Welcome to the world Aiden!

Aiden's arrival on Monday morning was so fast it was actually chaotic.  The labor was extremely fast, and in hindsight this little fella was almost born in the car, although we had no idea it was so close at the time!  Interestingly enough, we actually called the doctor at about 10:30pm Sunday night because the baby hadn't been moving quite as much as normal and the movement had been more muted that afternoon and evening. Of course, right after calling, the baby shifted around like crazy and we were able to lay down for bed with our minds at ease. But we had said to each other and to my belly that we were ready for Kickie to arrive and to know everything was okay with the baby.

I woke up at about 1:45am to go to the bathroom and had a little bit of cramping. Shortly after 2am Ross woke up and I told him I was having some cramps. At about 2:30am I decided to get up and go down to the living room. I Googled what contractions feel like and was pretty sure that yep, I was having contractions. I fired up my work computer and decided to finish up a few facility diagrams and some loose ends, since it looked like I was going into labor and wouldn't be heading to the office today!  Ross came down for a little while, and since the contractions were about 10 minutes apart and not terribly painful, we decided we should try to get a little more rest.  I think I laid down for about 30 minutes, but found the couch had been more comfortable, so I got back up and kept working for about another hour. At this point the contractions were anywhere from 7-8 minutes or 4-5 minutes apart, and lasting about 30 seconds or less, and getting more and more intense.  By 5:00am I went up to take a shower and Ross was up to shower too.   While I was showering the contractions got substantially more painful and were consistently every 3-4 minutes, but still only lasting 15-30 seconds.  After showering, laying in bed was super painful and the contractions were fast, so at 5:30am, I called the doctor and they told us to go ahead and make our way to the hospital.  I didn't realize it at the time, but my water had to have broken while I was in the shower.  Thinking we still had hours of laboring ahead of us, I dried my hair, Ross got ready and packed up the car, and we were on our way by 6:17am.  At this point the contractions were stopping me in my tracks and feeling pretty terrible.  I was thinking to myself, wow, this hurts pretty good, I'm definitely going to need an epidural if this has to continue for hours!

We pulled into the hospital at about 6:40am and slowly made our way up to labor and delivery.  I had a big contractions as we were trying to get into the secure area and into a room.  They quickly had me change into a gown and get them a urine sample and the contractions kept coming very quickly.  Before they even had a hospital wrist band on me, they decided I was breathing pretty hard and they better check how far along I was.  Turns out I was already 8cm dilated!!  We had no idea.  The nurses still thought they'd be able to get me an epidural and quickly went about their way getting the baby monitor hooked up and other equipment going.  Because it was nearly 7am, it was shift change for the nurses, and my doctor wasn't yet at the hospital.  Dr. Python was on her way.  Within minutes, when they checked me again, I was already "complete" and at 10cm, and the feeling to push suddenly crept up on me.  It was literally minutes after getting into the hospital bed and had maybe 5 other contractions before I wanted to push.  So sure enough, they had me start pushing.  A few minutes later they grabbed a doctor that was in the hall, as this little baby was ready to arrive!  My doctor did arrive for the delivery and took over for the last few pushes!  I pushed for maybe 10 minutes, and sweet little Aiden was in my arms!  The pain was excruciating, but because it was so fast, it was totally tolerable.  We showed up at the hospital at 6:40am and our baby boy was born at 7:09am.  It was scary and chaotic how fast it was, but a tremendous blessing too. 


We Aiden was delivered he didn't even cry!  They laid him on my stomach and wiped him clean and he was just looking around.  Totally alert and alive and calm.  He was a little miracle and he was our son.  Wow. 

Ross was incredible.  He stood by my side, offering his hand to get squeezed off and ice chips, but I could hardly breathe, let alone accept ice chips, and encouraging me through those last pushes!!  He was so cute, hating seeing me in pain, and trying to keep it together, and so many tears of happiness when our baby was born!  They put Aiden on my stomach so quickly that Ross hadn't seen the goods, and the nurses picked him back up to show Ross that he was a boy!

We had done it!  Our baby was here!