What an amazing 3 1/2 weeks it's been!

Conor is now 26 days old, and we've had the most amazing 26 days of our lives.  Where to even begin?  I suppose it makes the most sense to begin at the beginning.

The Birth Story

On Wednesday, January 21, I had leave work early to go to a doctor's appointment.  The new staff member who is filling in for me while I'm out had just started working on Tuesday, so we'd managed to go over some of what she would need to know but not nearly everything.  As I got ready to leave, I asked her if she was all set for the afternoon.  She said yes, she was all set for the afternoon, and then laughed and added, "As long as you come back tomorrow!"  I laughed and assured here that I had full intention of coming back.  I then headed off to the doctor's office. 

After performing my exam, Dr. Khan once again reaffirmed that she believed there was about a 50-50 chance that the baby would come within the next week.  She was pertty confident that he would arrive within a week and a half, though.  As part of my exam, she "stripped my membranes," which is basically a procedure that helps induce labor if a woman and baby are right on the edge of labor.  It releases the hormones that sets everything into action and moves along the process.  However, it's only about 50% effective, and only works if you and the baby are truly ready.  Otherwise, it has no effect.  

Wednesday night, I began feeling crampy.  I thought it was just because I'd had the exam and membrane stripping procedure that afternoon.  Perhaps I was just feeling a little sore from all of that.  I woke up a few times during the night Wednesday night continuing to feel crampy, but nothing that really interfered with my ability to sleep.  Thursday morning, I woke up and showered.  After getting out of the shower, the cramps felt like they were getting worse.  Not only were they getting worse, but they were getting worse in pulses.  I began to think that perhaps this was what contractions felt like.  Mike got up and began to time the contractions.  However, we found that they were not regularly spaced.  They would come at 7 minute, 3 minute, 5 minute, and 1 minute intervals with no pattern.  After a while, I consulted my book and discovered that the description of false labor fit exactly what I was experiencing -- contractions irregularly spaced and focused on my back.  Mike stuck by my side and began researching how to make false labor end, but we couldn't find anything that worked.  After about 2 hours, at 7:30 AM, we both e-mailed in to work to let them know that we wouldn't be in, as I still hadn't been able to get dressed.  Around 9:00 AM, I decided to get into the bathtub to try to ease the pain.  After I'd been in the tub for about 15 minuites, Mike remarked that I had now had 7 contractions in a row that were a minute and a half to two minutes apart.  Now, you're supposed to call the doctor when your contractions are five mintues apart.  Mike quickly grabbed the phone and called the doctor's office.  The voice on the other end told him to grab my bag and head to the hospital.  It sounded like we were having a baby!

It took about half an hour, but Mike managed to help me get dressed, threw all of the last minute items into the hospital bag, and got us all loaded into the car.  He then took off racing for the hospital.  Unfortunately, about a mile from our house was a police office sitting idly on the side of the road.  As soon as we went racing by him, we knew what was coming.  Sure enough, he soon pulled up behind us and pulled us over.  He seemed to be taking his time making his way up to the car, so Mike waved his hand out the window to motion the cop to come to the car.  But the cop would have none of that.  He made his way over on his own time.  When he came to the window, Mike declared, "My wife is in labor!"  The officer responded by asking, "Do you want me to call an ambulance?"  Mike just looked at him dumbfounded, wondering if he said "no" if that meant he would get a ticket.  Realizing Mike was struggling to come up with an answer, the officer looked at me and asked, "Ma'am, do you need an ambulance?"  I quickly said, "No, I just need to get to the hospital!"  He then kindly congratulated us and ushered us on our way, offering some parting words of advice: "Just make sure he drives safely but efficiently!"  With that, we were once again on our way to the hospital (and not at any slower of a speed!).

