He's here!

As you all know, we got a wonderful surprise on Thanksgiving - Mr. Jacob! We certainly didn't expect him to make his arrival on the 24th, but he had other plans. And we are so glad he is finally here! He's already one month old and we can't imagine life without him.

Now that we've had a little time to adjust to our new life and start to figure this little man out, I finally have some time to recap how he came into this world while he naps (and while his dad naps too!). So, here goes...

David and I were planning to spend our Thanksgiving/David's birthday weekend with a yummy birthday dinner, Thanksgiving dinner, relaxation and possibly go see a couple of movies. We got to have the yummy birthday dinner and that's about it!

On Wednesday the 23rd, we had a doctor appointment. At 1:30 p.m. that day, I was only 1-2 cm dilated and 60% effaced. We made plans to go back the next Tuesday so that the doctor could move some things along to get labor started. I told myself - no problem, I'll have a baby next week. That gives me a little more time to get some things done. But, Jacob had other plans...

In addition to the doc appointment, I spent all day making David a German chocolate cake from scratch (can we say nesting!?) and made teriyaki chicken in the crockpot for his birthday. We also heard from our good friends who were in town, so they came by to say hello. Around 11:30 p.m., I headed to bed. David came to bed about midnight and was reading in bed when I woke up at 1:30 a.m. with contractions. However, I was sure that I wasn't having contractions, but rather indigestion. I was wrong. It felt like cramps, and we started to time them with our nifty contraction app on the iPhone (yes, there's an app for that. Turns out, I slept through a lot of the contractions and by the time I woke up, they were already two minutes apart (they suggest you go to the hospital when they are five minutes apart). So, we called the doctor. She said it could be indigestion or contractions. She suggested taking some medicine and trying to get some sleep to see if they go away. They didn't. So, we decided to go to a 24 hour pharmacy to get some medicine. We threw in our hospital bags on the off chance I was in labor. When we got to the pharmacy (which was closed, by the way), I told David they were getting worse. So, we called the doctor back as we sat in the parking lot. After much debate, we decided it was time to head to the hospital. I didn't want to go and get sent home, but luckily David didn't listen to me. On our way to the hospital, we called Meredith to tell her to make plans to get to Austin.

After all of this, it was about 3:30 a.m. when we got to the hospital. It turns out I was 3 cm dilated and 100% effaced. I was officially in labor! We lucked out and got the last room in the labor and delivery wing, and got checked in. David and I did a couple of laps in the labor and delivery wing and used our breathing techniques. At 7 a.m., we had a nurse shift change, and about that time, I decided it was time for the epidural (I was also 5 cm dilated). They had to call the on-call OBGYN and the anesthesiologist, and it took about an hour to get them to the hospital and about another 30 minutes to get things going. Once I had the epidural, the doctor came in around 9 a.m. She checked me out (I was about 8 cm dilated) and said, "here's what we are going to do. I'm going to break your water, you and your husband are going to take a power nap and then we are going to push." And, that's pretty much what happened. Poor David was able to get a little bit of sleep (since he hadn't been asleep at all), but I pretty much just "rested my eyes." About 11:10 a.m., we started to push, and Jacob was born at 11:25 a.m! He weighed 7 lbs. 15 oz., and was 20 1/2 in. long.

Unfortunately, Meredith missed the birth (she calculates that her plane was landing about the time he was born), but she was the first one to meet him and find out his name! David's parents were also able to fly in on Thursday to meet him. My parents came the next weekend to spend time with their new grandson.

We are still a little bit in shock about how quickly he came, but I'm not complaining! He was ready to make his debut and wanted to share a birthday with his daddy. Jacob has been a model baby, and has a very good temperament. He loves to eat, sleep and poop, which are all good! David and I have been soaking in every moment!