Here's the story...plus a ton of pictures!

!!!WARNING!!! LOTS OF PICTURES!!

Judson is finally here and has been for almost a week now which is sooo hard to believe!! I need to write the story down so I won't forget, so here it goes...

I went in Wednesday (the day before) to be checked and have an ultrasound. He was measuring about 8.7 and I had a lot of amniotic fluid. (the normal range is 5-25 and I had 23) I was dilated to almost a 3 and so he stripped my membranes. So he sent me on my way and everything was a go for the morning.

I went into the hospital Thursday morning at 5:30 am. They did all the checking in stuff and then by the time that was over, it was 7:00 and Dr. Smith was coming in to break my water. Ok, it hurt SOOOO bad when he broke my water!! Judson was in the way so he had to keep maneuvering him around to find the right spot to break it. By the time it was all over (which seemed like forever but it took him about 3 min) I was crying and Heath had tears...it hurt!!! After that, he told me that made me dilate to a 4! Well by then it was about 7:30 and I was doing great...sitting in a puddle of water (remember the extra fluid), but doing great! I went in that morning having pretty strong contractions, especially since he stripped my membranes, but nothing that was consistent. At 8:30 am they started the pitocin and the contractions started becoming more regular by 9:30. I decided I wanted to get up since I knew I would be getting an epidural and be sitting in bed for a while, so I went to the bathroom and just stayed standing by the side of my bed after that. The contractions were very tolerable and I would just breath through them and keep going. It was just Heath and I in the room at this point. The nurse came in to check me at 10:30, and to all of our surprise, I was already a 6!!! Right then my contractions were starting to become more intense so I asked how long it would take to get the epidural once she put the order in...30 min. I said to go ahead and order it because they were tolerable enough for 30 more min. Well 45 min later, the angel walked into the room!! Now, for some reason my body does not take a regular epidural for very long. I felt some relief but was having really bad pain at every contraction in my bladder area and bottom. (this is WAY TMI, but I have to write it down! sorry!!) So he came back in and gave me some really high power dose in my line that completely numbed me all the way up my back. Funny....I was so numb that my leg kept sliding off the bed and had to have Heath come pick it back up! SO WEIRD!!! By then, our mom's and my dad had arrived. It was now around 11:30 and I was feeling great. Sitting there talking with everyone. Then about 2.5 hours later, the high powered dose started to wear off. So they called him up again and I was feeling great once again. By then most of the family was in the room with us, including Sterling. About 3:00, she checked me again, and yet again to our surprise, I was 9.5 cm, and completely thinned BUT he was still really high. She told me even if I dilated the .5 cm more, she wouldn't want me to start pushing because he was still so high. So I asked if I could just sit up straight in bed to let gravity do it's job. So that is what I did! I was feeling great because that high powered dose of epidural was still working. Well about 45 min of sitting up in bed, my legs started to get a little tingling sensation in my legs and just started feeling kind of weird. So I laid the bed back and it was no more than 5 min of laying there that my epidural wore off and I was feeling EVERYTHING!! The strong contractions, and the need to push. This was around 3:50 pm. I noticed that Sterling was still in there so I told Heath to get everyone out that wasn't staying in there for the birth because I knew this was it. I was in so much pain all of a sudden and didn't want Sterling to see me like that. The nurse came in to check me and she said sure enough that this was it. She asked me to do a practice push...she quickly said,"ok, stop...you're a really good pusher! I'm going to call Dr. Smith. I'll be right back." Ten min goes by and I am having to literally hold this child in me...feeling EVERYTHING!!! My nurse was literally pushing/holding him in while I was pushing him out! I could feel her resistance against mine every time I pushed. Heath said he looked down and saw half his head out and Dr. Smith wasn't even there yet! They all (Heath, our mom's, the nurse, and Rachel) kept telling me not to push but I just couldn't...the urge was too strong. You can't defy nature people! Her and another nurse were getting ready to deliver and finally, after what seemed like forever (and Dr. Smith admitted to me that he was piddling around because he didn't think it would go that fast) Dr. Smith walks in the room and LITERALLY only had time to put on his gloves, and by the time he got over to my bed he was able to catch Judson with one hand...seriously!! The nurse told me that I could say that I did this in ONE push! SOOOOO opposite of the 2.5 hours of pushing that was done to bring Sterling into this world!! So at 4:05 pm, almost 8 hours from start to finish, Judson was born into this crazy world! :)

38 weeks

Look at how lopsided my stomach was! He had his booty stuck way up in my ribs!

LOVE this picture...look at Heath's eyes!

The amazing Dr. Smith...who almost got paid for showing up after the birth!

Sterling's first time to see his little brother. He was in awe of him that he sat there for about 2 min and just stared at him while he held him. He was completely ignoring everyone else and just gazing at Judson...it was priceless.

My boys!

Family of FOUR!

Everyone kept going on and on about his hair. He has blonde underneath all that dark. He is a little jaundice so we were sunbathing!

Ready to lead some singing!

WHAT UP!!??!!

Going home! Sat, November 21 First car ride with two kids!

Sunbathing...again!

His first bath at home. November 23... 4 days old All clean...

Look at that crazy hair!

On our way to his first doctor's appointment. Nov. 24...5 days old. He weighed 8.1 and was 20 3/4 in long and his head was 36.3/4 cm.

Dr. Schaefer

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and, in this family, we have so much to be thankful for!

I hope everyone has a wonderful day tomorrow! Happy Thanksgiving!!