IT'S A BOY!!!
Christopher David Padgham entered our lives at 4am Tuesday morning, February 6th. He's the most amazing thing I've ever seen. I can barely keep my eyes off of him. Bryan and I are so blessed and so very proud.
It all started at around 2:45 on Monday afternoon. I had to have a follow-up sono to check my amniotic fluid level because it measured a little low the week before. The doctor that performed the sono told me she was going to send me straight over to the birthing center and would call the Cecily, the midwife, to let her know that there was minimal fluid left and that they needed to get the baby out asap. That scared me a little bit. I called Padg to let him know and asked him to meet me at the center. He helped me to calm down and told me everything was going to be fine and to just keep in mind that we were going to meet our baby very soon. We called our parents and my two sisters to let them know to get on the road since they all had very long drives to make. I got to the center at about 3pm. At 3:15 I had my first dose of a pill called Cytotek, which is what the midwives use to bring on labor. Well, an hour later labor still had not started. So they sent us home to rest for a bit and get some dinner and told us to come back for the second dose at 7:15. And we did. And an hour later, still nothing. I was beginning to think it wasn't going to happen that day after all. The midwife gave us the 3rd dose to take home with us with instructions to take the pill at 11:15pm. At 11:15, I took that dose and at about 11:40 I had my first contraction and WOW!! I knew I was in for it right then. There were no easy contractions to start off with for me. They started off hard and fast at about 4 minutes apart. So we called Cecily and told her it worked and we were heading back to the center. The drive to the center is only about 10 minutes at the most. It was the longest 10 minutes of my life. The pain was tremendous. I almost told Padg to skip the birthing center and go straight to Baylor hospital because I was already wanting something for the pain. But I hung in there instead. We got settled in at the center at around midnight. Cecily checked me and to my amazement I was only dilated to a TWO!! I think my exact words were "You have GOT to be freaking kidding me!" But complete dilation (ten centimeters) didn't take long. By 2am I was fully dilated and ready to start pushing. I was in the jacuzzi tub at this time (oh my goodness it felt so good!). I pushed for about 30 minutes in the tub before I decided to get out. I won't go into all the details about all the postitions I tried for delivery, but there were quite a few. I had to push for 2 hours. I really didn't think the baby was going to be able to come out. But just before 4am, Cecily called in my mom, Padg's mom, my sister, and my friend Chandra to come in and witness the event. Cecily told me she needed one more push and I gave it my all. Little Topher came right out and Cecily immediately placed him on my stomach. Words cannot describe my feelings and emotions at that moment. I was the happiest person alive.
Topher weighed in at 7lbs 8oz and was 21 inches long. However, he had a pretty nice size conehead because of the length of time he spent in the birth canal and by the next day when his head started to reshape, he lost 2 of those inches and was down to 19 inches. Now that's a long head! =)
So that's our story. Topher is doing wonderfully. Bryan and I could not be happier. And I have to say how impressed I am with how wonderful my husband has been. He's taking such great care of me and the little one.
Thanks to everyone for all your thoughts and prayers. Here are a few pictures.
