Mama says (a lot!)

I love the sweet message from my husband on the name of our son. It may seem strange that so much is put into such a little name, but that's just what we do, I guess. For some reason this pregnancy I was especially concerned with his name. I probably annoyed Chad with it and I'm sure friends and family were bored of my ability to endlessly discuss possible names, but it just nagged at me the whole time. I felt as though he already had a particular name and it was my job to find it. No matter how often I looked at names, something just wasn't right. I was afraid I was going to have to settle for something we liked, instead of the "right" name. When Grandma passed away before our little one got here, I then felt his name needed to be connected to her, and that's one reason why none of the names felt right before. I urged Chad to talk to Grandpa about it, but they kept missing each other's calls. When Seth was born, I looked at him, reasonably confidant his name would be Liam (I got Sakura's name right, so I figured I was good) and realized it wasn't. I started to go through the names we liked and was surprised to find that Seth was the only one that seemed to work. Chad came over to me and said much the same thing. After he talked to Grandpa, we were sure - this little boy was definitely Seth. I think I was the most surprised of anyone! I was sure I had picked the right name, not Chad! ;) Oh well - I got the date right. You can't win 'em all!
My experience this go-around was so much nicer! The Dr stripped my membranes at my visit on Thursday (breaks the amniotic sac away from the uterus, but does not break the sac) and I went home feeling fine. It didn't hurt like I was told it would, so I figured it wasn't going to work. A few hours later I started feeling some cramping, but it seemed to be only when I walked around and would go away if I sat down, so I wasn't worried about it. When Chad got home, we went to finish signing our contract, which was due on Friday and then went over to the hospital to pre-register and get an idea of where I was going to be going when I went in to deliver. As we were heading out the door to go to dinner, I started to feel some pain and had to sit down. I thought it was from all the walking and was good to go after resting for a minute. We got in the car and were on our way to the restaurant when I started feeling pain again - and I was NOT walking around! I told Chad and we waited to see if it would happen again. 3 minutes later, it did. And 3 minutes after that. We turned around and headed back to the hospital, with my contractions happening every 2-3 minutes. "We're back! Told you it would be sometime soon." we greeted the front desk on our way to elevators. Poor Sakura was upset that we didn't go out to eat and that we were back at the hospital with mommy being pushed in a chair and not her! Adrienne came and picked up Sakura from the hospital while I was waiting for the Dr to say I was in labor and admit me to the hospital. The doc comes in and I am 6cm dilated! Definitely in labor! They fill out the paperwork, poke me with needles, and wheel me into L&D - I got the very last room, which was coincidentally, the room we looked at less than an hour before. The admitting nurse said I took the trophy for her calmest patient ever, hands-down! I told her it's cuz I already dreamed I'd been in labor 10 times this week, what was one more? :)
Once I'm all set up, the staff make sure I get my epidural (I think Chad needed me to get it at least as much as I did!) and we settled down to wait. We asked the doc not to break my water so we could see if I would last til midnight so the baby would be born on Grandpa B's birthday. I wasn't sure I was going to make it! Around 11:15 I started to feel an urge to push, more pain, and much more pressure. I didn't move. At midnight, we paged the nurse, but everyone was busy with multiple emergency c-sections going on, so we had to wait a bit. At 12:30 she finally made it in to see me, listed to what I said, checked on the baby and immediately paged the Dr. After 2 pages and no doc, she went to get him herself. "Don't push!" she tells me. Everything is finally set up and ready and the OB breaks my water. Yikes! It was a flood! They weren't prepared for that much water and were scrambling for linens as I filled the tub, soaked the bed, and more kept coming. Finally things were under control and the doc was ready to catch. I only pushed through 2 contractions before he popped on out! I've got a 2nd degree tear, but not so bad really - especially for how big and un-smooshed he is! Who knew I would make such big babies!? We were a little worried about him at first because he didn't have a loud cry, more of a little mewling. But it turns out he's just a quiet little thing, especially when compared to his big sister!
The staff was just great at the hospital - I didn't have to keep an IV hooked up or the blood pressure cuff, and no one woke me to check my blood pressure - if they saw I was sleeping, they let me be! Amazing! It was so much more relaxing! Plus I was the one with the control of when and where my baby would be - if I wanted him, I could go get him. If I needed a break, I could wheel him to the nursery. If I wanted him to sleep in the room with me, that was just fine. I would definitely recommend this place to anyone here having a baby!
I know there's lots more people want to know, like how Sakura is adjusting, and what Seth is like and on and on, but... I think this is long enough for now. It took me 3 sessions to write and may take a while to read, so... more another time. :)