The Story of "The Big Day"

Here I am with Jon & the anesthesiologist- ahhh my hero.
I was all smiles after he gave me the goods.

Me with my two nurses, Erin & Alicia. They were great and with me for 99.9% of the pushing- the doctor came right in time and caught Rowan on his way out.

OK I am drugged up and ready to roll- just waiting now.

After two hours and 15 minutes of pushing Rowan arrived.

And now we are a very happy family of three.

OK, so it was Tuesday morning on September 23rd. I woke up feeling good and had a bowl of cereal. Around 10 a.m. I had a couple contractions. I decided to crawl into bed and finish a book. At 11 a.m. I had some more contractions, only these ones continued into the hour. I began to time them and soon realized they were steady- 5 minutes apart. Around 11:30 I sent Jon a text message and said, "Heads-up, we might be going to the hospital today." After a full hour of having contractions that were 5 minutes apart and feeling a little discomfort I decided I better have Jon come home just in case. OK, so I get my phone, dial his number and it wont dial out. All of a sudden I have like zero bars on my cell phone. Not a big deal at first, however I freaked a bit when I realized that my contractions were definitely getting stronger and I was starting to feel ill. I really needed to get Jon on the phone. I restarted my phone and got a couple more bars- it called out- only this time Jon did not answer his phone. I sent a text- "I need you to come home NOW." After a few minutes of not hearing back from him I got worried that he was away from his phone and in the studio filming or something. I called again- hallelujah he answered. "You are coming home right?" OK, good he was. Jon got home around 12:30 and my contractions were definitely more painful. I was having to stop what I was doing so I could support myself on the bed or couch. We were out the door in about 20 minutes and at the hospital shortly after 1. I was thrilled when I knew that they were going to let me stay- what a relief! Upon arriving I was dilated to a 4 and 100% effaced. We soon moved into the labor and delivery room. I got my epidural around three and oh man I do not regret that one bit. LOVED the epidural. I was thinking I would have Rowan early in the morning on the 24th just because I heard first timers tend to take a while. However, when I asked my nurses they took guesses and estimated in between 8 pm and 10 pm on the 23rd. I was like, "Wow, are you serious!" I was dilating quickly and all was smooth sailing for me. My doctor came in and checked me and I was at a 7 or 8. It was then that I found out that she would not be delivering the baby- ah well- at that point I did not care cause he was almost here!! She broke my water and said see you in 6 weeks. Before I knew it the nurses said, "Well, let's start pushing when you feel a contraction." ha ha because I don't feel anything! Eventually we had to turn my epidural down so that I could feel enough to know when I was having a contraction- but really, I still did not feel a thing. After 2 hours and 15 minutes of pushing Rowan was here. The doctor came into the room just in time. He walked in and it was like, "Oh wow, OK let's have a baby." I was pushing and the doctor said, "OK, stop." I was thinking the baby was crowning or something...uh not even close. They said, "Heather look." They moved a blanket that was in my way and there was his ENTIRE head. I was like, "Uhhh when did that happen?" Seriously, I did not feel it come out. I felt some pressure and just thought, "Oh he is making his way down." About two seconds after that the little man was out and on my chest. It was amazing. As they wiped him down I alternated looking up at Jon and at my beautiful baby- and it was darling because Jon got teary eyed. He is healthy and darling and we are so blessed. We love him so much- our lives are forever changed.