Welcome, Parker!!!

Parker Christopher Nicholson was born on October 30th, 2007 at 2:59 p.m. at Piedmont Hostpital. He weighs 6lbs, 11.8 oz and measures 20.5 inches long. He is soooo beautiful!!!

I cannot believe our little peanut has finally arrived! After a dissapointing doctor's appointment on Monday, I was convinced Parker was going to take his time coming. My check up showed that I had made no progress since my last appointment, and the doc told me they would let me go as far out as November 16th before they would think of inducing. I made my appointment for the next week and the receptionist told me she was sure she'd see me then since first pregnancies almost always go longer than the due date. I was totally bummed and cranky at the thought of spending two and a half more weeks pregnant. I called my parents and told them that they might miss him completely during their visit from November 3rd-10th, then I went home and moped around.

I read somewhere that drinking raspberry leaf tea would help move along the labor process, so I bought some at a health food store and made myself a cup before bed, even though most articles dismiss this theory as old wives myth. May as well try, right? I had been having lots of Braxton Hicks contractions over the past few days and also had some loose stools (a pre-labor sign), but figured that since my cervix was still pretty thick and I was still only 1 cm dialated, nothing exciting would be happening in the near future. Chris and I read in bed for a little while and then I went to sleep.

The next thing I knew I had woken up at about 3:15 a.m. having some cramping. I figured that I was having some sort of intestinal bug since I had diarrhea earlier. I got up and realized I was really feeling kind of weird, and then I got a BIG cramp. What in the world....? And then it was done. I went back to bed, and five minutes later it happened again. Surely this couldn't be...contractions? I waited and timed for 45 minutes before I woke Chris up. "Um...so, I think I might be in labor." After foggily trying to figure out if I was serious or not, Chris got up and showered.

As soon as I got up and started moving around my contractions went from painful, to nearly unbearable. I did some last minute packing between gut wrenching cramps, and then we were off. All the way to the hospital all I could think was, "this can't be happening, I was just at the doctor's office getting checked 12 hours ago." Come to find out, the contractions I was having then were the worst I would have during my entire labor. I started the process out fast and furious!

After being admitted to the labor and delivery ward, I endured a few more hours of contractions on the same mammoth scale. I was throwing up because of the pain. To be honest, I was absolutely astonished at the level of pain I was experiencing. To my credit, they really were big on the monitor too. I had been confident that I would be tough enough to go through child birth drug free....And maybe I could have, but I knew at that point I had an option that I was more that ready to take. After my epidural, my labor and delivery experience was wonderful. I was more comfortable than I had been for months, actually napped a little bit, and before I knew it I was fully effaced and dilated. 11 hours after waking up that morning, I was ready to push. Wow! That flew by!

And this is when the story gets funny. My labor nurse, Tessa, checked me and said it was time to learn how to push. I got the hang of it after a few minutes, and she called the doctor in to prepare for delivery. Dr. Cook came in and asked me to show her how my pushing was going. She hadn't prepped for delivery or even put on her gloves. I pushed once, and then once again and I watched her lunge onto the bed...to catch Parker! He shot out of me like a rocket!!! I was shocked! That was it? I just had a baby? Suddenly Parker was placed on my chest, having been given the nickname "Flash". My whole being flooded with love so huge it was almost heartbreaking. This was my baby...my son...my everything from this day on. And so it was.

We get to go home from the hospital tomorrow, and I will continue my story the next time I am on the computer. In a nutshell, I feel great, our baby is so sweet, wonderful, and unbelievably adorable I cannot even begin to capture it in words. I will post a picture as soon as possible. Thank you all for your support. I can't wait to share him with all of you.

Hugs and kisses from the fam.

-L