The arrival of Finnegan Grey Thompson

Finnegan Grey Thompson

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Born at 9:56 am, weighing 7 lbs. 5 oz., and 20.5 inches long

Finn's birth story, Part 1:  Warning- if you don't want details, don't read this post :).  Monday morning I had my last doctors appointment.  I was so excited to go in and see how dilated I was and set our official induction date.  I was 2 centimeters dilated and 90% effaced and we set Finn's induction date for Thursday the 12th.  After the appointment Cade jokingly told me to go home and relax because he has several big meetings at work and needed me to not go into labor (haha)!!  Also, we didn't set the induction for the next day, Tuesday, because that is Cade's birthday.  I went home and spent the day relaxing, reading, and I took a really long nap.  Around 5:00pm I decided to go up the road to Macy's and look at their baby clothes, just to give me something to do.  When I got home, I all the suddenly had a really upset stomach.  Cade came home early, around 6, and we cooked dinner together.  I was having what I thought were braxton hicks contractions and just an upset tummy.  Because of this I could hardly eat any dinner.  I went to bed around 10:30pm.  Two hours later, at 12:30 am I was woken up by a small weird pain my my lower belly.  I thought it was weird and got up to go to the bathroom.  I got a few steps away and my water broke!!  I went ahead and went into the bathroom to double check because I just couldn't believe it!  Next, I woke up Cade.  He was hilarious!!  He had only been asleep for about 45 minutes and he was really still sleepy and "don't we have 24 more hours?"  haha NO!  I jumped in the shower and made sure I had everything I needed for him and myself.   We arrived at the hospital by 1:30am and I was having really painful contractions by that point already.  They got us all checked in, in a room, me changed, put my IV in, checked all my vitals, and asked about 101 questions.  Then they check my cervix, I was dilated to a 5 already- half way there!!  I got an epidural around 2:30-3 am, which by the way ladies, I didn't even feel.  After the epidural I was able to relax a little bit better for several hours.  Time was flying by for me though and by the time I felt relief I had begun to feel some pretty strong pressure.  By about 8 am I was feeling so much pressure that I knew it was getting really close and the epidural wasn't helping in that area.  The nurse checked me again and I was 10 cm dilated!!  They began preparing me, the room, and my doctor was informed I was about to start pushing.  I started pushing a little after 9am.  This part wasn't near as bad as I had imagined it.  All I had ever seen was childbirth on TV or in the movies.  I mean, it was painful but it was totally doable and I forced myself to stay calm and relaxed as much as possible.  Cade was a super champion and talked to me and held my right leg for me :)  (of course he refused to look at anything but my face).  For some reason, my epidural only numbed my contractions but did not numb my lower "area" (I'm calling it that for lack of a blog appropriate term).  The last few sets of pushing to actually get him out was quite painful but by that point I could feel exactly where he was so it gave me lots of motivation to get finished.  He was born at 9:56 am.  I have to say, although uncomfortable, I'm actually kind of glad I could feel because the feeling of him coming out of my tummy was the weirdest thing I've ever felt and I'm glad I got to experience that.  They laid him on my tummy and I got to get a good look at him before they took him for measurements and tests while they sewed me up.  We tried our first go at the breastfeeding thing.  The whole thing was actually really strange feeling because Cade, the baby, and several nurses went to the baby nursery and my doctor left when he was done with me and I ended up in the room by myself for a few minutes.  The quietness after all that craziness was really weird and I couldn't believe I had just had a baby.  I felt like I had just climbed Mt. Everest or something really extraordinary!  After Finn's first bath in the nursery, Finn and Cade came back and they let the 4 grandparents in to meet him.  

I had been joking for days that I thought Finn would come on Tuesday because that was the one day out of the whole year that I wouldn't have chosen to have him.  I wanted each of my boys to have their own birthdays.  In the end though, I think Cade is slightly honored to have his first son surprise us on his birthday.  They can take Father-Son birthday trips when he gets older.  More to come later in Part 2.

Finn and Cade, my two Birthday Boys!

Our First Family Photo: please excuse my hair, I was in labor all night.