The story

Monday morning Anthony left for a full day of jury duty (after trying every which way to get out of it :), completely expecting to do his day and be done with it. He explained to the judge that he had a very pregnant wife at home that was close to her due date...but it didn't matter! They decided to schedule him as a juror for a three day trial Wednesday through Friday. He was so disappointed!! Not only would he have to reschedule all of his patients for those days, but since he was planning on taking off of work when the baby came he needed to try to make up his hours quickly. After much back and forth he came up with a plan: he would go to jury duty from 9-5 and then drive over to work and see patients until 8pm to make up some hours. Then on Saturday instead of working a half day he would work the entire day. So basically we wouldn't see him for the rest of the week!!

I was really bummed about that schedule. I was feeling so uncomfortable and needy, it just didn't seem like a good time for him to be gone for so long. Monday night Anthony kept saying how convenient it would be if I just went into labor early and then he would get out of jury duty, he wouldn't have to make up his hours at work, and he could tell the people who selected him for the trial "I told you so!". Lo and behold, Tuesday night I started having contractions! They were regular, but very light and barely noticeable. I went to bed and was able to sleep like normal until 8am when I got up with Anthony. As Anthony got ready for jury duty, I started tracking my contractions again. I started to feel like maybe these were the real deal! Anthony said that he would probably be hard to get a hold of once he got to the courthouse, so I should be really sure when I call him to come home (if I did). After he left, I alternated between the birthing ball and the bathtub, trying to find a comfortable position. James was up at this point and was making it difficult for me to relax. I would try to breathe through the contractions and he would be up in my face going "Mommy! Mommy!" and trying to ride on my back.

9AM- Anthony called me as he got to the courthouse and I told him he needed to go ahead and come home. It just didn't seem like these were going to go away. Even if it was a long way until we went to the hospital, he needed to be home with me! Anthony went inside and told the baliff, who then brought him to the judge. The judge told him, "You mean you want to get out of jury duty because your wife is in labor?!" :) Anthony responded, "Yes please!". Anthony tried to explain to the judge that I had been having contractions and starting giving him more detailed medical descriptions of what was going on and the judge told him, "Whoa!! I don't need to know all that!!" :) He and the lawyers congratulated him and sent him home. Yes!

10AM- Anthony got home and changed his clothes and we all headed to the library for story time. James loves going to story time and I thought it would be a good distraction and a way to keep moving around. James loved having Anthony there and it definitely worked. After we got home I was much more uncomfortable :)

12:30PM- My contractions had progressed to 5 minutes apart, lasting at least a minute for an hour which is the cut off for when my midwife wanted me to go the hospital so I called the office. Since James came so quickly, they told me to go ahead and go to the hospital! We had the bag and everything ready so we said our goodbyes to James and got ready to go. I was in tears at this point, I was just not as ready to do this as I thought. I was feeling really scared, which probably isn't good for labor progression but I don't know if that is the way everyone feels or not.

As a side note, I wanted to get a picture of the hospital. When we visited the labor and delivery floor to make sure we knew where to go, I couldn't get over how fancy the hospital looked! I mean it has turrets!

1:30PM- We arrived at the labor and delivery floor at the hospital and started the registration process. Once they set us up in the triage room I was ready for them to check me and tell me that I was at least halfway. I was in so much pain. Seriously, it felt a lot like it did when I got to the hospital with James and was 7 cm dilated. When they finally checked me I was only 2-3 cm!! They said that I was definitely in labor, but that I needed to walk around the hallways for an hour and then check me again to make sure that I was progressing before they could admit me. Which means that I had to wait another hour before I could get any kind of pain meds! Especially considering how long I had to go I was ready for some kind of pain relief. Waiting that hour was torture. Anthony and I walked and walked and saw all these other women who had already delivered their babies. I was so envious!

3:00PM- They rechecked me and I had dilated another cm and was a 3-4. Progress! I was glad that they were going to admit me but the process seemed just so slow. They needed to start an IV and get the paperwork rolling. Once that was completed, they had me walk across the hallway to my labor and delivery room and to meet my new nurse.

4:00PM- The nurse introduced herself, but I had started to shut down at this point and wasn't speaking very much. She needed me to complete some paperwork before giving me any pain medication, so I signed a bunch of papers as quickly as I could. Almost as soon as I gave it back to her, I felt a really forceful pop and what felt like a strong push really low down and water started gushing out of me. My water had just broken! The surprising part was how much it hurt!! In my head I was being very loud, but Anthony said that I was just quietly saying, "Help me! Help me! Someone help me!" She gave me the pain medication, but I didn't feel like it helped very much. I felt very woozy and fuzzy, but I could still feel all of the pain.

5:30PM- The anesthesiologist arrived with my epidural! I was pretty out of it still from the other meds. I have a fuzzy memory of this part. I remember him coming in and having me sign consent forms and the nurse coached me on how I would need to position myself while he was putting it. While I was getting into position, I started to shiver and feel like I needed to push. I tried to ignore it and focus on staying still for the epidural. After he finished, they laid me back and told me that it would take a few minutes to kick in. I kept expecting to go totally numb from the waist down, but I still felt everything. I could move my feet and my toes and I'm pretty sure I could walk on them if I needed to. The anesthesiologist offered to give me more medication, but he asked the nurse to check me first to see if I was close to pushing (if I was then he couldn't give me any more). Sure enough, she checked and I was a little past 9 cm, really close to pushing. So I basically went from 5cm to close to 10cm in an hour, as soon as my water broke! My mom said her labors were the same way, super fast as soon as her water broke.

