He's Here! I'm a Mom!!!

Introducing Warren Joseph Whitcomb. He was born on Wednesday, August 31 at 6:34 AM and he weighed 6lbs 15oz. Pretty much he's the cutest thing ever.

This is how you get mom to smile really big. GRANDBABY!!!!!

My kid already has paparazzi after him!!!

But really... Can you blame them?? He's freaking adorable.

Warren is gawking at his giant 5 week old cousin.

My little yoga master

So I think it's pretty clear that Ray and I made a really REALLY cute baby.

Here's the labor and delivery story. I put all the pictures first so that if you didn't wanna know the details, you wouldn't have to read through them. haha.

Since I was getting induced, I had to wait for the hospital to call me. It was excruciating having to wait for that phone call. The doctor put in the request to have me induced on Monday but she told me that they might not call me until the day or two after because it all depends on how busy they are in the labor and delivery unit. By the time Monday evening rolled around, I was miserable because I just wanted to get the show on the road and I was super frustrated that it wasn't gonna happen that day. Tuesday I was even MORE frustrated because noon came by and I STILL hadn't heard anything from them. I decided though that if I didn't get a call by 3:00 that day, that I'd call them and ask them what was up. Waiting for things is not my strong point. Thankfully though, they called me at 2:00 and told me to come in as soon as I could to start the induction.

HOORAY!!!!!!!

I called to Ray who was upstairs that it was time to go, and all I heard was frantic shuffling as he raced downstairs with the hugest grin on his face. haha! We got to the hospital and after waiting around for a while, I was put in a bed and attached to monitors. By then my excitement turned to nervousness, and Ray's nervousness turned to excitement. haha. When the doctor checked me before starting the induction, she said I was already 1cm dilated and the baby's head was really low so that meant I had a really good head start. She put the medicated stuff in me to start the induction and then I had to sit there for a two hours to continue being monitored.

I actually started having contractions while I was still there at around 4:30. I noticed them, but they weren't painful at all so I doubted whether or not they really were contractions or not. haha. But the nurse said they were, so that was good. I was finally going into labor!

They let me go home after being monitored to let the medication really start to work. Things were starting to get mildly painful by the time I got home, but I didn't wanna just sit around and wait, and Ray wanted to get out and do something because I'm pretty sure he was super antsy and staying home would have made his head explode. haha. We ended up going out for dinner, which was interesting because my contractions were getting more uncomfortable... But I made it through dinner alright. When we got home, it was getting harder for me to smile through contractions and deal with them like they were nothing... They weren't nothing anymore. I was timing them and they were coming between 3 -6 minutes apart, so I called the hospital to see what we should do and they told me to just wait it out for a couple more hours and if they got more consistant then we should go in.

I waited for an hour and a half, and by then the contractions were consistently 3 minutes apart, and I was telling Ray that we should keep waiting, but he was insisting that we go to the hospital. Looking back on it, it was kinda funny... Me in tons of pain saying I'm okay and we can wait longer, and him telling me over and over that we should go. haha. My mom came in to check on me and when Ray told her about how close my contractions were, she was like THEN YOU SHOULD GO TO THE HOSPITAL!!!!! haha! So we went. Mom drove Ray and I there so we wouldn't have to deal with parking. Much appreciated.

We got up to the labor and delivery unit and I remember one of the nurses saying "Yep. That's the real deal. She's not smiling anymore!" haha... I sure wasn't. Contractions suck...

They put me in a room and checked me again, and by this time it was 10:00 PM and I was 4cm dilated. YAY!!! I was in the hospital for the long haul. I was attached to an IV and I asked for laughing gas, which at that point was amazing. It helped me a lot. My nurse was amazing. She'd been working at the hospital for 18 years so she knew what was going on and she was also really compassionate. I really appreciated her a lot. After a while, she told me that it would help things move along if I walked around, which I didn't really wanna do, but I did anyways. As soon as we got out of the room, I suddenly got nauseous and ended up throwing up on the floor.. Woops... But that got all cleaned up, and the nurse told me to keep walking, so I did. Ray was a great help to me with that. Then my IV started leaking... So we went back to the room and the nurse fixed it up.

I wanted to try the shower to see if that could help me. By this time, contractions were getting really strong and I was NOT happy. I spent a little bit of time in the shower, but I told my nurse that I was ready for the epidural. She told me that as soon as I got out of the tub, she'd make it happen. I got out of the tub pronto. Well... As fast as I could go considering I was in labor...

Getting the epidural was scary, but again, Ray was a huge help. He and the nurse together were really good at keeping me calm. Luckily, I didn't have a contraction when the needle was in my back, which was my biggest fear with the whole thing. As soon as it started working, I was so happy. haha. It was a huge relief. I was finally able to get some rest. Ray put on some soft church music, and that really helped keep the environment calm. All the nurses and the doctors that came in commented on how nice and calm it was in our room. It was kind of awesome. haha.

I got my epidural topped up a couple times, and by 4:00 AM I was fully dilated, but not feeling the urge to push. My nurse let Ray and sleep for another hour or so, and by then I was ready to push. I pushed for an hour or so, but the nurse was saying that the baby wasn't moving down anymore. I'd push, and he'd just go back to where he was when I was done. That and the baby's heart rate would drop with every push and not going back up fast enough. At one point there were like 4 doctors and a couple residents and nurses all staring at the heart rate monitor looking all concerned, which made me really nervous... Then they told me that if the heart rate didn't improve they'd have to do a c-section. Then I got REALLY nervous. Thankfully it didn't come to that.

So the doctor came in after an hour of pushing, and after watching what was happening for a while, she  realized that the baby's head was stuck on my pelvic bone and wasn't going anywhere without any help. That meant she had to use forceps... Kinda scary. Again, the situation was made more scary by the fact that they told me if it didn't work, a c-section was the only option. So they called the epidural man in and got him to REALLY freeze me just in case it were to come to that.

The forceps felt like I was getting all my insides ripped out... NOT A PLEASANT EXPERIENCE!!!!! But he was out in really fast after that. I think I pushed twice. The doctor said that all she did was un-wedge his head and I did the rest. I was in such shock from the whole forceps experience that I wasn't really able to take in the whole moment of birth. I didn't even realize Ray cut the cord at all. But I watched the nurses clean off the baby and Ray take some pictures, and all of the sudden he was in my arms. It was crazy. I was in such a daze...

Throughout the whole thing Ray was SUPER interested. He watched everything and thought it was all so fascinating. haha. Fair enough. Now that I'm starting to heal up, I feel more up to asking him details about how things went. He can give me some pretty graphic details that I just didn't wanna know about when they were happening. haha. Now it seems a lot less traumatic to hear about. I'll spare you those details though. His biggest thing was that there was A LOT of blood. More than he realized was possible, and was so confused at how unconcerned everyone was about it. haha. He thought people should be freaking out, but nobody even acted like it mattered, so he was confused and still concerned even though everyone else wasn't. haha.

We decided shortly after he was born to name him Warren Joseph. Ray chose the first name and I chose the middle name. I thought that was fair. Then Ray called my mom and dad to tell them the news and mom was there right away. She was ecstatic. It was pretty funny.

The rest of the day, my whole family had come to visit and so had my best friends. It was a really good experience.

I'd say that in general, the whole thing went really well. I don't have any major complaints about anything. I'm glad to be home though, and getting to know my little man is the best ever. I love being a mom. It's the best ever.