He is Here!

Leo Athanasius arrived on 2/4/2011 at 12:25 am, weighing in at 7 pounds and 7.5 ounces and 20 3/4 inches long. Congratulations, Robert F. on coming closest to guessing Leo's arrival. I'll be sending your Amazon gift certificate to your mum's email this week.

So how does one go about writing a birth story that doesn't contain TMI and yet contains enough info to appease those who love reading birth stories? I'll give it a whirl. Water broke at 3 pm, the birth center allowed me to stay home and go about my business and allow labor to start naturally. I made dinner, ate dinner with my family, relaxed and waited for contractions to start, which they did at about 6 pm. At 8 pm I watched Wipeout with my family and laughed my head off. Contractions at that point were 20 minutes apart and not too intense. By 10:30 they were 8 minutes apart and beginning to hurt, so we called the midwife and were out the door to the birthing center by 11:15. During the short 25 minute drive, contractions increased in intensity and frequency to about 3 minutes apart. Wingnut was beginning to sweat it, and so was I. I hadn't expected for things to be moving so fast. We arrived at 11:45, were checked in, and by midnight I was in the jacuzzi, 5 contractions and one "You're asking me how to spell that now? Are you kidding me? Don't you think we should have had that figured out before I went into labor?" later and Leo was born. We stayed for exactly 4 hours and then headed home to finish the night in our own bed. It was by far the quickest, easiest, most natural, and least stressful birth experience I've ever had. I still wouldn't say I'm ready to do it again anytime soon! LOL!

I'm sure you'll forgive me if I continue to slack in posting regularly. I tend to spoil my babies, and Leo will be no exception. We are all smitten and looking forward to showering him with love and attention.