My baby is SEVEN weeks old today. He is so precious. I gave birth to him on May 14th. I had a very long labor. On the afternoon of May 13th I went to the hospital after two and a half hours of contractions that were three to five minutes apart. They checked to see how dilated I was and I was only ONE centimeter. It wasn't good news, but I wasn't too surprised by it. I was, however, a bit more effaced, so it was good to hear that after all those contractions SOMETHING was happening... My contractions stayed very close together all night long and got way too strong to sleep or even rest. My husband, Drew, started massaging my back through the contractions after they got too strong for me to get through on my own. I labored ALL night with him and finally went to the hospital around 10am the next morning. When I got to the hospital they checked my cervix again, this time I was four centimeters dilated and completely effaced with a "bulging water bag" (which I guess is why it felt like I couldn't even sit down). Amazingly the day flew by. The contractions were very strong but it seemed like once they had me all set up in that labor delivery room, time was flying by and I was making lots of progress with each contraction. I had terrible back labor... My poor husband gave me a 24 hour back massage. My back hurt so much that my tummy didn't hurt at all, or maybe it did, but the back pain was so strong that I couldn't feel anything else. I kept waiting for the pain to get worse and be "unbearable" but it turns out I can tolerate quite a bit of pain! There weren't any contractions that I couldn't breathe through or talk through, and once the "pushing contractions" started, the back pain seemed to be going away. The pushing contractions were relieving after all those hours of doing nothing but laying there in pain! I wouldn't say I was any more comfortable, just a very different kind of uncomfortable than I had felt before I guess. And after an hour of pushing, Henry was born! My husband and my mom were both a HUGE help. I also had a FANTASTIC nurse (or maybe midwife, helper, idk, titles arent important!). She was only in the room for half the time and when she was she seemed very understanding and only gave helpful suggestions, never sounded bossy or irritated. And everyone seemed pretty impressed with me for doing it without any meds!! I didnt even take a tylenol! Afterwards she put something in my IV though because I had to sit there for a LONG time getting stitches and whatnot. Another amazing thing about Henry's delivery was that immediately after he was born, when they handed him to me, he was very clean looking. He looked like he has just come out of a bath tub, not all slimy and nasty like most babies in movies look. He was also HUGE... eight pounds and fifteen ounces! Almost a full nine pounds! It was strange to be holding a baby that looked too big to have ever been in my tummy! I wasn't expecting to have a little five pounder, but with everyone telling me I looked "small" through my entire pregnancy, NINE pounds was not expected!

Interruption: Henry is laying next to me on the couch and Andrew is sitting on the other side of him. Drew just had a MASSIVE man sneeze and scared little Henry half to death! Poor little guy jumped and started crying!

Well, Andrew is transferring files to a new computer so I have to go! Lots more updates to come. :)