{Mrs. Stew}: Maddox's arrival!

This is what I've been catching up to, right?! My due date was August 5th, same day as Sawyer's Birthday! I was SO convinced I would be having this baby early. I had worked up until the week before my due date so I had figured standing on my feet most of the day would have shimmied him down :) No luck. I had my membranes stripped, I think, 8 ish days before my due date. It hurt like heck and nothing came of it. At least nothing happen as quick as I had hoped. I wasn't dilated more than 2 cm at any of my appointments so my doctor scheduled us to be induced 10 days past my due date...it was devastating and so hard to think we would possibly have to wait that long. We both just kept hoping he would show up any day, Jeff was ready to take his paternity leave and I was ready for him to stop asking me each day if I was going to have this baby lol. We both finally relaxed after a day or two of no baby and accepted the fact we have no control over the situation, he would come when he was ready. As soon as I had started my maternity leave I was as active as I could be to help things along. I had bought a basketball and would go over to the park with Lilly and shoot around and walk a bunch of laps with her. I'm sure it was funny for anyone watching to see a big pregnant lady throwing it down :) I even beat Jeff in a game of HORSE one night.

Just when I thought I would have to wait forever to meet my baby my water broke at 2am, three days past my due date, 8/8/2013. I was asleep and it woke me up. I had read about how most women think their water broke when really they had just wet themselves so I was worried that was the case for me but I could have sworn I had just went to the bathroom 10 minutes earlier. I had read that if your water really does break you can't stop the flow. So, I did all the tricks I had read before waking up Jeff. He WebMD'd the same stuff and asked me 20 questions before we both decided I needed to go in.

We got to the hospital and they had admitted me into a room. The women checking us in said she wasn't surprised my water broke, there had been a change in the barometric pressure and when that happens they see lots of women come in with their water breaking! So funny! Jeff and I weren't 100% convinced my water had really broke so we weren't getting our hopes up yet. The nurse did a quick test to see if in fact my water had really broke and for sure, it had. We weren't going anywhere and were going to be having a baby!

Jeff hadn't packed his daddy go bag so he went back to the house when the sun came up to grab a few things and to get Lilly situated with the neighbors.

Maddox is coming!

I read and read my whole pregnancy but I guess I was still clueless to what labor would be like. I figured once my water broke that the whole shebang would start. Contractions and the whole bit. I'm sure I was having some contractions but nothing like what would come. I really wanted to try and have a natural delivery, no drugs or pitocin. They let me hang out, letting me think that things would happen lol. At about noon, I'm guessing, they convinced me to start pitocin. Holy contractions. I told them I wanted to try and and do it myself without an epidural.

Having a baby isn't a fashion show :)

I tried to tough it out for as long as I could, which probably wasn't very long, and I was crying and asking for and epidural :) They got me set up. I was able to feel my contractions and move my lower body just a bit but I wasn't feeling the pain that I had earlier. I was laboring for the whole day. I tried to take a nap a couple of times. I'm sure I got a little bit of sleep but you are constantly being checked and poked so it was what it was. At some point the Dr. said I wasn't dilating as quickly as he would like so he was throwing the word C-section out there. I was freaking out! I didn't want a C-section if we could help it. Luckily, the nurse that came on at 6 pm helped my cervix get into a position that let me dilate further and we avoided a C-section. A little after 9 the doctor was in and said let's start pushing! At 9:31pm Maddox was here! 7 pounds 13 ounces, 21.5 inches long, and a 10 inch head circumference. His umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck twice :( The doctor also thought I had an infection so Maddox had an IV placed and was given antibiotics. Jeff and I had to laugh because while they were cleaning him up one of the nurses said, "Lots of red hair!" We both were surprised because we were both super blonde as kids, we weren't expecting a red head lol. It was such an amazing experience to see the person I had been carrying for 9+ months. I kept trying to imagine what he would look like and what it would be like to hold him for the first time. It's hard to imagine life without him.