6:00PM- They called the midwife into the room and got everyone prepped and ready for pushing. I was pretty relaxed from the epidural and felt like sleeping between the contractions. I could feel the contractions, but they were not as bad as they had been. The nurse said that they were really strong on the monitor, so I was definitely not feeling them like I had before. The midwife on call was not the one we have been seeing through my entire pregnancy, so Anthony had to check with her to make sure she was okay with him delivering Everett like he did James. Her response? "Don't blame me if you drop him! :)" She had him gown up and put gloves on and said that she would let him know when it was time for him to come around to pull him out. The pushing was probably the calmest part of the entire labor process. The midwife was impressed with the effectiveness of my pushing, especially considering that I had an epidural. I was just ready to be done! In between contractions I would rest and wait for another one to come along and everyone else was joking around and chit chatting. The midwife even took a call on her cell phone from her daughter (she had the nurse hold the phone up to her ear). After about 30 minutes of pushing, she finally called Anthony over and after clearing Everett's airway and pulling out one shoulder, she let Anthony do the rest!

6:42PM- He is finally here!!

Anthony pulling him out:

Getting checked out. I couldn't believe how big he looked to me! He got an APGAR score of 9 :)

Anthony got this picture of me with Everett in the background. I was really puffy in my face from all of the pushing, although Anthony says that I look puffier in the picture than I did in real life :)

Everyone cleared out of the room pretty quickly and left us alone with Everett to nurse and bond. They hadn't even given him a bath yet! We got to look at all of his little fingers and toes. They came back in to clean him up and this is how he looked afterwards:

Soon after that James and the grandparents arrived to meet baby brother! James had a cute "I'm the Big Brother" ribbon on his shirt and he was so excited to meet "Rett". He kept giving him kisses and saying how cute he was. It was so sweet to see!

 The proud grandmas:

Our first morning in the hospital:

 Finally on our way home!!

 After we pulled into our driveway and got everything inside the house, I went and got the mail. I found this inside! It looks like Anthony got credit for his jury service :) We are planning on sending a birth announcement to the Judge!

Welcome to the world Everett Robert Lagana!

No more pregnancy journals for me!! Everett (Rett for short) Robert Lagana decided to come into the world Wednesday September 18, 2013 at 6:42 pm, 7lbs 10 oz, 19 3/4 inches long. It was definitely a different birthing experience, it is true what they say, you can never tell what is going to happen based on having had a baby before :) We are so excited to have him in our family and he is already fitting in so well. James loves him and gives him kisses and so far the transition has been great.

Right after his first bath:

 After our first night in the hospital:

 Finally on our way home:

More details to come soon!

Pregnancy Journal: 38 Weeks

 I can't believe I have made it this far! Being this pregnant is a whole new experience for me. I am constantly wondering if different things I am feeling are normal or not since I don't have a previous experience to compare it to. This is also my first time of wondering every day if this is going to be "the day". It makes time go sooooo much slower! I am really tired all the time and sleeping has gotten pretty difficult. I have almost no clothes that fit me anymore and it is starting to really feel like I have this alien body. How do people do this??? I did not have proper respect for pregnant women who make it all the way to their due date or (the horror!!) past. Seriously. They are warriors, cause this is hard!

This is what I see when I look down:

 And if I lean over a little bit and suck in I can sort of see my toes :)

I am also literally the heaviest I have ever been in my entire life, which is a strange feeling. Pretty soon I am going to weigh more than Anthony! I think I need to start closing my eyes when I get on the scale at the doctor's office, because no one needs to see that :) 

Family/Maternity Pictures

Last week we finally got our family/maternity pictures taken! I was hoping to get them done a little bit earlier than 36 weeks pregnant, just for my own vanity, but our schedules just didn't line up. I was definitely feeling hot and puffy, but that is to be expected when taking pictures in September in Florida! James was pretty cooperative, aside from being extra attached to Anthony that day. He just didn't want to cooperate with any poses that involved just me and him. Luckily we were able to get a few :)

 

 I love how this one turned out! James wanted nothing to do with hugging me or hugging my belly, so Anthony made it a a game of forcing him to hug my belly and he actually gave us a smile!

 

 I love James' expression in this one! We would tell him to listen to baby brother and he would get this really serious expression, like he was really listening :)

It is nice to look back and the pictures and feel like I looked stylish and put together :) Even though it was only a week ago, now I am so tired and exhausted that sweats and no shower is pretty much the usual for me every day. Only a few more weeks to go, although I am hoping for sooner :)

New ultrasound pictures

We had our midwife appointment yesterday and it went great! The ultrasound was so cool! Everything looks perfect and they confirmed he definitely is a boy :) The sonographer tried to get a good close up of his face for us, but he refused to move his hand away from his lips. We tried nudging him and pushing him to see if he would adjust himself but it didn't work. I guess he was comfy and wasn't interested in moving! The pictures we did get are still really cute though:

The midwife checked me since I had contractions last week and said that I haven't dilated at all and I'm about 50% effaced. So it looks like he is going to be staying put for a little while longer, which is okay with me! When she measured me she said that I am measuring on the small side, so she thinks he isn't going to be a very big baby. That is always good news to a pregnant lady!