Here he is!

The pictures:

The story:
I'm not ok with surprises. Maybe it comes from my Mom not really wrapping presents when we were little. But I'm just not a fan. I like to know what is happening, and WHEN it's happening.

We 'planned' and 'tried' for another baby...so I 'knew' about that. That was covered. And the doctors told me when he was 'due'-but from Miss Madelyn being two weeks early I was expecting our boy to give me at least that courtesy.

Last friday I was 'officially' 35 weeks pregnant. Monday (the Ides of March) was NOT a good day. I was letting family stuff get to me, I was letting business stuff get to me, and I was just so big and pregnant and tired. I didn't have another OB appointment until next week and all just seemed hopeless. (In that totally pregnant dramatic sense)

Tuesday morning I fought waking up. I just didn't want to. I didn't want to get up and get dressed and face my day. I rolled over to snuggle with Madelyn and felt a leak. But a familiar leak. I got up, went to the bathroom, and realized it was more than just a leak. My water had broken. It was going to be a repeat of Madelyn..but 5 weeks early instead of 2! I called Aaron who told me he'd meet me at the hospital, and I called my parents b/c since Mom was coming over to watch Madelyn anyway (since I was supposed to be going to work) and had her wake up my Dad so he could ride down to the hospital with me.

Got to the hospital around 8 and it was determined that yes my water had fully ruptured, so b/c of that they admitted me. Gave me a couple hours to see if I'd progress on my own..and I didn't. I got admitted at a 2, and still at around 10:30..I was still a 2. Sadly..that meant that needed to speed me along so they started the devil drug-Pitocin. *shudders* The contractions started, then the contractions started to hurt, at 1pm I was finally at a 3 so they decided to give me an epidural. By 2:30 I was at an 8 and despite the epidural I was in ALOT of pain. Oh yeah..and I was throwing up alot too...epidural + nerves ='s lots of throwing up from me! The Dr came in around 3:30 took a look and as he settled in at his 'station' he told me it would only be about 2 contractions before the baby was here. I was puking, I was scared, I was in pain, and I thought the Dr was full of crap b/c I'd had to push with Madelyn for over an hour when she was born. But at this point my labor time had been cut in half (18 hours w/Madelyn and I was at 9 hours this time).

Instead of 2 contractions-it was like 5. But 2 of those don't count b/c I was throwing up through them. But after 3 contractions the Dr told me I could stop pushing and seconds later I heard the beautiful cat squirrel barking cry of my son. Since he was a 'preemie' they had two nursery techs on site for him. We'd decided to bank his cord blood and the kit was airlifted to downtown from Ohio, then sped up to us and literally came through the door as I was crowning.

I stared at him in the little nursery layette waiting for something...he was early...I was expecting him to have to have oxygen at the very least, I was expecting at any second for them to whisk him away and not let me touch him. But he continued to cry, he got pinker, and the nurses just exchanged glances and quieted chatted back and forth to one another his stats. The Dr finished with me, and the nurse handed him to me.

"So he's ok?" I asked

"He's perfect" they said.

Later on I'd be told that he scored out at 38 weeks on their testing, and that it was veritably unheard of to leave a 35 week old baby with his mother right after birth.

He's my Preemie, non-preemie.

And he is perfect.

Peter Joel

6lbs, 14oz, 18 inches of baby boy perfection.