sir sam is born!

Baby Sam is finally born!

I say finally fully realizing that I haven't blogged in over seven months and most people didn't realize I was pregnant until I was telling them I would be induced the next week.

However, for me, finally seemed an appropriate word.

It felt like I was pregnant for FOREVER!  The ironic thing is that I don't really mind being pregnant.  In fact, I kind of almost prefer it to not being pregnant.  I feel healthier and I lose weight and my adult onset acne clears up.  If I could be pregnant about fifty more times, I would be back down to my fighting high school weight.

Really, my pregnancy was not bad at all.  I felt great and I loved feeling little Sam rolling around and kicking me.  I was just very excited to meet him and forty weeks is a really long time.

At my 37 week check up, my doctor told me that I could be induced the week of October 13th.  It was decided that I would report to the the hospital at 8PM on the thirteenth to meet my little boy.  We were all so excited.

I spent the week before cleaning and organizing my house.  I guess the nesting thing never really kicked in.  I waited until the last possible minute to get things ready for Sam.  Dave and I spent the Saturday before celebrating my birthday a little early.  He took me on a duck tour of Galveston.  Several months before we took Kate on a beach trip and passed by a duck tour bus and I casually mentioned that ever since I was a little girl I had wanted to go on a duck tour.  I couldn't believe he remembered!

That evening my family and I ran a glow stick 5k in downtown Houston.  That's right.  I dragged my nine month pregnant self on a 5k.  And when I say dragged, I mean dragged.  I walked so slowly that my mom and I were literally the last people on the trail.  The race officials had to wait for us to walk by so that they could start picking up the orange cones and reopen the street to traffic.  Whatever.

And then came Monday which turned out to feel like the longest day of my life.  First of all, I got absolutely no sleep the night before.  I was a mixture of nervous and excited all at the same time and I just could not shut down.  I was so happy to see the light of day.  That, however, started the long, long wait until 8PM when we could go to the hospital.  The day was especially long for me because I was on a clear liquid diet and I was starving.  It wasn't so much medically necessary as I was just afraid of throwing up in labor like I did with Kate.  My doctor had suggested a clear liquid diet the day before.  So on Monday I was hungry and tired and nervous and excited.  I still threw up.

Finally, 8PM rolled around and my mom and Dave and I drove over to the hospital.  I got all settled in and we watched TV until they were ready to get Pitocin going at 1AM.  I opted for the pain free experience and got my epidural before things got going.  I was able to sleep in little bits here and there but it's really hard to rest with a blood pressure cuff going on every half hour.

So, I have to admit, that I think I might have gotten a little spoiled with my delivery experiences because, even though I knew that I was lucky to still not know what a contraction feels like, I got a little cranky that I was having to wait so long for Sam to be ready for his arrival.  I mean, I was uncomfortable!

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Right before it was time to push though, I actually really was uncomfortable because I kept throwing up and it was making me miserable.  Dave was so great.  He kept a cool wash cloth on my head and did the best thing he could to distract me from everything.  He showed me videos of Katelyn that were on his phone.  Nothing makes a mother happier than seeing videos of her precious baby.

Finally, it was time for Sam to be born.  My mom and Dave were so wonderful!  I was so glad to have them with me, not only because of their support but also because I was happy that they got to share this amazing experience with me.

As soon as Sam was born, they placed him on my chest and I burst into tears of joy.  One of the first things I said was how much I thought he looked like Kate.  It was like a flash back to two and a half years before when I met Katelyn for the very first time.  It's an amazing to me how, in one moment the number of people in the room grows by one most precious arrival.

Sam was born in what they call the "sunny side up" position which made it a lot more difficult for him to be born and also resulted in a major welt on his forehead.  Everyone kept assuring me that it would go away and, looking back on the pictures I can see the bump but, in that moment, I thought he was the most handsome baby boy I had ever laid eyes on.

I still think he is.