Update (Labour, Delivery and Baby)

Where do I begin? It feels like I just came from a different planet. I haven't been out of the house since last Wednesday (and that was stepping out of the hospital into the parking lot and driving 5 minutes to home). What an amazing experience we've had recently though. On Wednesday, April 26th at 1:01 p.m. I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy! His name is Micah James Ricardo Eshpeter. (The only reason I am able to blog now is that baby is happily sleeping and I should be sleeping too but I know so many people want to know what's up)

Well, it all started Tuesday night watching the Flames Game during the second period. Mark was warning me that I should take it easy with screaming and getting excited as it might put me into labour but I didn't listen. By 9 p.m. I went and peed and had what they call "bloody show" and so Mark and I checked out our Birth Class notes and it was under 'Start of Labour'. We couldn't beleive that we had started labour already... by 11 p.m. I started to feel contractions and they were 5 minutes apart and about 45 to 60 seconds long. We tried to stay home as long as I could possibly stand the pain -- by 2 a.m. we finally decided to go to the hospital. Once in the hospital they checked me and I was only 3 cm dilated (what a disappointment!) I was definitely trying to stay positive and to hold off on taking any drugs for as long as I could.. I managed to wait until 6:30 in the morning and I was about 6 cm dilated by then. Every time a contraction would come all I could think of was drugs to turn the pain off...so I asked for the laughing gas but that didn't do any good. By 7 a.m. I was totally in deep pain and so I asked for Morphin and Gravol. I kept on asking the nurse when does it kick in because I was still able to feel so much pain....Well, since that didn't dent my pain they finally asked if I wanted an epidural and I willingly agreed. They moved us to the birthing room by 7:30, gave me the epidural 10 minutes later and voila! what a change! It was like night and day! I couldn't feel the contractions anymore. You can actually see a smile on my face and I was finally able to talk to people. Earlier, I couldn't even talk to anyone every time a contraction would come. I couldn't even stand Mark touching me at all! I just kept focused on my breathing and kept on thinking about clouds, ice cream, and anything to keep my mind off the pain. Anyway, long story longer, with the epidural it gave me a chance to take a nap and I even called my family before I started pushing. By 12:30 I was fully dilated and ready to push. I was in hard labour for less than a half hour! When I finally felt baby come out, I just broke into tears...I looked over at Mark and he was doing the same thing...we were so happy to finally meet our son! Wow! that was just the beginning!

I was pretty impressed with the nurses at Rocky View. They were so good to us! We couldn't have done it without their support and encouragement.

Anyway, Micah is now 5 days old and Mark and I are just sooo in love with him. Day 1 at home was good but the rest of the days were no sleep, me in pain and very emotional. We had a few of our families visit us on Saturday and that was great! My sister was here right away on Thursday and she was so much help. I totally appreciate everything she's done for us during her 4 day stay. She was showing Mark and I how to burp baby, what to do with this and that and everything else that involved taking care of Micah. Then my parents came and helped out this weekend as well. We totally appreciate all the help and the prayers from everyone when they found out I was in labour. Thank you to my co-workers as well with their baby shower gifts as we already started using most of the things that they gave us.

Anyway, I should probably go and have a nap right away coz I know I'm going to need it. Last but not least, I want to thank Mark for being such an awesome Dad! He was with me all the way and didn't want to miss a thing! I am definitely blessed with two beautiful man in my life who I am most in love with!

Take care everyone and any advice on taking care of baby to make life easier is definitely welcome :)

Here are some pics of our beautiful son!