Today's the Big Day (Hopefully!)

Tuesday

4am - Well, I've been up since 2am with lots of cramping...finally gave up and woke up Chris and we're going to walk around the house, snack, and hopefully get another hour of sleep before we have to get up to go to the hospital. So far the overnight snowfall that was predicted has once again, not shown up, which is probably a good thing, we only have a dusting of snow at our house. :)

7am - We went back to bed at 5am and actually got about another hour of sleep, so that was good. Everyone told me to make sure that I eat something before I go in, but I really have no appetite. :( I've had two pieces of toast with peanut butter since 4am, so hopefully that will hold me. We plan to leave for the hospital soon, so I'll post again once we get settled in.

9:30am - well, it took 35 minutes to get to the hospital! Traffic was horrible. Finally got checked in...I have my IV and the evil juice (Pitocin) is running. We had a little surprise about 15 minutes ago, my OB popped in to say good morning and broke my water! Yikes - this is really going to happen! I'm 5cm at this point. Hopefully I'll be able to get up and walk around soon. I'm having some contractions, but they aren't too terrible yet.

12pm - Chris here. Sorry we haven't updated in a couple hours. Jen's moving along! She's been having quite a few contractions, pretty strong. We've spent over an hour in her room, after an hour or so of circling the floor. She just called for an epidural. The only thing is, the pain's mostly in her back, which means we'll need to figure out a way to turn him.

12:45pm - I'm back. :) Much better now. :) Much love to the epidural guy...he was excellent! I was hoping to make it a little longer before getting the epidural, but the back pain was getting unbearable even with Chris being wonderful and rubbing my back. I think that the combination of Pitocin and her breaking my water was just too much for me - they were so intense. So, anyway...I'm 7cm and 90% effaced! Baby's doing ok - he didn't like the epidural at first, but is happier now. My plan now is to rest a little bit and they'll recheck me in about 2 hours. So I'll post again then. :)

2:30pm - 7cm, 100%! The contractions have leveled off, though, so they turned the pitocin back up. They've also put in an internal contraction monitor thingie.

3:15pm - Contractions are ramping up again. Fingers crossed.

4:45pm - The doc came by. We're prepping for the O.R. now. C-section. There hasn't been enough progression, and the risks of a natural delivery are too great at this point. From start to finish should take an hour once we're in the O.R.

5:30pm - Ladies and gentlemen, in the blue corner, 21 in. long, weighing 8 lbs. 3 oz., with an Apgar of 8 or 9, Brendan! Armstrong! Low!
We'll have photos soon, we promise!
Anyone who'd like to visit can do so tomorrow (Wed.). Just give Jen or Chris a call beforehand on one of their cell phones.

8:30pm - OK, we're busted. :-) Things got really busy before Chris got the chance to update the blog. Oh, and the official time of birth was 5:18.

9:45pm - Here's a photo!



Wednesday

7:45am - We'll be up for visitors for today and Thursday morning. We're in Community Hospital North, Room 4105. Call Jen's cell when you get to the hospital, so we can let you into the maternity ward.

Thursday

Happy Valentine's Day!



For our fans, here's a family photo (better ones to come later):