Ryan's Birth Day

My pre-planned Dr. appt on Thursday, April 8th, at 11 a.m. revealed that I was 4 cm and having small contractions every 7 minutes and that the baby was still breech. The contractions were enough to send me to labor and delivery for monitoring, but b/c he was not full term they could not automatically send me to the O.R. Instead, I needed to "declare" myself. Meaning, my water needed to break on its own or I needed to continue to dilate. So we waited and waited.
Initially in L &D my contractions slowed down, so the nurses felt sure I would go home. Little did they know how easily I dilate :) I felt sure things were happening. I hadn't felt contractions for the first 4 cm, so once I started feeling them, I knew it wouldn't be too long. Gradually the contractions got bigger and more painful.
By 3:45 p.m. I was 5 cm. That is all it took. The tough decision was made for us. By 6 p.m. I walked (yes, with my own legs) into the O.R. leaving my husband behind. One glance at the room full of medical staff and I burst into tears. They prepped me for surgery, something I would soon like to forget and once the Dr. arrived they brought EJ in. The wait to see each other felt like the slowest 20 minutes of both our lives.
The baby was out very quickly. They had prepared us that he might not cry, b/c of the c-section and b/c he was not full term. Thankfully he came out mad and crying well! Music to our ears. We saw him very briefly.
After convincing EJ I would be okay for a few minutes, he bravely walked past my lower half and took pictures of the baby getting cleaned up. I was pretty sad about not holding him or even being able to see them work on the baby. After quick thinking, it occurred to me that I could view the pics he had taken. Thank goodness for technology. It was a good distraction while they put my gut back together.
Nausea soon set in and continued on and off all evening and night. Hence the reason for our slow announcement. I started feeling much better around 10 a.m. on Friday and was able to eat some "real" food for dinner, if you can call hospital food "real."
The real pain didn't set in until last night, but thankfully the pain meds also helped me sleep. If you know my history with newborns this is a huge answer to prayer. At this point, we will be leaving the hospital on Sunday.
They are keeping a close watch on Ryan's jaundice levels and he is doing fine for now. He is eating great.

Dr. Fogarty reporting for surgery

My mom brought the boys over Thursday night for a quick peek at their baby brother. Friday's visit with them was great. Mason is really excited and wanted to hold Ryan the whole time. I'll have more pics as soon as I get them off the camera.