He's here!

I can't believe it!  After all that waiting, he finally arrived.  We couldn't be more in love with him.  Roman Adriano was born on September 29th at 11:38 pm.  He weighed in at a whopping 8 lbs 13 ounces and 22 1/2 inches long.  After the doctor talked about inducing I thought for sure I was going to be pregnant for at least another week.  But at that visit she also stripped my membranes and I really think that got things jump started.  If you don't want to read the whole long birth story you can skip to the end and just look at pictures :) 

Birth Story

 I started cramping and having mild back pain on Friday.  By Saturday afternoon around 4/5 o'clock I started having contractions.  They were 10-20 minutes apart.  So nothing too regular to call the doctor about.  Nevertheless I still got things ready for the hospital and had my mom braid my hair up.  I knew I didn't want it in my face just in case I did go into labor.  I tried going to bed Saturday night but the contractions were keeping me up.  So I sat up downstairs bouncing on my exercise ball, laying on the floor and timing the contractions.  Finally around 5:30/6 am the contractions were about 5 minutes apart and the intensity was definitely picking up. I went upstairs and told Mike, took a shower and we got ready to go.  We arrived at the hospital and I got checked into triage.  I was only dilated 3 centimeters but since I was four days overdue and the contractions were consistent they decided to admit me.  At ten that morning the doctor broke my water.  The intensity of the contractions picked up after that, so I asked for some morphine.  I was doing all I could to avoid an epidural.  I wanted to stay mobile as long as possible.  I also asked for intermittent fetal monitoring so I could get out of bed and walk around the room.  Well around 3ish the morphine started wearing off.  The intensity of the contractions was indescribable.  I was literally crying and doubled over in pain.  I tried all the techniques for natural birthing but nothing helped.  So finally caved and got the epidural.  The anesthesiologist who gave me the epidural was good but also a brute.  He said okay I'm going to have put you in this position and you cant move.  So while I'm having these excruciating contractions he flips me over into a fetal position and bends me into a C  which hurt like crazy.  But once he administered the epidural I didn't care. Finally the pain was gone!  I actually was able to nap for a couple hours.   At 5 o'clock they checked and I was only dilated 5 centimeters :p  So the doctor said okay we need to start her on the pitocin.  So the two things I didn't want, an epidural and pitocin I got.  But you know what, whatever needed to be done to get the baby out.  I was ready to have him.  From that point things really picked up, by ten o'clock I was ten centimeters and ready to start pushing.  Even though I had an epidural I could still feel the contractions since they picked up in intensity.  An hour and half of pushing and the nurse said, ok we need to call the doctor. The baby was right there but his big ol' head just wasn't coming through.  The doctor said I needed an episiotomy, ugh.  Well once that happened Mr. Roman was here in a few more pushes.  He had his cord wrapped around his neck which meant I didn't get to hold him right away.  He had to go straight to the warming table and the nurses were working on him for a few minutes.  But once they had him stable they placed him in my arms.  I started bawling the moment he was born.  I couldn't believe this little life I had been carrying for 9+ months was finally here.  During that whole time Mike was right by my side.  He did amazing, helping me the whole time, never complaining, telling me I was doing a great job.  I'm so fortunate to have him in my life.  We are so proud and happy to have Roman here with us.  So that in a nutshell was how our day went.  Here are some photos and I can't wait for Roman to meet all our family and friends.

Not in the mood for a photo

A few minutes old

Finally get to hold my baby

Proud papa

Our family