It's a BOY!

Well that nine months blew past! Here is Conor's birth story:

Conor Anthony was born Thursday, March 8th at 11:30 weighing in at 7lb even and 20 3/4 inches long. He was 5 days early.

I started having contractions around 5:30pm on Wed but I did my best to ignore them since I'd been having Braxton Hicks for what seemed like forever. Around 9pm they started getting more intense but we decided to go to bed and try to sleep through it. Ha, yeah, that was not working very well. Around 12:30am I went downstairs to try to sleep between them on the couch, leaving Jonathan in bed to try to get some sleep himself. At 2:30, I lost my mucus plug. At 6, I woke Jonathan up 'cuz I didn't want to work through them on my own anymore. Jonathan was so great! His calm presence and slow breathing helped me to just "ride the wave." We started timing them and they were a minute+ every 3-5 minutes. As soon as we hit that magic hour mark, we paged the midwife. She thought we were still kinda early in labor and would have the midwife coming on duty (Andy) call us in about an hour to see how things were going. In the mean time, she suggested I take a warm shower to help get through the contractions. Andy called us a few minutes later and said she would stop by just to check on me since our home was on her way to the birth center. She arrived just as I was getting out of the shower. She checked me and checked me again, and again because she couldn't believe it- I was at 9cm already! 9cm with a bulging bag, when at my appointment on Monday, I had been at 1cm with a Bishop score of 5. (The Bishop score is just an indicator of how close you may be to going into labor- most first time moms have a score of 6-10 before labor gets going.) She quickly called the office to let them know she wouldn't be in and found an assistant who could get there quickly. After that, things moved fast! By the time we got the pool set up, there wasn't really time for me to get in it. I was feeling the urge to push-which is impossible to ignore- but still had a lip. Andy had me push through the next contraction while she pushed at the lip and POP went my water everywhere! Between contractions, I sipped on water and apple juice to keep me hydrated and give me some energy. I pushed for about an hour, hour and a half, then crowned for an hour and a half. That was kinda intense. Once his head was born, oh the relief! His body just kinda shot out of me with the next push, along with the rest of my water. DH caught him and said, "Meet Conor!" He was all tangled up in his cord- wrapped around his neck, arm, and leg- but Andy and Ashlee, the assistant, just calmly untangled him and set him on my chest. His cord was so long! Andy, Ashlee, Sarah (there as my doula), Rachel (my other doula), and Jonathan were all such a big support. They kept encouraging me through every step, telling me how strong I was and how well everything was going.

I had 2 small tears that didn't need stitching, but Andy felt they might heal together if she didn't stitch them up the way they should be. 2 on one side and 1 on the other, no big deal! Then everyone left the room and it was just me, Jonathan, and our perfect son. Someone (I think it was Rachel) brought us a tray of snacks, which were so great! I was hungry after all that work!
Here he is, just minutes old


All dressed in blue


Our new family! This is about 5 or 6 hours after giving birth.


He's nursing like a pro! We love him so much!!