And baby makes five ....

Well, life certainly has changed for us again!  Very early Sunday morning (5/17/09) at 12:16 am we welcomed Aaron Patton into our family (yes, that's his middle name!).  After over a week of false labor days, he was nice enough to bless me with a quick delivery at Samaritan Hospital.  Many of you have inquired about how things went so I'll recount our story here.  I began having regular contractions that were 10-15 minutes apart around 9:30 pm on 5/16.  By 10:30pm the contractions were a little over 5 minutes apart and getting stronger.  We called the doctor at 10:55pm and were on the road within 10 minutes.  The hospital is only 15 minutes away but we sped down Rt. 7 (passing 3 cars in the turning lane and running 2 red lights) because my contractions were coming 4 minutes or less apart and very strong.  We arrived at the hospital at 11:25 (ish) where the nurses told me I was 7-8cm.  After several more contractions  (they were coming 1-2 minutes apart now) my water broke, I was 10 cm and the nurse was telling me that she "could delivery the baby if needed" since the doctor wasn't there yet!  As soon as I heard the doctor's voice I began pushing, which was somewhere around 12:05am and within a couple of pushes, Aaron was born!  He was 8 lbs., 2 ozs. and 21 inches long.  I was so surprised as, given my pregnancy size, I was sure he'd only be 7 lbs.!  The doctor was able to get some cord blood into the collection kit and the courier arrived to collect the cord blood within the hour!  I am so thankful to have our new baby boy finally here with us!  He is healthy and, so far, has been relatively easy-going (I know, it's early still!).  We arrived home yesterday from the hospital at 4:30pm and are getting settled in!  People have asked who we think Aaron looks like and I would have to say he looks a lot like Alex when he was born.  Both Alex and Emily have been SO happy to have a baby brother and have been so well behaved throughout the last couple of days!  We are truly blessed!  

As many of you know, we are most likely going to be moving to Ireland for about a year beginning this summer (probably July).  I've been informed that the job of documenting our travels has been officially given to me so I'll use this blog as a primary sounding board and resource for getting info out to friends and family.  

As I look back on the years we've had together as a family, I originally thought that 2007 was a crazy year of change with the construction of the house and job changes for both Tim and myself.  Little did I know that 2009 would trump that year ten-fold!  Thank you to everyone for your continued support and prayers for us as we continue on our journey. 

Keep checking back in the coming weeks for more photos and stories of our new adventures as a family of five.  

Still here, still pregnant!

At the request of a fellow mom friend,  I'm letting you all know that I'm "still here and still pregnant"!  Although I thought for certain I would have this baby over Mother's Day weekend, I was wrong!  Life is always teaching us things, right?!?  Well, the lesson I'm learning here is that each pregnancy is different!  I've never had the pleasure of experiencing false labor, until now.  While the contractions haven't been terribly painful, I've had several days in a row with a few hours at a time of on and off contractions that are uncomfortable.  Every time they start, I think "okay, this is it" and just wait for them to get stronger.  To my disappointment, they just go away.  I remember very clearly when I was in labor with Emily, I awoke in the middle of the night with one contraction that felt much like the contractions I've been experiencing lately.  Twenty minutes later, I felt another contraction that was noticeably stronger, and then 8 minutes after that, yet another one even more strong.  It was clear that I was in labor.  This time around, it's different!  I keep expecting that same course of events to unfold as it did 4 years ago, but nope!  This one is just taking its time getting ready!  I'm anxious for my next drs. appt. to find out how much more I've progressed.  With all of the pressure and contractions I've felt, I keep thinking to myself, "I MUST be more than 3 cm by now!".  I keep trying to tell myself that it's still early yet (I'm not due for another week) and to let nature do its thing.  It's difficult to maintain that perspective but I'm trying!

Baby will be here soon!

Disclaimer:  If you don't want to read about the stuff that happens before a woman goes into labor, stop reading now, although I promise it's not too graphic!

Well folks, with any luck, this will be my last post before you get to see a picture of our little bundle of joy!  I had an appt. with my doctor's office this afternoon and to my delight, the doctor informed me that I'm 3 cm dilated, 50% effaced and the cervix is soft (which we knew from 3 weeks ago).  I went to the appointment hoping that he would tell me I was 1-2 cm dilated and was prepared to be happy with that.  I suspected, though that much more has been happening since I've felt a lot of pressure really low for the last couple of days.  The Braxton-Hicks contractions have continued to occur often as they have since the fifth or sixth month of this pregnancy.  Now, technically, I could go another 1-2 weeks without dilating any more (so I have to put in that disclaimer) but my prediction is that we'll have our baby in the next week.  I'm hoping for Mother's Day!