HE'S HERE! :)

Our precious little guy has finally arrived! 

Greyson Joseph Greathouse

Born Thursday February 14, 2013 

Weight: 7 lb 9.8 oz 

Length: 19.7 inches

It has been a whirlwind since his arrival! I know I am a few days late posting this, but as you can imagine, having a newborn takes up a great deal of your time!

So here is his birth story: 

On Wednesday the 13th, I started having some contractions. Didn't think much of them at first until I realized they kept on coming back and were getting a little painful! I started timing them on my contraction timer app like the midwife told us to do. Greg was at work & I kept blowing up his phone about how I hoped they kept getting stronger & closer. 

After Greg got home from work, I was still having contractions but they weren't nearly close enough to even consider the hospital. We went to get some food and walk around the BX for awhile, in hopes that walking would either ease the pain or send me into full on labor! It helped make them a little stronger but still not a big deal. We watched a movie & headed to bed around 11 PM. 

By this point, they were pretty painful and I couldn't sleep with them coming back every few minutes. After about an hour, they were too much so I decided a bath would help! Hopped in the hot bath & tried to relax - oh wow! About 20 minutes of that was enough! I jumped out of the tub, not even grabbing a towel & ran upstairs. I'd been timing the contractions and at this point they were less than 4 minutes apart for at least an hour. I shook Greg from his sleep & couldn't get out fast enough that we had to go! Called Labor & Delivery to let them know what was going on & to expect us there in a few minutes.

We got to the hospital and got into our room around 1:45 AM. We got situated and waited for the nurse to come in. They monitored the baby and got my vitals and when the nurse went to check my progress around 2:30 AM, I was dilated to 5 cm. I had to wait for the anesthesiologist to finish giving another patient an epidural so I got some fentanyl [IV pain med] to hold me over in the mean time. The anesthesiologist had a hard time finding an epidural space in my back, but he finally got it and the pain relief came soon after.

Right around 5:30-6 AM the doctor came in to check me, chuckled and said to the nurse "Wanna take a guess how far she is?" And all the nurse said was "no way!" Yep, I was completely dilated to 10 cm in about 3 hours. His head wasn't quite down enough so I labored down for awhile. Found out from a nurse at one point that all 5 of the rooms in L&D at that point were fully dilated and it was a "race" to see who would be ready first - exciting & stressful as there was only 1 doctor on the floor to deliver everyone!

The nurses who would be there for the delivery came and got me started pushing. I was given a dose of pitocin to help shorten the time between contractions. After pushing for about 2 1/2 hours & a worn off epidural, at 10:02 AM our little guy came into this world. I was a surreal feeling when they put him on my belly! I couldn't believe this little human just came from my belly & was ours! The doctor called Greg down real quick & he got to cut the cord. All I wanted to do was stare at him!

Some minor complications arose and they had to take him off of my belly. They checked his vitals and gave him the shots he needed. After about an hour that it took to fix me up, I got to hold him and cherish him. It was an amazing moment for Greg & I when we got to spend our first moments together as our little family!