Size Matters.

I forgot the feeling of having a tiny, perfect infant. Like my heart is growing to fill my entire chest. I love thise little boy so much. I am not nearly as fond of pregnancy, but the second they put that little guy on my chest I thought that I wanted 100 more. Babies that is. Don't worry, I won't.

Our little boy Luke joined us in the most wonderful and peaceful way. Monday night I began having more regular and painful contractions. They were coming every 5-10 minutes for a couple of hours, but did not seem intense enough for me to consider real labor. I figured I would lay down, go to sleep and they would go away.

We went to bed and they came all through the night every 15-30 minutes. I tried to sleep, and eventually morning came. I thought all of these contractions might just go away, but called my mom and told her she better come today, because there was a good chance Luke wasn't waiting until tomorrow.

I had contractions all day, but continued with my daily routine. They were still only every 15 minutes, and although painful and I definitely could not walk and talk through a contraction they were not coming any more frequently, so I still thought they might just disappear.

Then began the real excitement...

At 3:45 I went to my scheduled doctor's appointment. I told her about my contractions, she checked me and said, "Honey, you are 90% effaced, dilated to a 4 and you are in active labor. You need to go to the hospital right now. You are going to have a baby tonight. How did you get here? Did you drive yourself here? Where is your husband? You need to call him right now and tell him to meet you at the hospital."

I was excited, but pretty relaxed. I was sure Luke wouldn't be born at least until tomorrow. Russ and I made it home, met Mark, packed bags for all of us, dropped him off at a friends and we were off.

I think we finally got situated in our ldr room at 6:30. Dr. Kahen came to check one me and said I was between a 5 and 6 and was going to have a baby in a few hours.

Mark and I looked at eachother with smirking eyes. We knew better. We were there for the last one, they don't just come out that easy.

The contractions were coming closer to every five minutes, but being that far apart the pain was manageable. Mark did get a pretty funny video of the two of us talking and laughing. All of a sudden my face becomes very serious, focused. A strong one was coming. Mark didn't get the hint. Seconds later I'm yelling, "turn it off, turn it off".

About 8:30 I was at an 8 and felt that I would surely die. The contractions were right on top of eachother and I was shaking like a leaf. Then came the epidural...

Awesome!

Perfect epidural, took away the edge, but I could still feel some pain, and a VERY STRONG urge to get that baby right out.

I was at a 9. My doctor -could not love her more- came in and told us she was so excited to meet our baby. My amazing, adorable, supportive nurse told me to wait a couple of contractions. This part was by far the hardest. A couple of minutes later we were all ready. Pushed through 2 contractions and at 9:30 there he was. My doctor immediately handed him to me and let me hold him for about an hour.

He was pink and little and beautiful. He cried for a couple of seconds then just laid there peacefully looking around. After about 20 minutes he wanted to nurse.

Mark and I kept looking at eachother like, "Is this really happening? This is too perfect."

So, size does matter. It is decided. Russell's birth was so different. Nurses and doctors running around the room everywhere, a giant baby who was purple and not breathing. Myself practically passing out from pain and exhaustion. Still wonderful, but I hope all my babies will be 7 pounders from now on!

We are all in love with little Luke. He is a very cute angel.