Andrew's Birth Story (Better Late Than Never)

Well, I have been a bit MIA this past couple weeks but thought I'd post my LO's birth story. I woke up early on the morning of the 4th and had to pee (shocker, I know). I was having a few contractions but this was standard (I'd been having them at 4-5 in the morning for the past couple weeks). They usually stopped after 30 min or so. Well, this day, they didn't. Ever since I announced my pregnancy, a lot of people were pulling for a firecracker baby; I was not one of those people. But what do you do? I started timing my contractions and they were 7-10 minutes apart. I woke my husband around 7 and said we might need to gather our things and get our dogs settled w/their keepers. So we did just that, then went out to breakfast. (We live about 30 min frim the hospital, so we were trying to be prepared and hang close.) Contractions still weren't coming any faster and eventually stopped a couple hours later. We headed back home, disappointed, to take a nap. Well, 45 minutes later, I was in horrible pain, with each contraction coming intensely and right at 5 minutes apart. Off to the hospital we went. When we got there, I was dilated to a 5 and was 90% effaced - yea! Not bad for a FTM's first trip to L & D. The nurses kept commenting how quickly we were going to have a baby. Well, it wasn't quick at all. We checked in at 1 on the 4th and didn't have the baby til after 6 on the 5th (careful what you wish for - I avoided my firecracker baby!). Labor was 26 hours but it is pretty much a haze. Baby was face-up, which kept him from moving down very fast. He finally flipped over and moved down. I was terrified of delivery b/c my baby was estimated to be nearly 9lbs. I only pushed a few times, though (over 5-6 contractions) and he was out - easy-peasy!! Andrew Elijah was 7lbs, 5oz and 20.5 in long. He's absolutely perfect. I'm bumping from my phone or I'd post a pic. (I'll post a pic later.). I had a scary day earlier this week when I had a pp hemorrhage but everything seems to be better now. Kudos to you if you've read this while long story!