Welcome Home Tucker Owen

So after I relaxed on Friday (the 18th) night I went to sleep. and I am SO glad we all did, because just like the midwife predicted I was up again at 4 AM and in labor. It only took 3 contractions for me to realize that they were not only four minutes apart, but they were different and very much reminded me of when I was in labor with Booger. So I woke up hubby and mom and called my best friend and the midwife to come over.

I spent the next four and a half hours just dealing with the contractions. It's funny because I had this idea in my head that this birth would be faster and easier than Alison's and it really wasn't. The contractions were more intense, and did less than when I had Alison.

At 8:15 I started feeling the urge to push and I was completely dilated. I pushed for 45 minutes, with my hubby getting his hands crushed, his shirt stretched, and I'm sure numerous permanent indentations in his flesh of my fingers grabbing and pulling at anything it they could find.

His head came out at 8:58 and the rest of him came out at 8:59. Beautiful and perfect of course. He was 7 Lbs on the dot and 20 3/4 inches long. Just like his big sister he latched on perfectly within the first few minutes of birth and nursed like a champ! He was incredibly alert, opening his eyes calmly and looking around right after he was born and for a long time after.

My Inlaws had taken Booger for the night, so after we got settled and the midwife left they brought her back home and we introduced her to her new little brother. We've been getting her ready for a long time and of course her Papa and Nonna got her all excited on their way over, so it was by far the most precious thing I've ever seen. She wanted to hold him so bad and she was so gentle.

So we got her settled and handed him to her. She was SO HAPPY! She just stared at him and kept smiling at us. Then he made a face and you would have thought she'd just gotten taken to Disneyworld. She started giggling and telling us all about what she'd just seen like she discovered the most entertaining toy in the entire world.
When we took him away you would have thought we'd taken her whole heart out. She cried and cried.

She's staying another night at her grandparent's so Joe and I can try and get some rest before we have to juggle both of them. I'm still really sore, tired and crampy and can't move around a bunch. We have more food than we'll ever be able to eat so if you want to come eat some - come on over!

Joe posted some pictures on the flickr account, but due to his lack of ever having used it before he uploaded them too big and I can't put anymore on right now. BUT - he started his own flickr account so you can see more baby pics there after today!

Labor Log

4:15 AM August 18th (Happy Birthday to Layne BTW - wouldn't that be weird)

Yes, I'm officially declaring this "labor". I am in that phase where it takes physical strength to stand it. No fun. I've been having contractions all afternoon and night, but it wasn't until just after 2 that I started noticing that they were getting closer together. I went to bed at 12 hoping to get some sleep and somewhere in there I did, but it didn't last. After 1 1/2 hours of being incredibly uncomfortable in bed I decided to get up.

So here I sit on my exercise (excuse me - birthing ball) ball bouncing to the new Justin Timberlake video "Sexy Back". I've been reduced to dancing to Timberlake and Timbaland at 4 AM. (oh, and a little Beyonce and Jessica Simpson *Sob*)

la la la back to bouncing...

6:30ish AM - slowing down now

So things aren't going as hot and heavy. Mom just got here and I've called the midwife and we're just going to sit back and see what happens. The mw said I should go lay down and try and rest since I've only gotten about two hours of sleep. So I think I'll go do that.

4 PM - ramping up again

After a very lazy frustrating day I decided to get proactive. Mom and I took a walk around the block in the rain, which did no good. Then I mopped the floor, hoping the exertion would help - nope. Then I sat on the couch and she found some really uncomfortable pressure points on my feet and I did some on my hands and we started getting some action! So for the next 3 hours I had very consistent contractions, every 10 minutes or so. then they...just......stopped. GGGRRRRR!!!

11:05 PM - Letting go

I'm closing up for the night and going to try and get some rest. I just had one little contraction and that was the only one in about an hour, so I'm just going to let go and hope that I get woken up at 3 in the morning by pain. yes folks, I'm becoming a masochist. I am excited by the pain. I love the pain. I AM the pain! (not a good sign of letting go huh?)


Side Note - My bestest most wonderful friend bought me the CUTEST most fabulous diaper bag that I've drooled over for over a year! It's a Petunia Pickle Bottom! I'm so excited!

Possible Labor

So it's 9:22 and we just got back from having our date night at Bears Tooth. I had contractions every 5-7 minutes the entire time we were there. Things have slowed now that we're home, but not a ton. So now we're just sitting here trying to figure out what to do. Walk? Talk? Sit? Run? Call someone? gggrrrr....

I will continue this post as we progress (or try to).

8:07 AM the next morning...

So it's all over, and there's no baby yet. Sigh...I went to bed after posting last night thinking that rest would be a smart thing if I was really kicking into labor. I had a few really really strong contractions, but they slowly spaced themselves out from about 5 minutes apart to a half hour. I finally fell asleep and woke up without any. So frustrating.

2:40 PM

So I went to the midwife this morning and I'm 2 cm dialated and while I was there lost my mucous plug (lovely bit of info huh?), so she figures no longer than this weekend. I'm still having contractions, but not consistently. I generally just feel crappy. So we'll see what happens. I'm going to take a nap right now just in case I end up having to stay up all night (knock on wood).

No Gushing Yet...sigh

So it seems that whatever I was feeling last night has gone away. I don't remember being this frustrated before. I can't believe my body would tease me like that. gggrrrr...

So now I'm sitting here trying not to think about the two bottles of castor oil in my cupboard. Even though I know all it would is make me feel like crap. Or like crapping. ick. So I'm going to find something to occupy my time today. I have no idea what that might be, but I'm going to find it. and it's going to involve LOTS of walking.

Contracting

Not the type of contract that you sign, but the kind of makes you take a sharp breath in. Now I can't sleep. It's almost 1 AM (by the time I'm done with this it will be past 1) and I'm half watching bad Emo crap on MTV (sorry Hannibehr!).

I couldn't sleep. How can you when you feel the first inklings that this alien might actually come out of your body? I am so amped. Every time I have a contraction I think, "Maybe this is the beginning!!!", then I'm disappointed when 10 minutes later I haven't had another one. Granted I probably could have walked and made them worse, but it's late and Booger needed to go to sleep and there's probably no way that hubby would have let me escape to walk by myself.

So here I sit...waiting. ugh. I wish my water would just break. That was so much easier with booger. I didn't know what was happening until I gushed. I just wish I could commence with the water balloon popping.

sigh...I suppose I should try to sleep at some point. Cross your fingers that I wet the bed!