Henry's Birth Story

The beginning:

April 6th I had a drs appointment where he stripped my membranes. I went home with constant cramping, knowing that was going to be normal for having my membranes stripped. Later around 8 pm, I started having more intense cramping during the regular cramping. I wasn't convinced I was in labor, because I didnt want to cry wolf, or thinking something big of something little. So I took some tylenol pm, and fell asleep fast. Around 3 am I woke up with frequent cramps. I layed in bed, and was really confused. People say you will know when you are in labor, and I didn't know if I was or not. After timing them, they were every 10ish minutes, I woke up Jason around 4. It went like this:

Me: Jason lets go

Jason: go where?

Me: to the hospital.

Jason: Are you serious?

lol this conversation is funny because a couple weeks before I told him I knew exactly what he was going to say when I told him it was time, "Are you serious?" lol I know my cute hubby too well.

So we got up, got ready, packed the hospital bag, fed the kitties and left. It was so surreal and weird to be driving to the hospital thinking this is the last time we will drive somewhere as a family of two. I wasn't in too much pain, so it was a pleasant fun drive, we talked, laughed, breathed through contractions, it was nice. When we got to the hospital I was dilated to a 4 and contractions were every 5-7 minutes. They had me walk around labor and delivery to further progress me, which dilated me to a 5. At this point I opted for the epidural and oh my word, that is the weirdest thing ever. It feels sooo strange. After I got my epidural, my family came. My parents and my little sister. It was so nice to have them there, and I knew it would be. They were good company and entertainment to pass the time.

around 9 am they checked me and I was at a 7+.pretty much every time they came to check me I had dilated a whole nother centimeter. Around 2pm we started pushing. I pushed for about 45 minutes before his head was in the right spot, then we had to wait for my Dr. to get there. When he got there it was a matter of maybe 10 minutes before Henry arrived. I remember Henry coming out, I remember feeling it, like something being sucked out. I immediately started crying.

I will tell you, giving birth is the most spiritual thing I have ever done. I have never felt the spirit so strong before. I truly felt like Heavenly Fathers presence was there, and that the moment Henry came out, Heavenly Father was handing him to me. I felt comforted, like Heavenly Father was whispering to me that he trusts me with this precious little one.

Anyway, he came out, they cleaned him up, weighed him yada yada. The Dr. was stitching me up, I did not tear at all on the outside, a lot on the inside apparently but my Dr. said inside tears heal way faster. He said my recovery time will be about 2 weeks instead of the normal 6, so I am pleased with that.

Details aside, my labor with Henry was perfect. From the moment I went into labor, Jason and I were enjoying each others company, he was supportive and helpful, the hospital staff was fantastic, my wonderful family came to keep me company and laughing, my wonderful Dr. came in on his day off to deliver Henry, Henry is perfect. There was no dramatic screaming or yelling, I did squeeze Jason's hands quite hard before the epidural came, but its all part of the experience right? ;)

Henry's first night was quite fun, it was full of learning and firsts. It was soooo weird to be woken up by Henry crying, like hey! thats my son crying! weeeeeird. Jason got to stay the night on an actually pretty comfy sofa bed, there was nothing sofa about it, it was pretty much a twin bed. I was still in a good amount of pain from the swelling, so I only slept about 2 hours. The rest of the time I snuggled with the little man, which is so worth losing sleep. We sent him to the nursery about 4 am though, and got him back around 7 am.

The second day was pretty rough for me, Henry did perfectly. I did not tear externally at all, but I tore a lot internally, which caused a lot of swollen pain that ran my day instead of Henry. luckily I have the worlds best husband who took care of Henry's every need when I couldn't. To this minute(a day ago) I have not changed a diaper. Jason is such a wonderful dad. I am still having some recovery problems, I don't want to take away from the blessful story of Henry's birth though so I won't go into details, but I had to come home with some hospital equipment to take care of myself because of some issues I had in recovery. Everything will be fine. :)

Alright, now for some tidbits of thoughts since.

I do not miss having Henry inside me, having him outside me is so much sweeter

Henry is the most chill baby ever, he doesn't cry, he is awake A LOT and is so snuggly

I love snuggly Henry

Jason has become a pro at swaddling Henry

my family adores him, its the first grandchild

Henry looks like me the most, which is weird to me

He loves having his picture taken

all the nurses love Henry and think he is so handsome

we took like 6 baby blankets, 8 binkies and a weekends worth of formula from the hospital

delivery(with an epidural) is a piece of cake,$ its the RECOVERY that is a real b*&$h

I am addicted to Henry

Grandma and Grandpa Odekirk sure do love being the grandparents, they take advantage greatly of giving Henry back when he pees on them. ;)

I will post more later, but for all you impatient folks, theres how it all went down.