The Details

So, I had a baby... Want the details?

My doc scheduled me to go into the hospital to be induced on Monday at 7:30 a.m. Right at 7 a.m. as we were about to leave, the hospital calls me and tells me that they are full and they will call back when they have room. Devastating. I didn't want to wait one minute longer than I had to. In my over dramatic crazy end of pregnancy mind, I now assumed that it would be DAYS before they called me to come in. Meanwhile I smashed my fingers with the sliding doors on the girl's closet and that sent me over the edge! I cried and cried because the whole world hated me and nobody cared. But then, at about 8:45 a.m. they called back and said to come on over. All better. My world was happy once again.

We had to do a little more waiting in the hospital lobby but no worries, in a huge coincidence, Dale's friend from work and his wife where there to be induced that same day. We shot the breeze together until I was called back.

They put me in a bed and about 10 minutes later before the nurses had me hooked up to a single thing, my doc comes in and breaks my water. So it's like that, huh? The nurses scrambled to get me on the pitocin and various other IV's (I have to be on penicillin when I give birth.) Unfortunately, I have terrible veins, once described by another nurse as "baby veins," and so 5 pokes and 3 nurses later I had one precariously and painfully placed IV and several pieces of tape on my right arm.

Soon after the big contractions started. I waited to get my epidural until I couldn't take it anymore. I had one huge one and that was it for me. I called the nurse and about a minute later, Mary, a darn good anesthesiologist and my new best friend came wheeling in and took away all my pain...ahhhhh. Then it was time to wait. And wait.

Thank goodness we all had this to focus our minds on.
The only entertainment I had was T.V. and I swear it was on EVERY channel. When I look back on things, I don't know what I will have more memories of. My son's birth or this whole MJ stuff. He's dead. We get it.

Anyway, early in to the evening things started to move along quickly. Here's Dale ready to spring into action at a moment's notice.
And at 7:11 p.m. we welcomed Gunner into the world!
I was SO glad to hear his cries because Ella's birth was a very scary situation. She wasn't in too good of shape when she came out and she didn't cry for a long time which was terrifying. Gunner cried right away and it was music to my ears.

Dale and I laughed when we first saw him. First, he looked exactly like Rex and second, he was HUGE. Rex was my biggest baby before him and he was exactly 8lbs. In no way whatsoever was I expecting a 9lb 3oz baby! No wonder I was incredibly uncomfortable these past 2 weeks! I was carrying Super Baby (as Dale lovingly calls him.)

Here is the little chunk after his first bath.
The proud dad.
The proud Aunt Magi.
Ironically, even though he was my biggest baby he was my easiest labor. All of my other kids had to be yanked out because of breathing and heart rate problems but he had no trouble at all. I'm proud to say that I finally pushed one out all on my own! What a funny thing to be proud of.

We took these just before we left the hospital.
He did lose quite a bit of weight in the hospital. Apparently, my body doesn't make enough food to satisfy such a giant boy. Hopefully, I will catch up.

The kids were so thrilled when we brought him home and demanded to hold him right away.

The Little Mommy
The Cool Big Brother
The Little Big Sister
We all just love our new baby boy. He really is just a sweetie pie. Just don't let him get hungry. He gets real mad at you.