One week ago today ....

.... we headed to Greater Baltimore Medical Center with an empty carseat in the backseat. We were full of anticipation and eagerness for our little child to come, but couldn't quite comprehend the fact that we'd be driving back home as a family of three! Here's a brief recap of some of what went on during our life-changing 2.5 day hospital stay.

Monday was a busy night at the hospital so it took a while to get us to a Labor and Delivery Suite and get the process started. At about 9:30 p.m. a foley bulb catheter was (painfully) placed which would manually dilate me to a 3. The pressure from the catheter intensified the weak contractions I'd been having all day, and in just a couple of hours it did its job. Around midnight I was started on a low dose of Pitocin and the contractions continued. They were bearable, but I was kind of bummed that Joe was fast asleep with his Benadryl and the Ambien they gave me definitely wasn't doing a thing. (If I'd have realized I'd be in labor all night instead of waiting to speed things up until morning I wouldn't have agreed to take it!) At 5:00 a.m. they checked me and I was now at a 4. (Only 1 more centimeter! I could hardly believe it.) Things were getting more painful by now, and I told Joe he was "DONE SLEEPING." To really get things going they broke my water and increased the Pitocin. Contractions quickly became faster and stronger and it it wasn't too long before I started asking about the Epidural, which turned out to be much less scary than I had expected. For a while I was in that nice place everyone talks about, not feeling much but watching on the monitor to see all the contractions I was having. After a while I got feeling back on the right side of my body, so I got another Epidural push to even things out. That worked great for a while. Eventually I started getting feeling back everywhere and was in a lot more pain than I thought was necessary, so I asked about another push. My doctor said she didn't want to check me yet because each check increases the risk of infection, and to call her back when my pain had reached a 9 out of 10 on my pain scale. Ahhh!

At this point the contractions were really frequent and painful and Joe was great at helping me breathe through them. We were glad we had taken a childbirth class! Finally I couldn't take it anymore and called the doctor back in. She checked and I was at a 10! Time to PUSH!

At this point I was so exhausted that the pushing was really challenging. Joe and my nurse each took a side and coached me through it. Joe had to get in my face and help me breathe after each contraction so that the baby's heart rate would go back up. Slowly I was making progress. I pushed for 1.5 hours, not including a couple of breaks where we let the heart rate stabilize and waited for my doctor to get back. I was so tired I really thought I might not be able to push him out after all. But somehow I did!!! At 11:36 a.m. Mr. Max was born. Joe was a great coach. I got to watch everything in the mirror and it was amazing. My doctor did a fabulous job so that I only had internal tearing, and our little man was finally here.

Max's first full body shot ... umbilical cord still connecting the two of us. Joe was the one to cut it!
My first moment holding my baby boy. I was overwhelmed with relief, excitement, and pure joy.

They took him from me to wipe him off, and Joe reached out to touch Max for the first time. Max just grabbed right on to his Daddy's finger and looked up at him. They are already the best of pals.

Max was grabbing at everything! Even the nurse's clothes. Many nurses have commented on his impressive strength, and now Joe can understand why I gasped in pain with some of his kicks to my belly!

They brought Max back to me a few minutes later and we got to breastfeed right away. He ate like a champ.

Daddy gets to hold and admire his brand new boy.

Then we moved to a postpartum room and Max was taken away for a while to get his bath, etc. I missed him SO MUCH!! I was so, so excited when he came back to us. Here are a few pictures of our little family taken that evening.

Aunt Lori, our first visitor, took the pictures. We were happy she could come share in our miraculous day.

Our time in the hospital seemed really hectic to me. There were so many checks, feedings, consultations, etc. that of course we got very little sleep. But we loved being there and having great nurses to care for me and our baby. We also loved the few quiet moments we had together just to marvel at this sweet little boy and soak in all the wonderful emotions of becoming a little family. Dad and Max got to do a lot of cuddling as well.

The next day my mom came into town and was able to come see us at the hospital and meet her first grandson! We are so grateful to have her here. I really don't know what I'd do without her.

Max did so well at the hospital. Here he is sleeping like a champ in his bassinet.

Day three, and it's time to go home already. I just love my little Max and couldn't wait to take him home with me so I could stop having nightmares about someone stealing him from the nursery!

Oh, he's just ADORABLE.

On the car ride home I sat in the back with Max. He fussed for about 3 minutes and was an angel the rest of the way.

We are happy to be home and recovery is going pretty well. Thanks for all the excitement, support, and prayers for our little family. It really is completely amazing (and challenging) being parents to Mr. Max. And that's how it all began!