We finally arrived at the hospital at 10:00 AM.  They ushered us into a labor and delivery room and quickly declared that yes, this was the real thing.  We were having a baby!  I then spent the day laboring.  We tried a couple different techniques, including the whirlpool tub, but found that the birthing ball worked best for me.  Mike was an absolutely amazing supporter.  He spent the entire day massaging my lower back, which was where I felt the pressure of the contractions.  It's amazing that his hands didn't fall off.  He was very quick to get me anything I wanted and did the speaking for me when I could not or did not want to talk to the nurses.  I continued to progress steadily throughout the day, but by 5:00 PM, my water still had not broken.  The doctor offered to break my water, which would help things move along quickly.  We quickly accepted, as by that point, the contractions had become very strong, and I was more than ready for the baby to come out!  Therefore, she broke my water at 5:00 and said she'd be back at 6:00 to check me again.  After breaking my water, the contractions quickly became much more intense.  By 5:45, I was feeling a very strong need to push and knew the baby was ready to make his entrance into the world.  I called for the nurse, and both she and the doctor came rushing in.  Sure enough, the doctor checked and affirmed that it was time.  I began pushing shortly thereafter (after a little instruction; that's one part of labor that you don't intuitively know how to do).  With about three rounds of pushing, Conor was born at 6:06 PM, weighing in at 6 lbs, 15 oz and measuring 20 inches long.  

The whole experience was absolutely amazing.  I was thrilled that everything went just as we had hoped.  There were no complications at all, and we were able to bring Conor into the world without any medication or interventions.  I couldn't have asked for a more supportive team, lead by Mike and including all of my nurses and my doctor.  Conor was absolutely perfect from the moment he was born.  He earned a 9 on the Apgar, which apparently is perfect because it's impossible to earn a 10.  (The missing point is for having blue hands and feet, which naturally do not gain their pinksih color until several hours after birth.)  He took to breastfeeding immediately, having a very strong sucking reflex.  The remainder of our stay in the hospital was great (thanks in part to them placing us in a postpartum room with two beds - making Mike's stay much more comfortable than it could have been).  

The First Three Weeks at Home

It's been very surprising how easily we've all slid into family life.  We were lucky enough that Mike got two weeks off of work to be home and Mom (now known as Mimi) was also able to stay with us for two weeks.  While she was here, Mimi took care of all the cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, and laundry to allow Mike and I to focus fully on getting to know our new little guy.  (Of course, we also let her get a little time with Conor each day, but she very graciously spent the majority of time doing all the non-baby-related life tasks, which was the most amazing gift she could possibly have given us!)  We were so incredibly lucky to have that luxury and will be forever grateful.

It's amazing how much Conor has grown already over the past three weeks - both physically and in personailty.  Physically, he's quite a chow hound and is packing on the pounds.  At our one week appointment with our pediatrician, she was so impressed with how much weight he'd put on that she said we could skip our two week appointment!  This weekend, Mike and I both weighed ourselves and then stepped on the scale with him in our arms to see how much he weighed.  In both cases, the scale showed an additional 9.5 pounds!  To gain three pounds in three weeks (his discharge weight from the hospital was 6 lbs, 8 oz) is quite an accomplishment.  We're officially out of newborn clothes and newborn diapers and on to the 0-3 month clothes and the size 1 diapers.  

Not only is he growing in size, but his personality is blossoming as well, slowly but surely.  He's a very good baby, fussing only a few minutes here and there each day.  He's pretty easily consolable.  It helps that I spend all day very day with him, as I've been able to learn his signs for what he wants fairly well.  Therefore, we're usually able to figure out what he wants and settle him down.  Of course, we still misread him sometimes, but it's been such a fun process getting to know him and learning his language.    He's growing more and more alert every day, taking in the world around him.  He spend a great deal of time each day simply studying, staring at people, objects, and patterns that interest him.  We're sure that he's going to be a very smart little guy, with all the studying he's doing!  

There's so much I could say -- details about bathing, daipering, our nightly sleep schedule, and so on -- but I'll leave these for future posts.  I needed to do something to get myself back into the swing of blogging, and I think this is sufficient to break the ice!  Now that I'm home full time, I think I'll be on here much more often, even if it's to do something as simple as post a cute picture of something he did, so check back often for updates!