Our little man, Mason James Morgan, is 6 days old now so I figured I should probably get his birth story in writing before we start to forget (although it was pretty memorable and Casey doubts we'll ever forget.)
With the other kids coming early, we assumed Mason would follow suit and were starting to feel pretty anxious when he hadn't shown up by 39 1/2 weeks. We were trying just about everything to get him to make an appearance and 4 days before his due date, on a Saturday night, we thought he finally would.
Debby and Don were here for the weekend in case Mason did show up and around midnight I started to have some very mild contractions. They persisted for about 5 hours but never got any stronger or closer together and turned out to just be Braxton-Hicks.
Debby and Don went back home Sunday night and Casey and I, feeling like Mason might be good and comfy, started resigning ourselves that he might still be another week or two. Low and behold, though, on Wednesday morning (his due date) I woke up at 5:40 am unsure if I'd felt something or just had to pee. Twenty minutes later contractions began and it became clear very quickly that my water had broken and labor was starting.
I called our neighbor Dominique around 6:20 am and she said she'd jump in the shower and head right over. We called the hospital to let them know we were on the way and the grandparents to let them know to start heading over the pass. Dominique arrived about 15 minutes later. Even though I'd only been having contractions for a little over 30 minutes at that point, they were becoming pretty strong and close together and I began to suspect that the baby would be here very soon. I didn't say that to Casey though as I was concentrating on quietly breathing through the pain.
When we arrived at the hospital around 6:50am the intake person was on the phone and then got up and walked away from the desk briefly to get a nurse. She was only gone a few minutes but it seemed like an eternity to me as my contractions were coming right on top of each other and I knew I needed to get back to a room STAT.
Once we got to the room I quickly changed into a gown and told the nurses I thought I was already close to needing to push. They were skeptical ("really?") until they checked me and said I was 8cm dilated. That's when they said the scariest thing I think I've ever heard, "you're not going to have time for an epidural". That freaked me out but I took solace in the knowledge that my labors are FAST so if I had to do it 100% naturally, at least it would be over soon.
It was clear at that point that the doc on call from my OB's office was not going to make it in time. The nurses made a 911 call to the hospitalist to come deliver the baby and asked me to try not to push. My back was hurting quite a bit when sitting or laying down so I kept asking to stand but it soon became necessary for me to lie down as I knew I was going to have to push, doctor or no doctor. They didn't even have time to put an IV in my arm.
The hospitalist arrived just in time as I pushed... That's all it took, one push and Mason arrived at 7:11am (barely an hour after my first contraction) all 21 inches and 8 lbs and 11 ounces! The hospitalist literally put her hands beneath me to catch him and then asked the nurses to put her gloves on for her to ensure that she wouldn't miss him.
Despite Mason's dramatic entrance to the world, he was very healthy and I actually felt a lot better in the hospital not having to deal with the after effects of an epidural and not being hooked up to any tubes or IVs. Our hospital stay was short and sweet too - we were checked out fairly early Thursday morning and heading back home to be with the bigger kids.
In between Mason's birth and checking out, Casey brought the kids to see Mason and bring him the stuffed hippo and whale they had bought for him the week before. They were ecstatic to meet their new baby brother.
Casey was also able to sneak away for a few hours Wednesday night and attend Dad's night with Caden at his preschool, which we were very grateful for because Caden had really been looking forward to it.
Now that it's been nearly a week since his delivery, everyone is settling into being a family of 5 really well. Casey has two full weeks off and has been doing lots of fun projects with the kids like setting up our green house with herbs and veggies and a sprinkler system and building a new LEGO table and storage system upstairs so we can keep all the small pieces away from Mason. Both Caden and Sadie are embracing their roles as big brother and sister and love helping out any way that they can.
We are all very in love with our new little man and already can't imagine life without him.
