Greetings from postpartum land! :)

So, wanna hear how my day went? ;)

We arrived in L&D triage around 5:30 this morning... I was having WICKED contractions five minutes apart and was SURE it was the real thing this time. The nurses, however, were not. In fact, the nasty nurse who greeted me in triage actually said, "Wanna bet?" to me when I said, "I'm not going home today!" Boy would I like to say hi to HER right about now.

My doctor showed up and checked me... she wasn't sure I was in labor either, but told me to stay two hours and she'd come back. All signs pointed to going home again. It didn't help that for whatever reason, my contractions weren't registering on the monitors despite the fact that I was panting through them and hanging onto the bedrail for dear life during all of them.

Thankfully, the nurses changed shifts and I got Lindsay, the most awesome triage nurse EVER.

My doctor came back two hours later right as I was beginning the worst contraction I had had to that point... she took one look at me and immediately did an exam (DURING the contraction because apparently that yields more useful information?) It hurt like HECK, but as soon as she did it, she said, "You're in LABOR! We're admitting you!" and started barking orders to the nurses. I immediately started to cry... mostly out of relief that FINALLY someoone believed me.

At that point, it was 9:15 or so... at some point in there I got the epidural, which was heavenly.It worked SO well this time.

She came in at 11:00 to break my water, which was apparently unbreakable (more on that later) and decided to start some pitocin to get the contractions a little closer together and stronger. It worked... at 1:45, she came back and declared me to be 8 centimeters and fully effaced. The baby's heartrate was slowing with the contractions, so my doctor and the nurse were getting quietly frantic and it became apparent we needed to get this show on the road.

The room started to buzz with activity... one nurse came in to start readying the baby supplies, another was taking the bed apart and moving my legs around. My mom and Tom's mom came running in and barely had gotten there before they were starting to make me push.

I pushed for 15 minutes...through about five contractions (which I couldn't feel). Simon's head came out and it turned out he had the cord wrapped around his neck TWICE, his hand up by his head AND had meconium EVERYWHERE which they were unaware of until that point. Oh, and my water? Nowhere to be found. It never seemed to break. I never felt it... they started to suspect it had broken at home and his head had just plugged it enough that I didn't notice the leaking because it would have been such a small amount at a time. If that was the case, it's a really lucky thing they didn't send me home because it could have caused some major problems which I prefer not to think about, frankly... it's too scary.

I didn't get to hold him right away because of the meconium... they had to suction him for awhile to make sure he didn't aspirate any of it. He also had to have his vitals monitored for a long time. In the meantime, I was fixed up. Or NOT actually because get this, NO TEARING, NO EPISIOTOMY... NOTHING.

I feel great. I was up right away to use the bathroom and I've been up and around all day!

Simon is also doing wonderfully. I found out later that he weighed 6 pounds, 6.7 ounces and is 20 inches long -- long and skinny! He looks a lot like Benjamin in many ways, except that his eyes are currently blue whereas Ben's were dark brown from the start. His hair looks like it's going to be blonde and maybe curly and he has almost invisible blonde eyelashes and eyebrows. Oh! And the most adorable BIG dimple in his right cheek. :) Seriously cute.

Benjamin came to visit and thought Simon was pretty cool. ;) He gave baby brother kisses and touched his hands and feet. I can't wait to have both of them at home, though for the moment, I'm enjoying the peace and quiet of just the one kiddo. :)

I know some of you are SHOCKED he turned out to be a boy, aren't you? I'm pretty tricky, eh? ;) The pink socks in the nursery picture ages ago? Totally a plant. I bought them when we were in Disneyworld to try to throw off my inlaws. I left them laying out in the stroller basket while they were there in hopes someone would spot them. ;) I also bought a pair of blue ones that I kept hidden from everyone... ;) So someone will be getting pink Minnie Mouse socks as a gift at some point. :)

So that's all for now... I'm off to eat something and spend some time holding the kiddo. Thanks for following our little adventure today! I had so much fun bringing you all along for the ride!