A baby was born

Well, whattya' know...I gave birth to my baby boy last weekend and just like that, life just got a whole lot more interesting again :)

Here's how it all went down (as written via email to my coworkers, 3 days after the birth):

We spent Saturday night at home and had a couple of friends over for dinner. With a sink full of dirty dishes, Brian and I headed to bed.


1:30am:  I was awoken by my first contraction. Fifteen minutes later, I felt another one.
Being experienced at this, I knew that this was it. So I jumped into the shower in anticipation for a potentially long night at the hospital..
Contractions continued, approximately 8-10 minutes apart but weren't extremely painful. 

2:00am: we called the in-laws and they headed up to our house to stay with Xander so we could head to the hospital. While waiting for them, I did what every woman in early labor would do -- fixed the bed, tidied up my room, unloaded the dishwasher and started loading the sink full of dirty dishes into the dishwasher. With my in-laws on the way, I didn't want them to feel obligated to clean while they were here!
With only a few more dishes to load, my water broke. (Eek!)
But the in-laws were still 20 mins away... So I went and blow dried my hair :P (bad hair during delivery was not in my birth plan).

2:40am: Once the in-laws showed up, Brian and I were on our way.
We got to the hospital and were admitted immediately and wheeled right into the delivery room.
A few heavier contractions started closer together over the next hour and a half or so.

Waiting to get wheeled up to the maternity ward

4:00am: the anesthesiologist was done giving me the epidural. Within 10 mins, I was no longer feeling any pain.

5:30am: I started feeling pressure, which I knew was the baby ready to come out.
The labor progressed so quickly after my epidural.

6:00am: I was ready to start pushing

6:11am: Mr. Knox was born!

The only scare we had was that he had the cord wrapped around his neck...but he was still okay. Also, he took over 2 minutes to let out his first cry.. Which is more than double the 'acceptable' time frame that they are comfortable with.

All in all, it was only 4.5 hours of labor - thankfully!

Knox started nursing immediately with no issues. Now he's a monster and I'm his milk-making machine...it's my new full-time job and I could not be happier about it :)

Xierra is bummed that she missed meeting her brother by just a couple of days, but has already facetimed with us a few times to see the baby.

Xander is the happiest big brother in the world -- he has been such a help and cannot resist giving Knox constant hugs and kisses. This morning he told me that he loves the baby more than I do :)
And asked Knox "will you miss me while I'm at school today?"
So sweet!

As for myself, I'm almost fully recovered already. Aside from having a sinus cold, physically, I'm doing well.
I'm still adjusting to being mobile again -- whoa! What a difference it is to not have that gigantic belly! 

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After 2 days in the hospital, I was glad to finally come home -- and what a sweet homecoming it was. My mother-in-law decorated our front porch with blue balloons and inside the house, we had flowers and gifts waiting for us.

The 39 weeks of pregnancy seemed like an eternity and I'm glad that the waiting is finally over. As expected, it's been quite an adjustment to have this little guy around, but I'm glad that he's finally here!