His Birth – Documented at long last!

So my baby’s 6 month mark is quickly approaching and I am just now getting the time (or should I say taking the time) to blog about it. Oftentimes, laundry, chores, phone talking, napping, eating, showering, etc. get in the way of blogging during the window of time I get while baby is sleeping… Also I’m back at work full-time now and have been for 3 months, so a lot of time, I’m just not here. But that’s another story for another day. For some reason blogging seems last on my list when I think of all the other things I could be doing, even though I enjoy blogging very much. But one big thing I’m learning, now that I have become a mommy is that it’s okay to not have it all together all the time. It’s a daily struggle to let go and consider my best try at X, Y or Z to be good enough. I literally have to battle my perfectionistic and OCD tendencies every day and try to remember that only God is perfect and that I am merely a work in progress, continually being molded in the hands of God. Anyway, the point is that my best is good enough today. There are dishes to be done right now, but oh well – I want to blog! Baby and hubby are sleeping and I need to post some sweet pics of his birth that happened nearly 6 months ago before this gets ridiculous! I would love to “catch up” so I can start writing about things that happened only a week ago or even things that happened yesterday!!! So without further adieu…

I was nearly 41 weeks pregnant and everywhere I went, well-intentioned people kept asking me when I was due and suddenly it wasn’t so much fun to talk about his due date anymore! Spicy food, lots of walking, sex – we tried it all and still no baby. So my Doc wanted to induce me on March 1st, one week past my due date of February 23, but there was just one problem: all the slots at the hospital were filled, probably because some people opted not to have a leap day baby. Doc asked us “How do you feel about having a leap day baby?” “Cool!,” we said. And so they had us come in to the hospital at 8:00 pm on Tuesday, 2/28. We were to spend the night, while they gave me Cervadyl, to help me dilate, in preparation for a morning induction. Since I would have to fast after midnight, we decided to get a big, yummy dinner at Macaroni Grill. I hardly had an appetite though – I guess I was nervous. So I just shoveled down the salad, pasta, and bread, knowing I would be thankful I did. In the morning, I had not dilated much more, but they said everything had softened up nicely. They gave me Pitocin at 9:00 am and BAM – felt a little contraction or two, then a bigger one, then OUCH!!!!! Fast forward 9.5 hours and it was time to push. (Sorry to FF, but my details are not that interesting, just a normal labor story.) I wanted to feel the labor pains to know what they felt like and I wanted to tough it out a while (even though my nurse probably thought I was crazy), because they are many parallels between this and the cross, so I thought it was the least I could do. Plus, there’s a lot of hype in movies about what labor is like. You can’t describe it – you just have to live it. But God, through man, has also provided good pain management drugs. I had an epidural, as part of my birth plan, after about 4-5 hours and I’m so glad I did. I was able to take a nap and then watch some of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” with Roy. Haha.) I seriously thought I would labor for at least 24 hours because my mom labored for 32 with me. Then, at about 6:00 pm, a nurse checked me and, to my surprise, I was 10 cm! She was like, I’ll call the Dr. and you can start pushing soon. “WHAT!? Already??? There’s still like 20 min left in our movie…” I think I asked the nurse if we could finish it and she was like “Um, no.” I had THE BEST coaches (my actual OB/GYN, a nurse named Patrice, and my sweet husband) as I pushed.

26 minutes later, this little guy was born…. We named him Cliff because we just plain liked the name. No big story here! It means dashing. We chose his middle name, Carpenter, for 3 reasons: 1.) Jesus’ profession – Just think of the awesome parallels: While on earth, Jesus took scraps and made them beautiful, functional, whole…as he still does with us each day. 2.) Family name – My great grandmother’s maiden name and my grandfather’s middle name. There is a street in Athen’s, OH named accordingly after my mom’s side of the family. 3.) Cardinal’s pitcher, Chris Carpenter – He was pitching when Cards won the world series, while Cliff was in my tummy and his daddy was just a little excited about that… (Okay, so there may or may not have been a bet involved as well! I won – and it helped that I could also pull out a sport’s significance!)