Um, recap of weeks 30-39

I've been completely neglecting any posts the last- woa- month (or two.) My last few weeks pregnant were busy busy busy- from a health fair at church (staying up until 2 or 3 am for two weeks straight) to Caroline's 2 year old "ladybug" birthday party. The staying up late thing brought on a horrible cold- probably the WORST I've ever had. I lost my voice, I couldn't breathe through my nose, and I coughed incessantly. In fact, I'm convinced my fanatic coughing brought on my contractions.

My last two deliveries were withing two days of my due date (kudos to my docs), but this one was a whole week early. I know you're not supposed to compare children or pregnancies, every one is different. But my first two pregnancies and deliveries were pretty much exactly the same. (My two children are worlds apart, but isn't that just always the way??!!) Unlike the first two times around, when my contractions started strong and 2 minutes or so apart, these were not nearly as painful and random...10 minutes, then 6, then 4 then 8...I was sure I must be having Braxton Hicks (which I had never had before, so don't call me an expert or anything.) However, PR and my mom were worried that I was going to deliver and make a mess all over the house because my first two labors were so quick that they insisted I go into the hospital.

When we arrived at 3:30am, I was astounded when the nurse told me I was 4cm dilated, I thought she'd be sending me home. So I walked the halls and waited...and waited. I was dilating, but slowly. The plus side was that the contractions really didn't hurt, but my dang cough from my cold was wearing me out and I was completely exhausted. I took two soaks in the whirlpool tub in my hospital room (very cool, I highly recommend this during labor, BTW)...but I stayed at 9cm for 3 1/2 hours. It was noon the next day, and I was STILL waiting.

All I could think of was, "what's the deal?!? I had delivered my first two in less than three hours of arriving at the hospital, and here it was NINE hours later and still no kid. Ug!@ Finally my midwife suggested Pitocin. (Okay, so she had mentioned it a few hours earlier but I really didn't want any drugs since my other two were so speedy and seemed to come out when they were good and ready. I think I'm just of the mind that you don't want any little babies coming out before they're "done." You know what I mean?)

So we went with the Pitocin, which kicked up the contractions a bit but I STILL wasn't feeling any urge to push. So now I was tired, cranky (why wouldn't this kid come out already??!), and now feeling a bit of pain. (A bit of pain compared to when I was in labor with Caroline and distinctly remember repeating, "I think I'm going to die!!" with each contraction. THAT was not fun.) Apparently this little guy had his hand on his head and was pushing away from his exit door every time I was having a contraction...so my midwife performed some magic (and broke my bag of waters, which she couldn't find before) and - voila! Out came baby.

And of course, just like every new mom, I was somehow completely rejuvenated with energy and euphoria when I saw him (I say "him" because we still hadn't decided on a name.) Almost as big as my first (Owen was 8lb 11 oz), he weighed in at 8 10 and 1/4 (whatever that means...is that 1/4 such a big deal) and 20 1/2 inches. I couldn't believe how long his fingernails were...and his eyes were wide open...his hands were pretty open (my first two had permafists for the first few weeks), and he was already doing that fighter's punch thing with his arms that my first two started probably around 3 weeks.

Baby check. Name....uh.....

PR finally forced us to decide on a name when the woman with the birth certificate paperwork announced she'd be collecting the papers the next morning. We had tried to agree on a family name, but I just wasn't crazy about any of them. One was actually pretty cute, but the spelling would have added hours and hours of correcting people and getting teased. It's already tricky enough to pronounce and spell (and fit onto one line) our last name...so I just couldn't give the kid a double whammy. (How would you pronounce H-u-y-c-k??? It looked like the pronunciation of someone coughing something up, not the sweet Hyke or Hike that we were going for....) So, about a week before he was born, I thought of Hudson...since we were living in the Hudson Valley...and it was a strong name but also a little less common and not too long and easily pronounced. PR liked it, and then I had second thoughts....but our hospital room overlooked the Hudson River, so we really couldn't choose anything else-it was perfect!

Baby, check. Name, check. Juggling three kids......uh......EEK!