August's arrival

Here's my labor story if you're interested....

On March 8th at around 4:00 AM, my water broke.  A week early!  Since I didn't have any contractions, we took our time getting to the hospital and finally arrived around 7:30 or 8:00 AM.  Although I knew that this was it, I don't think I really grasped the fact that I wasn't going to be sent home and that I was about to give birth.  It all happened pretty slowly.  For hours, we just sat around in our hospital room (which was really nice, with a great view of the NW hills).  The doctor wanted to induce me, which we weren't too thrilled about.  I had very strong opinions about being induced and wanted a natural birth, but you don't always get what you hope for.  So after waiting quite a while and having only minor contractions, the doctor started me on pitocin at I think around 5:00 PM.  All evening and into the night the contractions got stronger, but weren't progressing as fast as I would have liked.  At 8:00 the next morning, I was disappointed to find out that I still was only at about 3 cm.  And I was exhausted because I didn't get a wink of sleep!  

At about 10:00 AM the nurses told me that I would probably be looking at evening before even pushing.  The thought of continuing with ever-intensifying contractions and no sleep made me ask for an epidural.  I didn't want one, but I couldn't imagine continuing for 8 more hours like that!  BUT, the doctor and the anaesthesiologist were unavailable for the next hour, so I had to wait.  By the time they were available, I had progressed far enough along that I figured I could make it without, so I decided against it.  And I'm glad I did... I was pushing within the next half hour!  At 1:44 PM, August Xander Casteel was born.  He was long and skinny, 8 lbs. 1 oz. and 21-1/2 inches long.  Hooray!

Here he is.