Things are a changin'! :)

It's been a while since I posted last and boy have things changed!

First, Mayhem got adopted and is doing GREAT at his new house!  Yay!  The week that Mayhem got adopted, Jeff and I decided to officially adopt another dog, so along came Ernie!  He is a bulldog/boxer mix and is AWESOME!  He and Chloe get along GREAT and we couldn't ask for a better pup!

Two days before Mayhem got adopted, we went to our normal weekly appointment (36 weeks) at the doctor's office.  Little did we know that we would be heading to the hospital right after the appointment!

During our appointment, my doctor decided just to check me to see how things were progressing.  She asked if I had been having any contractions, which I answered "No.".  That was because I hadn't felt what I thought were "contractions."  The look on her face was concerning and she asked me again if I was SURE that I hadn't been having any contractions.  Again, I answered "No, not that I know of."  At that point, she told me that I was 4 cm dilated and said we were to go straight to the hospital to be observed for a while to see if I was having contractions.

So, we headed over to the hospital and got hooked up to all the monitors and guess what - I was having contractions!  From what I felt when the nurse told me I was having contractions it was what I had assumed was Will just pushing his feet into my ribs.  And guess what, I HAD been having contractions for quite a while!

The nurse and my doctor say that we would be staying at the hospital for the night and if things didn't progress, I could go home.  Well, things progressed and about 3:30 am, my water broke and then things really started moving along!  My family was called and they headed our way!  Shortly after my water broke, I got the wonderful epidural - and boy was I happy for that!  Up until my water broke, I hadn't really felt what I had envisioned as "contractions" and then once my water broke, I finally felt them - oh my goodness!  After the epidural though, I was feeling much better!

Jeff and I tried to get some sleep, but that was pretty much impossible.  Soon, my mom, dad and older sister arrived!  Things started to slow down a bit and I was "stuck" at about an 8.5/9, so they gave me Pitocin to try and help continue my progress.  It worked and at 2:22 pm, Jeff and I welcomed William Henry into our arms!

Due to him being a little early, he was having some troubles breathing, so he had to go to the nursery.  I finally got to see him later that night when I went to the nursery.  Luckily, my Dad had been going down to the nursery and taking videos of William and hooking his camera up to my tv so that I could see my little guy.  I wanted to hold him SO MUCH, but the nurses said that he was still on oxygen and they didn't expect that he would be weaned off of it and well enough to come back to my room until morning.  I was extremely sad about this, but I knew that the nurses were taking wonderful care of him!

To add to our list of surprises, I was woken up about 12:30 am by a nurse who had a special visitor for me - Will!  I was so excited to be able to hold my little guy - it was AMAZING!! 

This is a picture from me holding him after he came from the nursery:

Of course, I had to check out his hair:

He had to go back to the nursery several times just to be checked on, but he was given a clean bill of health and was able to go home with us on Saturday!!

Here are the pictures that Bella Baby took of him Friday morning.  You don't see his left arm because he had an i.v. in along with a long board on his arm to help keep the i.v. in place (it was for his antibiotics).

We're all home and settled in and doing great!  William is a GREAT baby and we couldn't have asked for a better experience - the whole pregnancy and delivery!