Harley Von Wedig

Harley is 2 weeks old today!



I've been working on a more detailed post about the whole experience but I'm thinking you may just want the recapped version instead. So here you go!



Everything happened pretty fast. We went to the doctor's Monday morning and then straight to the hospital. It was decided that our labor should be induced 2 weeks early because of Harley's low heart rate at our doctor's appointment. The nurses began inducing labor that night at 8. The rest of the evening is kind of a haze for me. I remember being very crampy and Tim and my sister siting vigil trying to calm me down and helping me through the pain. Somewhere in there I must have fallen asleep because I woke up the next morning at 7:50 with my water breaking. It was a strange feeling and I laid there thinking, "I really hope that isn't me peeing". I got up and took a shower and at 9 they gave me Picotin to get everything going. That's when the contractions really started kicking in. Tim was absolutely amazing and supportive the whole time. From the moment we got to the birthing room he would not leave my side unless it was to get food or drinks for me. Even when I was sleeping I would wake up and there he was coaxing me through my contractions. I made it to 5 cm. dilated before I asked for the epidural.
* A quick note: I got a lot of impute from a lot of women on the topic of natural childbirth vs. drugging up and after a lot of careful thought I feel I made the right decision for me and I'm really happy with the way everything happened.

(The lines on the far right are my contractions and the lines on the left are Peanut's heart rate.)




(Snugglepuss was there to show support as well with one tentacle on the page button just in case!)

Once the epidural kicked in I dozed off and on from there. At about 1:50 the midwife woke me up to check my dilation and announced that she could see the head and that we were going to start pushing! All of the anxiety about labor that had been building up the previous weeks were completely forgotten. Since everything was pretty numb I felt like I didn't have to worry about the pain and instead was really excited to get pushing so that we could hurry up and meet our son. Once everything was in place and the contractions began again the midwife told me to push and let me tell you, I pushed like the fate of the world depending on me getting that kid out. With each contraction I pushed 3 times and by the end of the 3rd set, just under 10 minutes later, Harley was out! Harley Von Wedig was born on September 29th, 2009 at 2:07 pm weighing in at 6 lbs 4 oz. and measuring 18 inches long. Tim and I fell absolutely in love with Harley at first site! We've been so excited waiting the last 8.5 months for him and here is was, perfect and sweet and beautiful. Not since meeting Tim has someone changed my life so profoundly. To say I love them both doesn't even begin to cover how I feel.



I really cannot believe how easy we had it, especially given how much I had built it up in my head. I know that this is far from the norm when it comes to childbirth so I feel really fortunate to have had such a great experience. I mean, in between contractions the midwife, nurse, Tim and I were having conversations about where to find a good pediatrician! Who does this? It was definitely not the experience I thought we would have. The whole pregnancy really was amazing and a lot easier than most pregnancies and for that I am so, so thankful!





Tim and I spent the next 2 days at the hospital staring at Harley and asking ourselves how did we get so lucky? He is everything we had hoped for with Tim's long eyelashes like I wanted and my nose like Tim wanted. We're still quite amazed.



I admit that I miss being pregnant sometimes, even though towards the end the discomfort was getting to me. I still find myself trying to rest my hand on my belly without thinking. It is just a weird transition to go from being and thinking about being pregnant for all that time to suddenly not be pregnant.



Our family is now complete and I can't imagine things any different :)