Matt and Stephani: Welcome Sawyer Joseph!

I started having contractions right after lunch on Friday, July 29th. I had been having a few on and off for the last couple weeks, so I was trying to ignore them rather than getting too excited. Spencer and Avilee were out playing with kids in the neighborhood and I had Mason and my daycare kiddo down for a nap. My contractions were definitely starting to get my attention, but I was still thinking they would stop soon.

I decided to watch a movie and lay still to see if they would go away, but an hour and a half later they were stronger and closer together, even though I had been resting and still the whole time. I was thinking this might be it, but I didn't want to false alarm Matt or send my daycare baby home just yet, so I tried moving around to see if that would change them. I packed the last minute items in our hospital bag and ran around picking up the toys and lunch dishes. At this point I had been contracting regularly for over two hours and they were 4 minutes apart. Matt was in the mountains, but his office was able to catch him on the radio and told me it would be about an hour for him to get home. I called my daycare mom and her husband picked up the little guy.

Spencer showed up and I called for Avilee to come home too. I had a heck of a time finding someone to come stay with them, but fortuneately someone tracked down Matt's mother and she got to our house a few minutes before Matt did.

The car ride was tough, I was really hot, uncomfortable, and in enough pain that I had to totally focus with each contraction. It was a strange situation...I didn't want to fight against my body, but I also didn't want to give in all the way, knowing that we needed to get to the hospital. By the time we got there, I was two minutes apart and vocalizing with each one.

Matt took me into the ER and a nurse waited with me while he parked the car. The nurse tried to take me up to L&D, but I wanted to wait for Matt. Two contractions later though, I told the nurse I'm sure Matt will find us and so he took me up.

It felt SO good to be able to stand and move around! Being able to rock and sway was great relief! They had called my Dr and then procedure said I had to get on moniters. That was the worst! Being strapped to the bed made the pain much worse and my contractions started lasting 3-4 minutes. My Dr showed up and said, "Huffing and puffing? Let's have a baby!"

I was able to walk to the OR and they got me an epidural. It felt a lot different than the spinals I had gotten with the other kids. Even though I was really hurting and I was about to have a c-section, I still felt upset getting an epidural, like it was a failure...I'm just really excited I was able to labor as long as I did this time. I seem to do much better emotionally when I get to labor before the surgery, than when I make it to my scheduled date and just walk in.

He was born at 8:04 PM and weighed 7lbs 4oz.