I admit, I'm fairly lucky with pregnancy. I don't get too sick, I don't retain water, I'm able to stay pretty active most of the pregnancy. However, I really just don't enjoy it that much. It's basically nine months of feeling a little crappy and crazy tired for me. The one thing I do love, is feeling my baby move, and this last little bean was quite a squirmer. It's never uncomfortable, it's just this very personal communication just between me and my child, the beginning of a bond that only we will have.
This last pregnancy wasn't the funnest - I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes and basically bitter that I had to monitor what I ate and test my blood a hundred times a day. Based on the births of my other two, I figured this one would also come about two weeks early, so I calculated everything for the end of February. By the time March 1st rolled around, I was OVER being pregnant. Massively uncomfortable, I think I pretty much cried the entire day and contemplated going to the hospital and refusing to leave until they induced me. By this point I had already tried caster oil, pressure point massages, spicy food, walking around the neighborhood with one foot on the curb and one off, hours in the pool at the gym jumping around like a maniac, and about every other home remedy you've heard of.
Finally, at 4am on Friday March 2nd I woke up with contractions. They were intense, but not painful. I timed them, they seemed to be every five minutes, but only ever other one was really a good contraction. I got up and finished putting things in my hospital bag, and finally about 4:45 I called my parents and asked one of them to come be with the kids, then I went and woke up Mario.
At this point, the contractions were getting painful, but my water hadn't broken or anything so
I still didn't feel it was that imminent. Mario asked if he had time to shower and I told him to go ahead, but then he looked at me breathing through a contraction and decided to forego the shower. We got in the car and passed my mom in the driveway about 5:10. We got to the hospital about 5:25, and I was checking in, and the nurse asked how far apart my contractions were and for how long I'd been having them. I told her I didn't know, but they were strong and then ran off to find a bathroom. Mario came in the bathroom to get me and he and a nurse picked me up and carried me to the nearest gurney. They wheeled me into labor and delivery and 14 minutes of intense screaming later: my little boy was laying on my chest at 5:39am. The doctor (not mine, he didn't make it) broke my water as the baby was crowning.
8pounds and 4 ounces of pure perfection and love. He didn't cry when he was born, and latched on and started sucking immediately. He has Gabe's/Mario's mouth, but other than that he doesn't look like the others to me.
