Ian is here! 12-17-2007, 2:38 pm

Ian James Spain was born 12-17-2007 at 2:38 pm at Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

We're not sure when labor began; I woke up on Sunday 12-16 with Braxton-Hicks contractions that went away when I drank some water. Around 2 pm on Sunday, the contractions returned but were painful, which was new. We tried timing them, but the intervals were varied; they'd be 8 minutes apart for 3 intervals, then 2 minutes apart, then 10, etc. So we assumed we were having false labor.

Around 10:30 pm on Sunday night, I had 5 painful contractions in a 7-minute period. We decided to call the Birthplace and they told us to come on in. We got there at midnight and I was 1 1/2 cm dilated and about 50% effaced. They had me walk up and down the hall to see if it would dilate me further, and it did - by 5 am, I was 3 cm dilated. So I was finally admitted.

At 7:30 am, they broke my water and gave me an epidural. Ah, sweet relief! I was able to get a few hours of rest at that point.

At 11 am, the epidural wore off (boo!). They gave me some additional medicine and I continued to labor, but the contractions were still very painful. Jon was there with me the whole time and was just as tired as I was!

We started pushing at 1 pm and I swear I felt the full pain of every contraction, but I didn't feel anything vaginally. Dr. Bemus delivered Ian at 2:38. They said I did a great job of pushing; I don't know, I had my eyes closed! I suspect they tell every mom that. Jon was originally just going to stay by my head and not look at anything he didn't want to look at, but he was drafted into holding my leg for me. He got to see Ian's head in the birth canal and got a little suspicious when told it had blond hair!

Ian weighed 8 lbs 5 oz when he was born - not too shabby for 3 weeks early! He was 20 inches long. The only thing they checked him for was blood sugar, because he was early, but everything was fine (tell that to Ian - he hated those heel sticks!)

I had a 2nd degree tear and that's giving me some pain issues. But on the whole, I am very pleased with how our labor went. Mostly, I'm pleased that it's over!

We were in the hospital until Wednesday afternoon. We've been home about 24 hours now and Ian is doing very well! The first night was, of course, a challenge. He wants to be held all the time - he's quite the cuddle bug! At first, we couldn't get him to sleep in his crib. I'd feed him and we'd change his diaper, and he would start to cry the minute he was laid down. But we worked out a system and now he's sleeping peacefully.

Last night, I was up until 1:30 am, then got some sleep until 3:30; another feeding, and then another at 5:30 am, and then he slept until 10:30 am! What a great baby!

My milk has finally come in and he's sleeping longer and longer after each feeding. He learned to latch on great at the hospital and feeds like a champ. I took a little longer to get the hang of it. The second night in the hospital, I had to ask them to take him to the nursery because he kept crying and I'd tried to feed him 6x in three hours and he was still hungry. I just didn't have any milk for him yet, and I was exhausted. The nurse helped feed him with a little formula in a S-in-S feeder. She then took him to the nursery but I told her "No bottles!" I wanted them to bring him to me when he got hungry.

I woke up 4 hours later with no baby and not knowing what was going on. I am a little ashamed that I freaked out. I forced myself to take a shower before storming down to the nurses' station to demand my son. I was convinced that they had given him a bottle against my wishes! When I got out of the shower, Jon was there (thankfully!) and I cried to him. He found Ian for me and he had *not* been given a bottle; they'd given him some formula in a S-in-S feeder so that I could get some rest. While I'm still not happy that they did that - I would have rather they brought him to me and woken me up, I was worried about him losing the latch - he is still feeding very well and so I don't think that any harm was done.

Our house is a mess and the cats are confused :) We were worried about Caz and how he would react to Ian, but he did awesomely well. He sniffed disdainfully and then ignored us. I just had a belly-rubbin' session with Caz while Ian was sleeping. Looks like I'm forgiven for bringing this little screaming, stinky thing into his house! Boo hasn't accepted it yet - she just avoids Ian and I right now. She looked like E.T. when we showed up yesterday; her little head rose up on her neck as far as it would go. Wish we'd had a camera!

Speaking of cameras, here are some great pics of Ian. It has been a tiring experience but the most awesome one ever!

This is my favorite picture so far - we took this on Ian's first night in the world, while he and I were cuddling in the dark quiet room. I'm hoping to take a footie picture every Monday for a while to see how he's growing.

You'd think this was taken right after delivery but no. THAT picture will never see the light of day! :) This was taken 24 hours later.

Ian in his Raiders onesie sent to him by his Aunt Stacy.

And his Bears outfit, sent to him by Uncle Jeff and Aunt Pam