It all started at 6:04 am Saturday, April 5th. For some, at the time, unknown reason, I woke up from my first good sleep in a really long time. Well, the reason wasn't unknown for long. Three minutes later on the nose, I was experiencing my first REAL contraction. I breathed my way through it, so anxious to wake up Joe, but not wanting to jinx it and end up facing even more diappointment. But after I went through about 5 more contraction, all between 2.5 and 4 minutes apart, I nudged Joe and told him the news. He hugged me and laid next to me with his arms around me while I went through a few more contractions. We decided to test things out, so I got in the shower, knowing that if they stopped, it wasn't "real" labor. Not a minute after I got into the shower I got another contraction; they were getting stronger each time. So, we decided to head into the hospital. We got there around 8:30 and they were FULL!! Can you believe it?! Every single one of their rooms were full. The nasty doctor looks at me and says, "Go ahead and go sit in the waiting room. You look pretty comfortable." I wanted to reach across the counter and SMACK him. How does HE know how I am feeling?!?! He's never done this before! Just because I wasn't freaking out, does NOT mean I was in any way, "comfortable". Ugh, so, Joe and I went to the waiting room, where my contraction got worse and worse, until I was crying during them AND in anticipation for the next one....NOT FUN!! Joe, all the while was getting GREAT footage on our new camcorder. :) At the time I didn't appreciate the camera in my face, but now I am glad he did. It's interesting to see how it changed me. It SUCKED!!! Finally, almost 3 hours later, a room had cleared and I was put into a bed so they could see if I was actually going through labor!! Any idiot could tell this was the real thing, but anything to draaaaggg it out a little longer.

Well, lo and behold, it was real, so they called the anesthesiologist for my epidural. Can I just tell you that modern technology is an absolutely beautiful thing!!! Within 45 minutes, they had the epideral in and I was beginning to feel no pain, just a little tingling in my legs. This was around 12:30 and we were so excited. After all the heartbreaks and sadness, somehow (I know how), Joe was there with me to see the birth of our little boy. I could tell Joe was so excited and he was being so sweet and concerned. The video camera was now being turned off intermitantly and he was rubbing my back and entertaining me (which is does very well) to help to time pass. Around 3:45, the nurses came in to check and found that I was far enough along to start pushing. So they started to help me push to get ready for the doctor to come in. Well, I pushed and the nurses panicked because he was coming out a lot faster than they had expected. They rushed the doctor in, I pushed HARD for 20 more minutes and at 4:10pm April 5th, 2003, we had, in our arms a BEAUTIFUL baby boy. Well, kind of in our arms.

As it turned out, because there were no rooms and I had to go through so much serious labor on my own, he felt some of the stress and had pooped in the birthing canal or something and they were afraid that he had swollowed some of it. So immediately the pulled him out and stuck a cathader (sp?) down his throat and started pounding on his back with this suction cup type thing. You could hear a little raspiness in his cry which meant he may have gotten some in his lungs. So they worked on him for a while and I stressed. As soon as they pulled him out, I looked at Joe and realized that he was crying. I rarely see him cry, but this did it to him. It meant so much to both of us to have him there for this fun day! Especially since we had gotten word the night before that he was officially leaving on the following Tueaday. It couldn't have worked out better, unless, of course, he never went at all. So we spent the final nights of Joe being with us in the hospital with our new baby boy. I never realized that Joe had it in him to be such a wonderful father, but he is and I can't wait to see him bond with Luke. He will be such a wonderful daddy! I am so grateful for all that I am blessed with. It's an amazing life!!

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