I had gone in for my first internal exam on Friday, May 23rd. I was having contractions at the appointment but all other signs indicated that labor was still a ways off. I wasn't dialated at all and there was no reason to believe that I'd go into labor THAT NIGHT.
We weren't ready at all. The nursery hadn't been set up, the baby clothes hadn't been washed, and all of my little nesting projects were still waiting to be checked off the list. We had arranged for a babysitter for the twins for the following day (Saturday) so that we could finish my list and finally take time to get ready for the baby. I remember looking at the dirty dishes in my kitchen sink on Friday night and thinking, "I'll have plenty of time to clean up the house tomorrow since the boys will be gone all morning."
Of course, that night around 1:30 I woke up and my water had broken. I didn't really believe that it could have happened, but pretty soon it became obvious that labor had started. I called my doctor who advised that we go in and get checked out. We got to the hospital around 2:30 and they confirmed that my water had broken and that I was having contractions about 3-5 minutes apart. It took awhile to get over the fact that my house was messy, the nursery wasn't ready, baby clothes weren't washed, etc. but I had to let it go, and thankfully my in-laws and my mom came in and saved the day and took care of everything!
Some of the details are already gone from my memory, but the main thing I remember is that it was VERY SLOW going and hard. I was in labor for 21 hours before baby boy came and even though I had an epidural, which greatly reduced the pain, it was still an arduous process! One of the hardest parts for me was the emotional toll of being in labor for so long with little progress. Every time I was checked, it was as if my body was just inching along even though several hours had passed. I was tired, both physically and emotionally, and hungry and just overall weary by the time the doctor told me I could start pushing. I remember praying and asking God that the pushing would go fast because I felt like I couldn't go on much longer. Thankfully, that part was only about 30 minutes, and at 9:30 Saturday night Luke Matthias was born.
We hadn't decided on a name (we thought we had more time!), so for the first night we went back and forth a little before making the final decision Sunday morning.
There are so many more details I could share about the time in the hospital and the first hard weeks with nursing and being up all hours of the night (Luke had his days/nights totally switched for the the first 5.5 weeks- he's just now starting to distinguish day and night a little better), but the main things I'll remember are the answered prayers:
* We're thanking God for a healthy delivery for me and for Luke.
* We're thanking God for a healthy baby.
* We're thanking God for a BABY (when we thought we'd never have one biologically).
* We're thanking God for a smooth transition for the twins, who are doing great and really love Luke.
* We're thanking God for huge improvements in nursing and in sleep for us all.
Here are some pictures of our little man...
(He looks horribly squashed and uncomfortable, but he wasn't- I checked him before snapping the picture!)
