Welcome Baby Taylor

I had been avoiding writing because I was getting anxious about the baby coming and because there wasn't too much to say until he arrived, at least that's how I felt. However, there have been things happening. On Thursday of last week my mom came into town. On the same day, we had a doctor's appointment and were informed that we should be prepared for a C-Section unless my body progressed more. I really didn't want a C-Section, so once my mom arrived we worked hard to encourage the baby to come out on his own. From spicy buffalo wings at Pizza Hut to miles and miles of walking, we tried everything we'd ever heard of that might work. And perhaps it did.

On September 10, we had another doctor's appointment. The doctor examined me and found that I had progressed and the nurse determined that I had high blood pressure. Based on these two points, Dr. Jones said I should go over to the hospital and he would break my water and I would be induced with Pitocin. My mom has a plane ticket back to Wisconsin for Saturday and several days of work (freelance sign language interpreting) lined up for next week. She had determined that she would stay if I went past that point, but obviously that gets complicated and expensive, so this change of plans was agreeable to us all. It was a little bewildering, though. Going into the hospital, Patrick and I both still hadn't registered that we were going to be parents, that we were having a baby. But we were!

The whole process started around 3:30 or so and the baby was born at 11:47 pm of the same day, so it wasn't a very long labor. The worst pain was when the contractions had picked up and I hadn't gotten the epidural yet. I asked for the epidural fairly early, and felt like a baby for it, but the epidural didn't actually come until an hour later because I needed some blood tests before the anesthesiologist would give me the epidural. So by the time it came I was in a lot of discomfort. Interestingly enough, within ten minutes of getting the epidural, I couldn't remember the previous pain. I imagine this explains how some people have five or six kids by natural birth: God wipes out the memory of the pain. I remember that I was in pain, but I can't actually remember the pain itself. Even though that is true, I am so grateful for the epidural. I also had pain at the end when I was pushing. The worst moment was when the nurses told me not to push because they had to go rouse my doctor. It was just at the point when I really wanted to push. Within minutes after the doctor arrived, the baby was born.

I'm sleepy now and my mom showed up so the sum is of this all is:

Birthday: September 10
Time: 11:47
Weight: 8 lbs 2 oz
Height: 20 inches

And we're very happy and grateful that he's come, and we both think he's amazingly cute.