Mobile Bumpers: Longest birth story ever (PIP heavy!)
Hello ladies!
I finally have a minute (or more like an hour - lol) to sit at a real compouter and type out Baby Boy Ha's birth story, which really is as uneventful as one could hope for. (Edit: yet I managed to turn this into the longest post I've ever written - oops - Feel free to skip right to the end for stats and pictures

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I had my 40 week appointment on Monday the 22nd. My Dr was out of town so she had me see a colleague of hers. She did a membrane sweep, but given the state of my cervix (not effaced and stuck at 2cm for a couple of weeks), she said she was doing it "just in case" but really wasn't too convinced that it would do anything.
I went home tired and crampy. A nap helped some, but the crampy feeling lingered around all day. It even turned into actual contractions by the time I picked up the girls from daycare. By the time I put them to bed, they were uncomfortable enough, and coming at a regular interval that I asked DH to download an app to time them (the look on his face when I asked him! Ha!)
So DH and I packed our bags, on the off chance that this would actually lead to something. (Side note: with both girls, I never had a single contractions - my water broke on its own, then nothing would happen until I was hooked up on pitocin, so this whole timing contractions thing was all new terriroty to me). I called my mom to let her know that "something" may or may not be going on, and that she might want to get her bags ready (she had a 2 hour drive ahead of her to come and watch the girls)
That evening, the contractions came as close as 7 - 8 minutes apart, but then they seemed to die down and so I went to bed. I woke up at around 1AM and noticed they had picked back up. They were getting more intense, too. I was able to somewhat doze off between them, but would wake back up with each contraction. They were 10 minutes apart at this point and stayed that way until 6-ish. Then they started coming closer.
By 7:30, contractions were coming every 4 - 5 minutes so I called my mom again to let her know I was most likely going to head to the hospital after I dropped the girls off to daycare, and that I would call her then to let her know wheter I was admitted or not.
The contractions were getting pretty painful by that point (some I could still talk through, some I couldn't), but it was really important to me to keep things as normal as possible for the girls. And so we dropped them off and warned their teachers that Grandma would be picking them up that day. Everyone was so excited for us (and a little baffled to see me standing there and casually saying "um yeah so we're off to the hospital to have a baby") - it was nice to have them all cheering on us as we left.
I asked one of the DC teachers to take one last picture of us as a family of four. DD1 wouldn't have it and DD2 was on a mission to NOT have her hair up in any type of pony tail. Definitely not a picture that would normally make the cut for our family album, but it means the world to me so I'm sharing it with you now.

I was admitted at 9AM and DH called my mom to tell her it was ON. The nurse who checked me announced I was now almost 4cm and 95% effaced - I was so glad to know that these contractions were actually doing what they were supposed to do! By 11, I was at 6+. By that point, I was SO tired that I was literally falling alssep between contractions (even though they were only 3 minutes apart and lasting over 1 minute each). I asked the doctor if there was something, ANYTHING they could do to help me rest a little before things got really intense. She told me the epidural was my only option. I had my reserves about the epi because I'd had it once before and it hadn't helped much, but I went ahead and got it. It didn't numb me enough to allow me to actually sleep, but it brought the pain down from "unbearable" to "very uncomfortable", which was still pretty darn good if you ask me.
The doctor broke my water shortly after I got the epi and things kept progressing fast and steady. At 1:30, I started feeling things were "changing" - the same way it had happened with DD2. The nurse checked me and sure enough, baby was dropping station and I was almost complete. Then, the same way it had happened with DD2, things went a little crazy. Within 10 minutes, the pain was back with a vengence and had me in tears. I whimpered "It's time to push", which apparently everyone in the room thought was very funny. The doctor had me do a few practice pushes laying on my side then the nurses put up the stirrups. As I was doing those practice pushes, I literally felt baby move down the last few cm's.
With the next push, baby was crowning and I decided that I had had it with the pain and that this baby was coming out NOW. So I gathered every last bit of strength I could find in me and puuuuuuuuuushed. And he all but came flying out. lol. Seriously. DH had asked the doctor if it would be ok for him to catch the baby. The doctor thought it was a wonderful idea, so the when they got the stirrups, they had DH put on gloves. He was still putting on his second glove when baby came out - that's just how fast it happened.
And so Baby Boy Ha came screaming into this world (he literally let out his first cry before he was even completely out!) at 1:48PM on Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013. He was 7lbs 9oz and 20.5". He was born a Taurus like his Mama, in April like his Daddy, on a Tuesday like DD1, on a 23rd like DD2

Here we are!

"Get these paparazzi out of my face already!"
My mom arrived to meet her grandson at 3PM. He may have been her 5th grandkid, she still got tears in her eyes when she saw him (awwww). (I am not liking myself in that picture, but I love my little man's face - and my mom is just beaming, so it's still worth AWing to me

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My mom then left to pick up the girls from daycare and then she brought them over to meet their little brother. DD1 was instantly smitten with him, asking to hold him, give him his monkey hat, etc. DD2 showed a bit more reserve, but curiosity quickly won her over.
Here are the girls meeting their baby brother
Grandpa tried to not let it show, but I think he was the most smitten of us all

Cute DH anecdote: when I used his phone later on, I noticed DH had a tab open to the "Breathing techniques during labour" page of babycenter.ca . I must have been doing a good job though (or he just knew better than to tell a labouring woman what to do. lol) because he never said a thing about it.
Speaking of DH, here he is, as proud a Papa as there ever was!

Farewell, nesticle, you will be missed
Re: Longest birth story ever (PIP heavy!)
D@mnit... Now I'm crying. It's a beautiful birth story. You guys all look so happy.
I can't help but notice how you excuse the real life in all of the shots you didn't like... I think they're amazing. It's all a bunch of happy family waiting to and meeting the new addition. I'm so happy for you guys.
Congratulations!! I can't tell you how relieved I am that everyone's healthy and happy.
Family Ha... Party of 5. Such great photos!!
Edit: stupid mobile bumping
I love the pictures, my favorites were of your family of four and the girls all over their new baby brother. So sweet. I'm so glad everyone is healthy and happy! Congrats on your family of five!
Teary eyes over here too! He is so handsome and you all look so happy. I too love the "family of four" picture.
Congratulations again
I adore the above, and the last family of 4 pic. You guys are the cutest. Congratulations, he is adorable and awesome. So happy for you
Didn't mean to make anyone cry - Sorry.
Oh and I actually DO like our last picture as a family of four. I just meant that this is not the kind of shot you'd typically put in a family album, but it truly holds a special place in my heart. Even moreso because this time, I knew that baby was coming and I knew this was our last "just another morning" as we knew it. Dammit now I'm going to cry, too.