Drake David has arrived!

Well, as many of you may know by now, we had our baby! Even though he was born at 9 lbs 1 ounce and 21 1/2 inches tall, it was an amazing delivery. Here's the story.....

So the Wednesday before I had him I had a doctors appointment. I was becoming very concerned about the size of the baby because I was looking way too big! I was so big that I no longer could fit into my maternity shirts, I had to wear Brett's t-shirts. The doctor felt around my belly and told me I just look bigger than other women because my placenta is in my back and it is pushing the baby forward. He didn't think the baby was bigger than 8 lbs. After that we decided to strip my membranes since I was already so progressed to try and hurry the labor along. I went home and rested and had contractions on and off that night. The next day I started to have contractions, but nothing we were too concerned about so we carried on with our daily activities. I woke up at about 2 in the next morning feeling sick so I woke Brett up and told him I felt like I was going to throw up. So we went downstairs and I started to get pretty painful contractions, but they weren't consistent. Finally by about 5 in the morning I decided to wake my mom up and an hour later we left for the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital and they monitored me for an hour, but little had changed so we were concerned that they were going to send me home. I was having really bad contractions so I was scared to drive all the way home only to return a little bit later. The nurse told me to walk around for an hour and come back to see if anything changed. So Brett, thinking that I was going to be sent home, went to work and waited for us to call and let him know what was going on. An hour later we returned to find out that I was dilated to 3 cm and I was officially in active labor! Oh my heavens were we so excited!! We called Brett, who probably didn't believe us and I was admitted to the hospital! At this point the contractions weren't too bad and I told the nurse I wanted to go as long as I could for the epidural since I heard it can slow labor down. By the time Brett arrived, I was dying from pain! I told the nurse that the baby felt like he was coming and I was almost in tears. Brett came over and held my hand, but the contractions weren't letting up and I started to hyperventilate. Thank goodness I didn't have to wait much longer for the epidural...after the epidural I was in heaven. I can't imagine giving birth without pain medication...I give it up to those women who can do it.

This is me after the epidural and feeling good:)

A couple hours passed and my contractions had slowed down so they put my on pitocin to start them back up. Nothing was really happening and I wasn't feeling any pain. We watching a movie and hung out for a while and nothing. Eventually they took me off the pitocin b/c my contractions were getting a little too close (I didn't even know I was having contractions). We could see other people's contraction on my monitor and we were getting worried b/c everyone looked like they were progressing while I wasn't. The nurse finally came in and said that she was just going to check to see where we were at since we hadn't checked for a while. As soon as she checked she said "oh wow...your complete"! I asked "what does that mean?" She said "you're ready to push". What?!?! ready to push!!! I thought we'd be here all night and wasn't even really having contractions!! We pushed a few times and she asked Brett if he wanted to see the head. The baby was already so far down that Brett could see that he had dark hair. She called the doctor who arrived about 15 minutes later and I pushed for maybe 15 minutes with the doctor and our baby was here!!

The proud daddy...
Drake looking at Grandma...
He pulled the baby out and right away all the nurses started saying how big he was. We all started to guess how big he was, but I never would have thought 9 lbs!!! The doctor was way off when he said no bigger than 8 lbs! Unfortunately, big babies aren't easy to give birth to and I tore to the 4th degree. I felt like he was stitching me up forever!

Right after he came out...first time we saw each other:)

Our hospital stay was great and the nurses were all super nice. I couldn't stop staring at little Drake and all I wanted to do was hold him. I couldn't believe he was finally here!
Our family...
Recovery has been the hardest part and thank goodness my mom is here to help. I told my mom I rather give birth to 5 more babies than deal with the pain of tearing again! But, it was all worth it and I'd do it all over again to have another sweet baby like Drake.

First bath at hospital...

So far Drake is a pretty mellow kid. He had a little jaundice when he was born, but other than that he is super healthy and happy. He sleeps pretty well, but we've discovered that he likes to sleep on Brett's chest at night. He loves his daddy. Brett and I feel so blessed to have him in our lives. We love him so much and are so happy he came into our lives!trying to help out his jaundice...