Well, he finally came on August 6 at 7:22am weighing 7lbs even and 20 1/2 inches long.
Here is the story...
I went in for a normal checkup on Friday and my blood pressure was high enough that the my ob said it was time to be induced. I was perfectly fine with the thought of that because I had been feeling ready to have this baby out for a while now. Being induced turned out to be a better thought than reality.
We dropped Mars off at her Aunt Mandi's house and headed for the hospital. They set my IV and started petocin right away. I had antibiotics that really burned! Labor was slow and the contractions were getting stronger but I was not dilated very far.
Sometime after midnight I was dilated to a 5 then the nurse anesthetist set my epidural and I started feeling better. I took a nap and was finally dilated farther when they broke my water to advance the labor. I started to gain feeling back - which was not good timing. I then dilated from a 7 to 10 in a matter of minutes and could feel every single contraction. Crap! I realized there was nothing I could do but sit there unable to move and breathe through each painful contraction as they came.
Poor Chuck being the loving husband he is, offered his hand for me to squeeze. I think he is still barely getting feeling back in his fingers.
Luckily within minutes it was time to push and 3-4 contractions of pushing and our little lovely baby boy straight from heaven was in my arms. I only pushed for 12 minutes, but they were the most painful minutes I have ever experienced! He was worth every second of the pain. Most babies are pretty ugly when they come out, but he was beautiful and perfect! (Even the nurses said he was a beautiful looking newborn).
Little Chuckie (as I am now calling him, though he has many possible nicknames) had dark hair just like I thought he would. He was of course not born on my birthday like Mars, but still managed to share my lucky number as he weighed 7 lbs even.
He was very mellow at the hospital and hardly cried at all and had no problems nursing right away.
We decided to name him Charles Clark Hilbran - Charles after Chuck of course it being a family name, and Clark after Grammpy. He has a wonderful strong name. Here he is with his namesake's.
Soon after he was born, Mars came to visit her new little brother. I am not sure she even really noticed him above her excitement of seeing Daddy and Mommy. (Now she likes to drop her toys on his head or feed him her bottle - what a good big sister!)
