The Birth!

May 11, 2008 (Mother's Day)





The Big Day

I woke up around 6am having some very small, but somewhat regular contractions!! I told Dan I was pretty sure today was the day. My doctor had told me not to come in until they were 1 minute long and 5 minutes apart. She suggested I spend the day walking around and even suggested we take a little hike if we so desired.
So, indeed, Dan and I spent most of the morning running around the house making sure it was ready for baby! I called my parents to let them know it would probably be soon. So far the contractions weren't too bad. They were definitely 5 minutes apart, but only about 30 seconds long, so I didn't think much of them and told my parents I didn't think things would actually happen until the next day. Hmmm... I am an idiot.
At about noon, I told Dan we should probably go on that hike. We loaded the dogs in the car and headed up to our favorite little place, Pattee Canyon. Well, the hike didn't last long... we got about 200 yards in and I'd already had about 3 pretty good contractions. They were starting to be a bit more painful. We decided it might be smart to not be stranded in the woods at this point and turned right back around. Our dogs were less than pleased, but what can you do?
After that I decided I better eat incase we ended up going in to the hospital. I was still convinced that I wasn't supposed to go in... even though I was now about 3 min apart and 30-45 seconds long. So we went to Taco Del Sol... (bad idea... advice for all new mothers: do not eat burritos the day you give birth... enough said.).
It suddenly dawned on me as I was halfway through lunch that things were getting pretty rough. I told Dan that maybe we should head in and at least get checked. I figured they'd probably send me home for a while, but being a worrier, I figured a quick check up wouldn't hurt.
So in we went at 2 pm. The moment we walked in I had a contraction and without even checking the nurses admitted me... turns out I was already 6cm. They were all shocked and kept asking me what the hell I'd been doing all day. Being a complete dork, I sent out a mass text message to everyone I know announcing that I was in labor. So as the nurses were trying to take my information and ask me questions my cell phone rang and beeped off the hook... I'm sure they were rather impressed.
Anyway, we were told we'd probably have the baby by 7pm at the latest.
Hmmm... that would have been lovely. Since things seemed to be going so smoothly, I opted not to take the epidural. Unfortunately, the little bugger was "Sunny-side up" and decided it would be fun to get stuck on the way out. So... after 4 really fun hours of pushing, and aboutg 10 attempts at vaccuum suction fun... Cormick Burke Keilman was born at 10:01pm. He weighed 7 lbs, 12 oz and was 20 3/4 inches long!!!