Teal Jellyfish: Declan Luke <3

Our littlest monkey has arrived!

Declan Luke made his appearance on May 14th at 12:23 am, weighing in at 9 lbs 14 oz and 21 inches long. And he stole our hearts from there! (Cheesy, I know, but it's true)

I want to say it was a relatively quick labor...but at the same time it literally felt like days/weeks long. I thought I was going into labor at least 4 separate times! With contractions and other symptoms to boot. But nothing came of it, so I barely even believed I was in early stages of labor until the very end.

That Tuesday morning I headed out to the mall play area to meet some friends, and on the way I called my mom and asked her if they wouldn't mind coming down sometime today (or maybe even the next day, no hurry I thought). I had been having lots of contractions since Friday night, timing them at 6 minutes apart on Saturday night and at 5 minutes apart on Monday at my non-stress test. And a lot of them were actually really uncomfortable/painful! At the very least I figured my parents could hang out with us through Friday, since that was my scheduled induction day if Declan hadn't arrived by then.

I made it through the play area and lunch at the mall, and my parents arrived shortly after we got back home. By this time I was definitely feeling more contractions and told Daniel I thought it might actually be the day! He started wrapping things up at work, and I went on a walk down to the neighborhood lake to feed the ducks with my parents and the boys. By the time dinner rolled around, I was pretty convinced I was in early labor! My least favorite part of this whole thing is that guessing game - when to call the doctor? How long to wait before going to the hospital? Argh.

We waited around until the kids were watching Wild Kratts with my parents before going on a short walk around the neighborhood, then put the boys to bed and got our bags packed up and in the car.

By 7:30ish we were on our way to the hospital, all five minutes down the road. Once we arrived, the nurse walked us back to triage and then left us there. It was pretty busy in L&D that night - we got there just as a maternity tour was starting and there were people everywhere. We waited awhile, then finally the doctor came in. She checked me, announced that I was at 4 cm and almost 41 weeks, so if I wanted to they would go ahead and keep me. Ok! No complaints here, I was ready to get this show on the road.

A nurse walked us across the hall to our room and got us all settled in around 8:30. My contractions were about 3 minutes apart. When the doctor confirmed that he was still head down and broke my water, it had meconium in it. Not a huge deal, but it did mean that they would monitor him more closely during labor for any signs of distress.

My goal was to attempt a drug-free delivery...but I chickened out at 6cm when the pain became unbearable thanks to his head being so far down. By the time the anesthesiologist arrived and inserted the epidural, I was already at 8cm. But by that time, I was exhausted and more than happy to lay back and relax for a little bit!

It didn't take long after that to reach 10cm, and after just a couple of pushes Declan was born at 12:25 am! He was immediately whisked away to have his throat cleared, and after that I heard the loudest newborn screams ever! He definitely has a good set of lungs on him - every nurse in there commented on how loud he was. Good thing, he'll fit right in at our crazy house ;)