Announcing our new bundle of joy

This weekend was very interesting. Okay, the weekend wasn't bad, but yesterday sure was. It began at about 7:00 last evening. I had been upstairs on the computer doing some work and came down after completing it and had some interesting feelings. I shared this with Tom and he began timing them, just in case they were contractions. We decided that if they were they were just Braxton-Hicks because they were so irradic we didn't think anything about it. Then at about 11:30 I started having contractions and there was no doubt that that's what they were. So Tom called the hospital to get an opinion about what was going on and they suggested calling the doctor. I called the doctor's office and he said that if they continued for an hour that we should head to the hospital. When we finally decided that it was time to go to the hospital at 1:00 am, I was checked in and 3 centimeters dilated. I was in shock. I had them give me some drugs to help counteract the beginning stages of labor. Shortly after, or what seemed like a little while later I received my epideral. This is when I really began to feel more relaxed and actually got a little bit of sleep. I slept, for what Tom says was 3 hours. When I woke up it was almost time for me to push. I pushed for 2 hours and the baby wasn't coming down the canal so after the doctor finally tried pushing the baby out while I was pushing, we went to a C-section. I was very upset at this point. This was not what I wanted and was very disappointed that I couldn't have a regular delivery, along with the fact that I was scared to death. So they uped my epideral dosage and prepped me for surgery. They had a curtain up so I couldn't really see anything, which was good, and Tom said I was pretty much drugged up. :-D I remember, at least I think I do, everything that happened in the delivery room. The one thing Tom and I were most excited about was finding out what it was going to be-boy or girl.

I know you're thinking I'm going to tell you now which one it was, well I'm going to make you wait for it. Tom went over to the baby while they finished up on me and I saw the baby briefly before I went into recovery. They then brought the baby to me as they had finished up the tests, bathing, weighing , and measuring. The baby is latching on very well for the most part and I can tell when it's not latched on correctly-it hurts!

The baby is very good and doesn't cry very much at all. I can tell when it wants to eat or be held because it cries and doesn't fall back to sleep. The baby is very content and fusses a little and then falls back to sleep. We just can't believe that this little bundle of joy is ours. It is truly a miracle that God brought to us. It never seemed real during my pregnancy because it just seemed impossible-being married for 8 years, exploring adoption and going through most of that process, and then discovering that we were going to have a baby of our own.

Overall, I was very lucky. The pain was tolerable-nothing I couldn't deal with and the pain now, after the C-section is tolerable too.

Oh yeah, the most important part-it's a boy!!!!!!! Please welcome Collin Thomas Avery to our family.

I am so lucky and blessed. I now have 2 men in my life that are so precious and important to me. I don't know what I'd do without them. I'll have to post pictures later. I can't do it at the hospital.