He's here!! Monday, July 19th @ 1:00 in the morning, Andrew John Cody made his debut. Here's the gory details:
Sunday morning, the 18th, I was feeling okay, but just not 100%-- I had a slight stomachache, but no real contractions. Then, about 2 that afternoon, I had what I would consider the first contraction. I still wasn't really ready to call it real labor-- I remembered what contractions felt like, and I knew that was it, but it was just one, and it wasn't really measurable. I had another around 4 or so, and then they started picking up. By the time Brett got home from church around 6, I was ready to admit that I was actually in labor. Knowing how quickly Leah came, I didn't want to take any chances getting to the hospital late. So we went ahead and sent Leah to Brett's friend Steve's house for the night.
Contractions were coming about 7 or 8 minutes apart by this time, and quickly getting more painful. I could still walk and talk through them, so I was still not really ready to go to the hospital. Brett was eager, though, because he wanted to have a chance to get settled this time and not have to be so rushed! So we waited until about 9:30 or so, when my contractions were still about 7 minutes apart or so. Dr. Fisher was on call-- the dr. that delivered Leah that I had hoped would be there! She actually advised us to wait a little longer before coming in, but we went anyway, and were sent to triage when we arrived.
At first check, I was dilated maybe 1 or 2 cm. I was so discouraged because the contractions were definately regular and definately more painful! They couldn't admit us until I was a little farther along, but suggested I wait a couple hours to see where it would go. I chose to just lay in bed & watch a little TV. 2 hours passed fairly quickly, even though the pain was picking up. The contractions were more painful than I remembered. They checked me again after the 2 hours and I was already up to 5 cm.! They were able to get me to a room and by then I was requesting the epidural.
I got to the room about midnight, and when they checked again, I was already at 7 cm. They sent for the epidural, but 30 minutes later I was pretty much fully dilated and there was no chance of getting that epidural on time. I was definately in a lot of pain but determined to get that baby pushed out! Dr. Fisher had been called away to an emergency C-section so she couldn't make it and another hospital dr., Dr. Watson, had to do the actual delivery. She was great, though, and Dr. Fisher came by later, she herself even bummed that she didn't make it! I think it took maybe 4 or 5 pushes and out came the baby-- fast and furious!
It still didn't seem real as they placed him on my chest-- I couldn't believe he was actually here. This time we had the camera in the delivery room so we got to take lots of pictures during his first few minutes of life. He weighed 7 lbs. 2 oz. (more than a pound bigger than Leah-- that extra week really added some weight!) and was 20 inches long. He's perfectly healthy and beautiful. We still don't know who he resembles more, although he has my nose. Though he looks a little like Leah did, he definately has his own look and characteristics, and he definately looks like a little boy!
There are more pictures on our family website!
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