Alexander Patrick Arrives

***Fair warning for anyone not wanting to read how the labor and delivery went, you can skip to the pictures!***

It was a good thing that I had been carrying around my bag to take to the hospital whenever we left the house the last couple of days because my water broke when we were out at the Mall of America late Sunday afternoon. I waited until after we ate our usual Swedish Meatball dinner at IKEA across the street from the mall to inform everyone that I thought my water had broken, because I wasn't 100% sure. I was dropped off at the hospital to get checked while Brian dropped off my mom (who is in town) and the kids at home. I began having regular contractions once I was at the hospital and it was confirmed that my water had broken and that I would be staying. Brian came back not too long afterthat and we settled in to watch the Food Network (Iron Chef to be exact) and waited for labor to progress.

It was not a completely pain free labor, although I am an epidural kind of girl. There were some uncomfortable moments while receiving my IV antibiotics for Group B Strep (didn't have with previous pregnancies) and while waiting to get enough IV fluids to receive my epidural because my contractions were getting painful. But by 1 am I was in epidural heaven and was ready to take my pre-delivery nap while I continued to fully dilate. Right before the epidural I had only dilated to 5 cm, so I still had another 5 cm to go and I thought I had some time to rest. However, the epidural helped a little too much in that an hour later I woke from nap to feeling like I had to push. I immediately called for a nurse who rushed in and declared me fully dilated and ready to push. My doctor was called, but she was still 3o minutes away so two Residents came to be on stand-by. The urge to push didn't entirely go away, but I was able to calm down enough to concentrate and try to wait on my doctor.

Dr. Mary arrived at 2:50 am. I pushed 2 times and Alexander Patrick entered the world at 2:55 am. They laid him on my chest and just like the previous 3 times before, I was in shock. I felt like someone had just walked into the room and handed me this warm, wet baby. Not like I had been carrying him with me for the past 9 months. It truly is a surreal moment every time and can only be described as a incomprehendable miracle.

Alexander is the biggest of all our babies so far, weighing in at 8 lbs. 1 oz.. He has a full head of dark hair and looks a lot like Leah and Jacob did at birth. Below are his pictures from the first few hours.