Seth found out yesterday that when his department chair sent out an email to the entire school about Brooks’s arrival, he for some unknown reason concluded the paragraph of stats (including correct full name) by saying “Mom, Dad, and LITTLE ANDY are doing fine.”  And seriously– we just got a really sweet welcome baby card in the mail with a message for “Little Andy.”   How crazy is this?  I didn’t realize I gave birth to Little Andy!

Speaking of the birth of the child I did have (BROOKS), I thought I’d provide a quick sketch of our hospital experience for the so-inclined.  I will not be offended if you stop reading now, although it’s not going to be gross or anything! 

I really meant to update the blog one last time before going to the hospital because the story actually took one more turn after my post about the induction getting put off until 6 AM Tuesday due to lack of beds.   It turns out that BROOKS really wanted to come on the 15th so he decided to get things jumpstarted himself.  I started having contractions around 1 AM so we ended up getting to go to the hospital before 6 after all.   We got there about 3:30 and while many of the rooms had cleared, they had not been cleaned yet.   Apparently this week has been crazy for births here.

Anyway, here’s the scoop:   I ended up getting an IV and pitocin around 5 AM even though the contractions had started already.   Nothing was too bad for awhile…but then I started feeling what thankfully was the only real pain of the day.  I probably had about 1.5-2 hours of yucky contractions made worse by the fact that they felt very much like they were in my back.  Thankfully (and miraculously), when the doctor checked me around 8:30, I had progressed enough to get an epidural.  The anesthesiologist (whose name–seriously–was Dr. Payne) was already on the floor and I was getting me some drugs by 9 AM.  After that, I felt just fine and was unaware of any contractions.  By 1:45, I was 9 cm dilated and we could get on with things.  I ended up pushing for about an hour and 45 minutes and there he was!  (BROOKS)   The whole experience was really so much better than I feared and I am so thankful that it went smoothly.  

Later that evening, we got transferred over to the Maternal Child wing where we stayed until yesterday just after noon.  We took advantage of the nursery but also spent some time hanging out with BROOKS.   He was so amazingly quiet the first 24 hours that this recent discovery of lungs is probably more stressful than it would have been if he’d come out crying!    So we’re off on this adventure called parenthood, already sleep-deprived and constantly confused by what to try next.  Only 18 more years to go!

Thanks so much for all the well-wishes and prayers!