He's Here! Story and PIP

MN_Jen · April 2013

Welcome to the world, John Theodore!

I had a rather easy and uneventful pregnancy, and the birth went smoothly as well. On Wednesday evening, three days after my due date, I started feeling contractions. My two best friends were on already on their way over to my place to hang out, so our evening focus became timing contractions! DH works nights, so I shot him a text around 8pm to stay posted because the contractions were a pretty regular 5 minutes apart. At 8:45 I called him to leave work and come get me. Apparently the exact words I used were, "It's time for the thing!"

My girlfriends kept me company as we waited for DH, and then the two of us were off for the hospital!

Arrived at the hospital a little after 10pm and when I was checked at 10:40 I was at three cm. The next two hours were full of strong and painful contractions until the lovely epidural kicked in a little after midnight. Wen the nurse checked my at 12:30 am I was expecting to be around 4 or maybe 5 cm...nope! 8 cm! No wonder those 2 hours were so terrible!

Within the hour I was fully dilated and my water had broken naturally, but we waited a little while longer to let the baby move down a little more. DH and I watched the second half of Sleepless in Seattle and a rerun of Mad Men. Then my blood pressure dropped, which caused the baby's blood pressure to drop, so things got a little exciting. They stabilized us and decided it was time for me to start pushing.

A little over an hour and a half later, John Theodore joined us! 9 lbs, 1 oz and 21.5 inches long. Born April 25th at 5:23 am.

I couldn't believe it when the nurse said he weighed 9 lbs 1 oz. At my 40 week appointment on Monday the doctor had estimated he would be around 8 lbs, which was pretty consistent with what I had heard before. I did end up with an episiotomy AND 3rd degree tears. Recovery has been okay so far, knock on wood.

Giant THANK YOU to all of you for sharing this journey with me! This forum has been a HUGE source of entertainment, inspiration, and education. Congrats to all the babies that have been born and good luck to all those still to come!