BRADEN
9.23.09 | 7lbs. 2oz. | 20in.

my due date was 9/22/09 and i was a firm believer that no one ever really delivers on their due date....well, i am now a believer.  although braden wasn't born on his due date, my contractions started the night of.  we had already anticipated braden being late and even discussed a scheduled induction.  my next appointment was scheduled for thursday 9/24 and i fully anticipated making it to that appointment and discussing an induction at some point thereafter.  but braden had other plans for us. 
on tuesday 9/22, we had dinner with the kwoks and i didn't feel any different than any other day thus far.  we talked about my dr's appointments and how we were expecting braden to be late.  in any case, after dinner, we went home, put cooper to bed and did everything as we typically would on any other night.  little did i know that night was the last night of the existence that we were accustomed to.  at around 10pm, i headed upstairs, got ready for bed and peeled open my book.  i read a little bit and then felt some contractions.  nothing out of the ordinary at first since i've had braxton hicks since early on in my pregnancy.  however, after a while, i felt they were slightly different...a bit more intense.  as not to scare chew if this was a false alarm, i decided to time my contractions myself for a while until i was sure.  sure enough, they were approximately 10-12mins apart.  chew came up and climbed into bed at around 11:30pm and very gently and calmly said, "honey, i think my contractions are now 10mins apart."  his reaction?  "WUUUUTTT?!?!?"  so we laid in bed and timed a few more contractions just to be sure.  confirmed!  so at around 11:55pm, i called my mom.  coincidentally, this was the ONE night that she didn't stay over that entire week.  she was due to come back first thing the next morning to stay over until the baby came in case something like this should happen.  anyways, chew being the very sensible one recommended i change my clothes while i still could.  so he helped me out of bed and i padded into the bathroom....then.....a gushing...trickling...down...my..leg...OMG!  my water broke!  immediately, chew sprung into action as i stood there, dumbfounded for a second...saying, "i didn't just pee!".  all i remember was chew telling me to get cleaned and dressed and i heard him get on his phone and say, "hey...it's time."   i still giggle a little thinking about how dramatic it all sounded.  but we had no time...i had to get to the hospital.  chew had called robby to come over to wait for my mom so while chew was getting everything ready, i took care of a few household things  (luckily, i had prepared some lunches and froze them for cooper for when i was in the hospital) so i took a couple of containers out of  the freezer and put them in the fridge, then grabbed some towels for the car ride and snatched up the car keys, opened the garage door and sat in the car to wait for chew.  luckily i got into the car early since by the time chew came out and we were waiting for robby to arrive while sitting in the driveway, my contractions were 4 minutes apart and getting more intense and painful by the second.  as soon as robby got there, we took off.  the hospital is only 5 minutes away from our house (THANK GAWD), we parked and shuffled very carefully into the ER.  as soon as i walked into the ER, the triage nurse yelled, "ARE YOU IN LABOR?" ..."YES!"  we said.  she immediately called someone to come down with a wheelchair and took all my information to get me checked in.  by the time i got upstairs to L&D, it wasn't too much later, but i was already in excruciating pain.  as i got into the hospital bed, i was already begging for the epidural!  who knew that there were conditions -- 1).  i had to drain 1 bag of fluids into my IV, 2) my blood results needed to come back from the lab.  both of which had not happened yet...and i was far from being able to get any relief.  i watched that IV drip...and it felt like the slowest thing i've ever watched...drip.....................drip........................drip...ARRGH!!!   in any case, to make a loong story short, i couldn't get the epidural, although i was begging for it...my labor was progressing way too fast and by the time the anesthesiologist got there to administer the epi, i could no longer sit up nor could i imagine sitting still thru the procedure.  i had no choice but to do it au naturale...i was already ready to push - with no dr in sight the nurse called in for backup.  she was anticipating that she would be catching the baby if the dr didn't arrive soon.  luckily, the dr arrived.  i had a minor complication that led me to the OR early that morning, but all i kept thinking was, as long as the baby was ok,  just do what you gotta do and that kept me from freaking out about surgery.  overall, things went well.  braden was kept at the hospital for 2 extra days to go through phototherapy and we were lucky we were able to stay with him.  we didn't mind staying the extra days to do phototherapy since again...we just wanted to do what we had to do..plus, we didn't want to have to bring home another biliblanket like we did with cooper.  so we didn't check out of the hospital until sunday evening.  by then, we were more than ready to get home and start our lives with a toddler and newborn. 
i feel incredibly lucky that chew was able to get 3.5 weeks off from work and i'm already dreading his return to work.  things have been going really well and i love having this time with braden during the days.   i can't wait to watch him grow and thrive.  i could not have imagined a tougher labor for myself, but i'm glad it's all over and in the end, braden was born without incident and healthy.  my scars will heal in time...and maybe..just maybe...i'll want to do it all over again.  *wink*