We Love Him, a Bushel and a Peck!

After a little bit of (not so subtle) hinting from a friend, I have decided it is time to blog about my little man. I can't beleive it has already been three weeks. Being a mom is the most wonderful thin in the world. Ben is the biggest blessing to me and Mike and although we are learning as each day comes and goes, we are so happy that he is finally a part of our family. The wait was definitely worth it.
Ben's journey started on the night of the 14th. After a night of tacos and gelato, I noticed some signs that labor was on it's way, and after contractions started (mild and about 8-9 minutes apart) in the middle of the night, I was positive that we would have our baby that day. Unfortunately, I fell asleep and the next thing I knew my alarm was going off and I was no longer having contractions. So after a couple hours of debating back and forth about whether or not to go in to work, I decided to go ahead and go. This wasn't the first time I'd had consistent contractions, so I knew I had nothing to worry about. Never mind the fact that in the shower that morning I noticed that my belly seemed a heck of a lot lower than it had the day before, and all signs were pointing to labor. Sure, I will head to work, an hour away from my house and the hospital-nothing is going to happen anyway.

At work I had planned on getting everything ready for my co-worker to take over for me just in case something happened that night and I didn't end up coming in to work the next morning. I did this everyday just on the off chance that I ended up not coming back. I typed up step-by-step instructions on how to do my job, handed them to the person who would be taking over for me, and walked back to my desk, all the while thinking I was starving and trying to decide where to go for lunch. As I walked back to my desk, I felt a gush of fluid. I remember thinking that I kind of had to go to the bathroom and how awful and inconvenient it was that I had just pee'd my pants at work and didn't have a change of clothes. Then it hit me! With no previous problems with incontinence, was it possible that this was my water breaking? No way! Mike had just read a statistic to me that only 10 percent of women's water breaks before labor. After I went to the bathroom to check it out, I came to the conclusion that it most likely was my water and I should probably start thinking about heading to the hospital. I sent Mike a message and informed my office of what had happened and then called my doctor just to let them know. Meanwhile, I was having zero contractions, and felt really good. So I met Mike at home (after the 1 hour drive, plus some because of construction on the freeway), and we headed to the hospital. I got checked in and hooked up to the monitors and now all we had to do was wait.

And wait. . . and wait. . . and wait. Apparently, my body didn't realize that my water had broke and therefore I still was not having contractions. So we decided to walk. . .and walk. . .and walk. I can't tell you how many laps we did around labor and delivery. And still nothing. The nurse eventually let me know that if nothing happened by midnight, they would start me on pitocin. I was nervous about being induced, so Mike went and got me a ton of pineapple and we walked a little bit more, but Ben had other plans. There may have been a little less water in the pool, but he was comfortable where he was and therefore, it was pitocin for me. I was induced at midnight. And I lasted all of about two hours of contractions-one right after the other-before deciding that I wanted the epidural. The epidural allowed me to get one good hour of sleep and then I spent the next few hours in and out of sleep, in between contractions. I was still able to feel them, although I was not in pain, just a little uncomfortable.

Around 9 a.m., I felt the urge to push. When the nurse came in to adjust my position on the bed, she commented on the fact that I was able to use my legs to adjust my body, and I didn't really need much help getting situated on the bed. I should have paid attention to that comment more than I did. About an hour into my pushing, I let the nurse know that I was feeling quite a bit of what was going on. She checked the epidural and noticed that the bag was pretty much empty, but instead of waiting for another one, I just kept pushing. After 2 hours of pushing (although it really didn't seem that long) Ben was born. And I am glad I wasn't entirely numb. I was able to feel him come out. What an amazing experience.

Benjamin Michael Burgin joined our family at 11 a.m. on 7-16-2010. He weighed 7 lbs and was 19.5" long. He has a full head of hair and he came out screaming! And no offense to anyone, but he is the most beautiful baby either of us has ever seen! We are totally in love!