Friday, May 15, 2009

World...meet Holden

So. We've been mia for a few days. We've been a bit busy. Why? World...meet Holden Joseph. He was born on Wednesday, 5/13/2009 at 5:36 am. He weighed 9.2 lbs. He was 20.5" long. And whew...what a story. Wanna hear it? Good.

I started noticing some decent contractions at 2 am on the 13th. They were decent enough to get me to wake up Joe and ask him to get dressed. I called my midwife. My wonderful, glorious midwife (sense sarcasm?). I told her that my contractions were pretty serious and coming about every 3 minutes...but that they were only about 30 seconds long. Her response was that those were not real contractions - they were too short, and I was probably just feeling the baby settling down and getting ready. I should come into the office at 7:30 the next morning for a check up. Oh man, was she wrong.

I hung out at home until about 4 am when I decided something wasn't right. I had Joe call my sister to come stay at our house with sleeping Scarlett. She got there about 4:15 am. We left for the hospital at about 4:45 am and the whole time I'm thinking - man. I HAVE to be in labor. I hope my midwife isn't mad that I'm not listening to her and going to the hospital anyway. Then, about 3 blocks away from the hospital, my water broke in the car...and wow. Things started happening pretty quickly from that point on. The pain quickly escalated. We got to the hospital at 5:05 am and my midwife and Dr. weren't even there. The hospital staff checked me out. I was 8 cm dilated. No drugs for me. No epidural. No IV with painkillers. No nothin'. There was no time. My Dr. and midwife barely made it to the hospital. I was pushing about 10 minutes later and after about 9 pushes, Holden was born. That's right folks...we checked into the hospital at 5:05 am and a short 31 minutes later we had a baby. I was only in labor for about 3 1/2 hours. It was absolutely insane. And Holden is absolutely wonderful. And we are absolutely exhausted. I'm leaving you for now with these few pictures. I promise there will be tons more later.

5 comments:

Mama said...

holey moley, you are a true wonder woman! and good for you (obviously) for paying attention to your own instincts instead of listening to the midwife.
i can't believe he's here! congratulations again (and i can't remember if i said this on facebook, but i love the name! and not just because that's the one i voted for)!

Pokolodi said...

Wow--he is so gorgeous! My grandfather, the honest man he is, once said that every baby is cute, but not every baby is pretty--Holden is definitely one of the pretty ones. You can tell he practically flew into the world because he doesn't even look like a newborn!

Congrats again and again! I can't wait to meet him.

Nan said...

Welcome to my brand new, incredibly handsome, baby grandson...I am so proud of all of you!

Penelope said...

Congratulations Lauren! What a great labor. Hope we get to meet Holden sometime soon (and return your vest!). Good luck with everything.

Fleur said...

What a story. Good thing you listened to your instincts! Or your contractions, rather. Phew. I can't wait to see Holden in person - he is really beautiful. Maybe we could come by to return your bath seat next week if you're up for 9-month-old visitors (almost 10 ... sheesh. it does go by quickly.)