The fun part was, that now, I was also feeling nauseous along with the pain of contractions, so while Chris made himself coffee and breakfast, all I could think of was throwing up. Awesome.
I finally called my doctor at 6am when I was having contractions that were coming every 4-5 minutes. She told me she would meet me at her office at 8am unless things got a lot faster or more painful.
So we had 2 hours until heading in, which gave us just enough time to pack a hospital bag and install the car seat in the car.
Yes, I realize that most people do both of those things weeks in advance.
We didn't, and we all survived.
Poor Chris, he was trying to install the carseat in the dark.
I finally was able to stomach the thought of food and Chris made me some peanut butter toast and hot chocolate. I didn't realize that would be the last food I would eat for nearly 24 hours.... but at least I didn't throw it up!
We got to the doctor's office (which happens to be around the corner from the hospital), and I was feeling not great, since the contractions were now 2.5 minutes apart and quite painful- still all in my back.
It only took a few minutes to check me and confirm that I was indeed in labor and that I needed to head to the hospital, so that is exactally what we did.
Apparently October 5th was a busy day for births, because the childbirth wing at Northwest Hospital was nearly full!
The only open room was teeny-tiny and only has a chair for the dad to sleep in.
They gave us the option of waiting for another room that was being discharged any minute. We decided to wait.
Let me tell you how fun it is to sit in a waiting room and have contractions.
Super fun.
I was giving every nurse that walked by the sad-puppy-dog-eyes in hopes they would hurry and get me into a room.
We finally got a room and settled in around 9:30am.
Then we waited.
Not exactaly sure what I thought was going to happen, but since we were at the hospital, it seemed like things were supposed to start happening faster.
Not so much.
We waited and waited and waited. And all that was on TV was Two & a Half Men, and Frasier. After a few hours of those shows, I would have rather watched the weather channel.
At 1pm my Dr came to check on me.
I had been in labor for nearly 11 hours and I was not feeling awesome. The contractions really hurt. Like REALLY hurt.
And, to add an element of fun to the mix, a woman next door to me was screaming. SCREAMING, like someone was peeling her skin off.
I looked at Chris and we both knew, that there was no way I wanted to to go through whatever that woman was going through. I had felt contractions for 11 hours, they were not fun, and I hadn't even gotten to the "really bad ones."
Give. Me. The. Drugs.
Chris was doing a happy dance over in the corner, because he had been pro-drugs the whole time, it was me and my horrible needle-phobia that had prevented me from asking them to shoot me up with drugs the moment I got to the hospital.
I was not "trying to go natural," all I was trying to do was have this baby and keep my sanity.
Drugs = sanity.
The drugs worked, I was able to get the epidural and life got infinately better.
Chris decided to "document the trip" at this point. This is the extent of the "birth photography" that happened.
 |
| I'm smiling because I got drugs |
 |
| Chris is smiling because I got the drugs. |
While we were waiting, we finally made up our minds about the names. If it was a girl, we were going to name her Harper and if its a boy, Hunter. The other names on the table were Hudson and Henry for boys.
We were pretty set on the middle name, West, after my mom and her parents (Grandma and Grandpa West).
My doc came back at 6pm and checked me and broke my water (apparently real life isn't like the movies where your water breaks while you are out at lunch, or hailing a cab).
She came back 2 hours later and even though my body was ready, the baby was just not moving down. So we needed to give the baby some help. Luckily Pitocin did the trick and the baby got into the right position within an hour.
At 9pm, the doctor came back and ordered me to take a nap. I'd been in labor for 18 hours and all I had eaten was that PB toast and hot chocolate at 6am. I needed rest.
I was able to get about an hour of sleep (thank you Mr. Epidural). Chris, on the other hand, paced the room while I snoozed.
When I woke up, I was starving.
Like, code red hungry. Give-me-some-food-and-no-one-gets-hurt hungry.
I was watching TV and a commercial came on for Ruby Tuesday's $12 Filet and Lobster combo, and I would have given my right arm to eat it. Yes, $12 steak and lobster was sounding incredibly appealing at that point.
Every so often I would imagine eating some delicious food, and I would tell Chris what I wanted. I distinctly remember wanting a cinnamon twist doughnut and diet coke. It sounded like the most delicious snack EVER.
But, since I was about to have this baby, food was not an option.
At 10:30pm the nurse said it was time to start pushing. I was feeling rested and really ready to meet our little baby.
I, not ever having had a baby before, assumed that when you start to push, that the baby would come out pretty quick.
Clearly I had no idea how this whole having a baby thing goes. I was thinking 15-20 minutes...
The nurse told me that on average it would be about 2 hours.
I'm pretty sure I was in shock.
Seriously? Two more hours?
It was almost 11pm and I REALLY wanted to have the baby on Friday the 5th.
When midnight came and went, I decided that this baby really wanted to come out on a Husky game day, and that is exactly what he did.
Two hours and 3 minutes later, Chris got to announce to me "Its a boy," which was the best part.
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| Little Hunter West was born at 12:43am on October 6, 2012 |
I had actually forgotten about my ravenous hunger. I was distracted by these little feet!
 |
I texted my little sister, who was sitting in the waiting room with the rest of our family, requesting a red Gatorade and a diet Coke from the vending machine. She came through, and I was a very happy mom.
After downing the Gatorade in a few seconds, I was able to think about food.
What exactally is still open at 1:30am?
Dick's Drive-In.
My little sister and Chris's little brother, headed out to pick up burgers and fries for us. It was the best meal imaginable.
I was extremely happy. Both for my dinner, and because our family was all there waiting to meet our little guy. It was great, even though it was 2am and we were all exhausted, except Hunter, he was wide awake.
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Chris and I couldn't be happier about having him join our family, although I could be happier about the design of the hospital gowns....
 |
| All locked in and ready to go home |
Hunter has spent the bulk of his first few weeks sleeping and:
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| cheering on the Huskies.... |
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| being held by dad.... |
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| being swaddled.... |
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| swinging in his magic swing.... |
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| Puppy and baby on the bed |
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| Luckily I have two hands, 1 for the baby and 1 for the puppy |
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| Couch sleeping |
I can't stop taking pictures of this little guy. Only 17 days old, our little baby blue.
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