missed it by 22 minutes!

In case you haven't heard...Mark Wendell came barrelling into this world at 12:22am on Oct 18th, 2009!! And what a ride it was!

Very briefly, as I had emailed in the afternoon to some girlfriends, I was having regular irregular contractions since like 5am but never close enough to go in to the hospital, about 7-10min apart. Then they all but stopped around 4pm yesterday. I was pretty sure that was it for the day...My parents stayed over all day so I could rest and just help with Zach. Mom decided to spend the night just in case so we wouldn't have to wait for her to get there if something DID end up happening. I went on several walks hoping that would get things going and it did! I guess around 9pm, they were every 7 to 10 min and by 1045, every 4 to 5 and mom said we should GO so we did!

We got to a L& D room around 1130pm and when checked, I was at 3.5 and about 80% eff and contractions coming quicker. I told them about how once things got going, z came fast so could we PLEASE hurry up with the epi!! But we had to do some paperwork and blood work first. Ugh!! By midnight, I was 7.5 to 8 and said baby is coming. They were trying to get me to hold on for doctor but that wasn't happening either! By 1215 or so, I was fully effaced at 10 and wanting to push regardless of who was there and mark was out at 12:22am, DRUG FREE!!! The epi guy poked his head in while I was pushing the placenta out and doc a few min later!!! It hurt LIKE HECK but I cannot tell you the instantaneous feeling of relief and no more pain!!! Mark cried right off and is beautiful! 9.9 on his apgar, a head of dark brown hair, almost black! 7lbs 7.2oz and 21 inches long!! We got to nurse for a bit and he did okay. Then it was move to the new room a bit later. All and all, we delivered the boy in less than an hour at the hospital, craziness!

Today has been good, we have had lots of visitors (Sue, Al, Rox, my folks, Claudia, Becky, Ashley, Kathi and Matt's dad, Dan!) It was great to see everyone and Mark was a doll! The only person I did not get to see is my Z Man :( Thanks to the swine flu and all other strains, they have a no one under 14 policy in place at the hospital . So I wont get to see him until we go home tomorrow. I miss him but the grandparents have been keeping him busy! THANK YOU!

We have had a couple good feeding sessions and 3 good poos so I feel like he is at least eating something! Praying it continues!

All and all, even with the 45min drug free delivery, its been great! Tomorrow Mark wil get circumsized, Ill get cheked out by my doctor and we should be good to go! Home to our family of four!! I will post pics as soon as I can!