012607 - Aidan's First Birthday

We'll be having a party tomorrow, but for today, I feel compelled to share his birth story. It has been such a ride. I feel so grateful to have Andy and Aidan in my life. They make me the person I always wanted to be, and make me strive for greater things. So, here we go...

We went into the hospital on Wednesday, January 25th, 2006 at 5 p.m. to begin taking cyto-something...cervix softener/ripener. I got a dose at 5 and another at 12...Had some visitors, yada yada...at midnight I started having some REAL contractions...5 minutes apart, 1 minute to 1 1/2 minutes in duration...real bitches, those...but they wouldn't get any closer together. At 5 a.m., got super duper nauseated and called the nurse for a basin, she, being the angel she was, gave me a little shot of nubane and some anti-nausea stuff...at this point, I was embracing the relief because I STILL wasn't dialated past 2.

My doc comes in at 6:30 a.m. Thursday, checks me, and says the anesthesia man is on his way. I get all teary because I really wanted to try to do it without medicine, control issues, blah blah...SOS. I sucked it up, figuring I'll do whatever I've got to do to get the kiddo out. The epidural isn't awful. Not being able to feel my legs was TERRIBLE for me, but the relief from the pitocin induced contractions was not too bad. I labored, while sleeping off and on, for 5 hours when a nurse came in to check me. We all figured I'd be still pretty closed up. Imagine our suprise when she uncovered my legs to a fully dialated, fully effaced, kid's head showing birth canal. Immediate fire works as my suite is converted to a delivery suite...doc is called, he says try a "test" push. I do, the baby crowns...I am one HELL of a pusher! The epidural has worn off enough that I can feel stuff!!! YAY!!!! Doc arrives in 3 minutes...takes a look, asks me to push. I do. once, twice, the head is out. Doc asks me to stop, suctions, says push again, I do once, twice, three times...breathe, once twice, three times...baby is out. Literally, five minutes of pushing. I have a small tear, because my doc wisely didn't do an episiotomy and it's healing nicely. I feel so surprisingly great! (NOTE: I wrote this a year ago...the day we came home from the hospital...before I'd become brave enough to touch the SIX stitches I had from end to end. This was not a small tear. This was a MONSTROUS tear...but it really didn't hurt that much.)

You know how there's that saying, to make God laugh tell him your plans? WELL...my type A self plans everything, and God ROLLED ON THE FLOOR of my delivery room. Emalyn, my lovely girl, came out AIDAN, my astoundingly beautiful son. I had an entire world of pink for him. HEE HEE HEE...He was 8 pounds flat, 21 1/2 inches, blonde hair, blue eyes, looks like someone to everyone. He's amazing. Good eater, good sleeper, sweet as pie. I couldn't love him more if he were made of dark chocolate.

And just for the record, for any expectant mommy reading this. Aidan was my first. I'm VERY type A, I had everything figured out and knew exactly what I wanted. I didn't get any of it. Literally, even the sex was backward...but because my doctor and I had a great rapport, because Willow Creek is such a spectacularly well staffed women's hospital, because I tried to be flexible, and because my son is the most amazing thing I've ever done, I'm fine with nothing going as planned. You'll be fine too.

So there we go. A year of plans, shot to hell. My whole life revolves around my little bean, and I love it. Here's to more years