Okay, here we go on the posting of Nathaniel's birth. I did make some notes that day to attempt to be able to fill in later so hopefully it makes sense...

6 am - As told by my ob/gyn office we called the labor and delivery unit of the hospital and was told to come on in between 7:30 and 8 am. I proceeded to eat a full breakfast and than some. Decided to even stop for a bagel on the way in...pumpernickel with onion and chive cream cheese.

8 am or so - We got to Frederick Memorial Hospital, went to registration and headed to L&D and than over to the room. Funniest part is, it's the room from when we took the tour! Met the nurse, her name was Lena and she was freakin' awesome! I was hungry enough and knew that food would end once they started the induction that I also ate some banana bread while already in the room. Pretty much a big no-no, but I still did it anyway…lol.

After getting settled in the doc called and said I could start petocin. After being checked it was clear that the baby was still real high up so the doc put a ball in that automatically makes you go to 3 cm. The hope with the Foley is that after a few hours they should be able to break your water. We hang out, watch TV, play on the laptop and just spend the time doing not much of anything.

12 pm - I start having contractions that are definitely more noticeable. I'm allowed to eat some jello and drink apple juice. That's a big change from when Jackson was born and all I was allowed was ice chips and water. I get to have things as long as it leads to clear liquids...love that! Just sitting waiting for things to progress. Watching a LOT of TV, talking to Lena and enjoying the fact that she's fun to talk to and new to the area.

3 pm - The doc took out the Foley bulb and broke my water. Still watching TV, FoodNetwork is my friend at this point. On the computer and keep getting asked why I'm so into it...need the distraction people! LOL!

5pm - After having contractions that were hard enough to get other nurses asking if I was okay and wondering how much pain I was going to be able to take, they finally were hard enough to ask for an epidural. I guess I was shocking everyone by not screaming at the top of my lungs when the contractions were hitting. Ya see, all the nurses can see your progression since the flatscreens at the nurses station show everyones vitals, they were amazed that I was calm with the level of contractions I was having and kept checking on me...too funny.

6pm - The epidural was finally in place and I felt good. Seems I asked for it at the right time because had I waited even a few minutes longer I might have missed my window of opportunity for it and had to go without it for delivery (hindsight this time around, might have been able to do it).

6:30 something - After Joe ate lunch in the room and the smell made me want to eat his arm off...lol...I sent him down to the cafeteria to eat dinner quick. Well, while he was downstairs Lena asked me for his cell phone number, he was called and told to come up immediately…we’re having the baby!

The doctor was awesome, she automatically had some extra nurses come in the room, wanted to ward off any "evil" from the last time around and ensure that those nurses weren't needed for this delivery. It was good it was happening at this time too because Lena's shift ends at 7 and we really wanted her there, she kept saying we were having the baby with her and it seemed we would.

Things went pretty smoothly and I didn't have to push that much, only about 16 minutes of pushing and he was out. I kept thinking I was going to have to do much more than I actually did, go figure. I think my brain just kept going back to Jackson's birth, but I didn't have to be in that frame of mind. This kiddo was ready to come out in a much less dramatic and traumatic fashion.

7:06 pm - Nathaniel William was born weighing 8 lbs 11 oz and measuring 21 ¾ inches long. His vitals were great and we were able to hold him for a while before they took him to the nursery to be cleaned up and have other testing done quick.

I hung out in the room for a while and did the post birth stuff that's just way too gross to post about. A while later we were taken to the room and after settling in and getting some baby loving time I realized just how stinking hungry I was. Well, it was way too late to get food from the cafeteria so Joe went to McDonald's and got us food. Plus, that gave me a few minutes alone to do the crying thing, good cries, but still cries.

That was late Tuesday night and we were released Thursday afternoon after final hearing test and recovery from circumcision was complete. Went to the little class for post-birth too, actually had nothing else to do at the time anyway since Nathaniel was off getting stuff done.

Thursday at around 4 pm we arrived home to start life as a family of 4.