Hudson Jeffrey has arrived!

I think most of you know this...but our son is HERE! =)

He arrived on Tuesday, March 2nd at 9:35pm. He weighed in at 9lbs even and was 22.75 inches long! I was in labor for 23 hours--including 3.5 hours of pushing. It was strenuous, even though I had an epidural that worked well for most of the day. If you'd like the full details, I've put them below. But first, here are a few pictures and a link to our album that has many more photos. We are so happy that our son is here! He is a good eater--although sometimes he has trouble getting started. He seems to be sleeping well. My mom and Jason have been a huge help these first few days, and I couldn't do it without their support.

I went into labor on Monday evening, though I had probably had contractions during the day as well. They were strong enough to start tracking about 10:30 Monday night. I wasn't convinced (or wouldn't let myself believe) that I was in true labor. So I told Jason that we should head to bed. Well almost immediately the contractions became worse, and they never stopped. Finally Jason convinced me that we should call the doctor when they were about 2-3 minutes apart. The doctor asked how long they were, and at that point they were averaging about 30 seconds and it wasn't enough to come into the hospital yet. At this point (~2:30am) we called my parents to at least alert them we were in labor. They packed themselves up, and left to head to CT about 4:30am.

Meanwhile, we finished packing up our things to take to the hospital, and managed to both take showers before I was feeling SO uncomfortable that I wanted to call the doctor back. She told me to come on in and that she'd check me. We arrived at the hospital about 5:30am and I was 2 cm dilated, and that wasn't enough to be admitted. After some time on the monitors, she sent me down to the lobby to walk until 7:45 and then said that she would recheck me and decide if I could be admitted. I managed to walk for the 1.5 hours, and would at this point have to stop and breathe through most of the contractions that were still coming every 2-4 minutes. They definitely picked up in intensity during this time. We were both exhausted and had been awake now for about 24 hours.

Thankfully when they did recheck me about 8am I had dilated to 3-4 cm and was going to be admitted! =) I walked to the labor room, and was asked about pain management. At this point I was more than ready to get an epidural. I was exhausted and just wanted to be able to rest and have the pain reduced or relieved.  Thankfully I was able to get the epidural pretty quickly, and I was much more comfortable! =) Yay for epidurals!

The nurse I had during the day was great. She kept me encouraged, and the doctor was good. I actually ended up having 3 different nurses and saw 3 different OB doctors from our health group during the day. By 10am I was dilated to 7cm and all seemed good. The baby was still quite high at that point, and so the doctor didn't want to break my water. About 11am my parents arrived. We were thinking at that point that they had made it just in time, but things definitely slowed down. Around 12 my water broke on its own, which was another encouraging sign. However I hadn't dilated any more and the baby was still high. My contractions started to slow down and weren't as regular, so they gave me some Pitocin to help encourage progress. I was starting to feel more uncomfortable and felt pain again. The doctors wanted me to hold off on getting any more epidural medicine because they thought I would progress quickly. I held out for another 1.5 hours, but still wasn't dilated any more. Thankfully, I was able to get some more medicine and also take a short nap.

Finally at about 5pm I had dilated fully, but the baby was still high and the doctors were fairly certain that the baby still was facing the wrong direction (face up and tilted the wrong way). At 6pm the nurse had me start to push. It became evident fairly quickly that this was going to be a difficult and long process. It took me a bit to get the hang of pushing and with the baby in the wrong direction it took 3.5 hours! At some point during the pushing I am pretty certain that my epidural ran out or was stopped completely. I certainly felt a lot, which the doctor told me later was a good thing.

The baby's heart rate had been excellent for the entire day, but apparently during the last bit of labor it became a concern. So the doctor decided to use a vacuum to help get him out more quickly. She was also concerned with his size and his position, and my rising temperature that there may be complications with shoulder dystocia (head is delivered but shoulders get stuck). So she called in extra nurses and a pediatric NP. I was pretty out of it but at this point knew that something was wrong. Jason and my mom knew a lot more than I did and were pretty concerned.  With the last strength I had and with God's help I finally was able to push him out. Thankfully with the last few pushes the baby turned to the correct way and came out very quickly once his head was out.

I was able to hold him immediately, but was utterly exhausted and was overwhelmed. But there was a huge sense of relief that he was here and he was safe. We know that many of our family and friends were praying for us and the baby during the labor process, and we are so thankful!