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exactly 2 weeks...

 So two weeks from today at 11:14pm Mason Timothy Smith was born, 8lbs 6oz, 20 1/2in long!

The delivery:

woke up at 6am Monday February 7, 2011 to call the hospital to tell them that I needed to be medically induced.  They said they'd call me back when I could come in, if I hadn't heard from them by lunch, to go ahead and eat.  Well they called back at about 9:45am to tell me to come in at 10:15am... we live a half hr away from the hospital, so Jeff and I arrived between 10:15 and 10:30am.  Since I had already been to Labor and Delivery once before (the slipping on the ice incident) my information was already in the system.  I hadn't had contractions as of yet, and if I did, I didn't know about them or they weren't consistent enough to count as real contractions.

11:00am I was asked to slip into the hospital gown, was strapped up to the machines, one to measure the baby's heartbeat and movement, and the other to measure my contractions.  So far nothing yet, therefore I was given Oxytocin- the drug that starts contractions for me.

11:30am My parents and sister came to the hospital and waited in the room with me till about lunch one-ish when they left to go eat and bring back some movies.

2:15pm I hadn't dilated yet, I was still at 1 1/2cm, what I was when I came in.  I was hooked up to oxygen because the baby kept dropping below the line, possibly sleeping on the umbilical cord or something.

2:20pm we watched "Flipped"... I was having a hard time paying attention, I was getting pretty tired.  Every time Nurse Janice came in to check on me, she upped the amount of Oxytocin, but still there was no change.

3:15pm  Dr. Olsen came in and broke my water, he said that by doing this it should speed up my process a bit... however, I was still not dilating.  He was predicting my delivery to be around 2-3am Tuesday morning.

4:50pm  Cervix check, still no change, 1 1/2 cm, nurse Elise upped the petocin, I could finally feel the contractions.

6:10pm  I finally could not bare the pain of the contractions any longer, by this point I was crying at every contraction.  To explain, you know when you've got the flu and you've got body aches, so bad that you feel them in your bones and in your muscles, well, a contraction is a lot like that, just double that by a 100, and that's the pain I was feeling at that very moment!  So I asked for an epidural.  I am so glad I got one!

8:30pm I had dilated to 4cm and was just about 100% effaced.  My family had left to go to our apt because they knew it was going to take a while

9:00pm  I had dilated 4cm, I was now at 8cm and counting.  Called back my folks, they were almost at the apt, when they turned around.

9:30pm I was almost fully dilated and was told I would be pushing soon

10:00pm family had arrived and was waiting out in the hall, just outside the curtain.  It was time to push.  Nurse Judy and Jeff were the ones that held my legs and at every contraction I was to push 3x.  Push as though I needed to pooh.  By this point I did not care one bit if I poohed on the table or not, I wanted the baby out!

I pushed for half an hour when Nurse Judy paged Dr. Olsen to come to the hospital so he would be there in time to deliver the baby.  After Dr. Olsen arrived, everyone, including Jeff was telling me they could see the head, I just needed to push harder.

11:14pm the baby popped out (and almost literally) once his head came out, the rest of his body just sort of gushed out (I know kind of gross)... he plopped into the Dr's lap, he had bright red lips and a purple body, he asked if I wanted to hold him... "no, go ahead and clean him up first, then I'll hold him"

11:45pm  they cleaned him up, weighed and measured him, and then handed him to me.  Instantly I felt the bond, but shock had settled in and I couldn't hold him anymore, I began to get the "shakes"... Jeff held him (and no he did not cry, but I could see the bond was also immediate) then the rest of the family came in.

The cool thing about Mason is not only is he the First Grandson on the Hook side but he is also the First Smith grandson. Isn't he adorable?