Two weeks later . . .

It seems odd, but the past two weeks have passed both slowly and quickly for me. It's been slow simply because the recovery process has been a challenge for me. At the same time, it's hard to believe Brennan is already over 2 weeks old!

To give you a brief synopsis of his arrival, I started having contractions Friday night that were 30 to 45 minutes apart. I decided to go to bed anyway, figuring I'd wake up if they got stronger and closer together. At about 5 am, it became impossible for me to sleep, and I dragged myself out of bed and into the shower. I then woke Ryan up and told him he'd better go shower because we would need to head to the hospital soon. Ryan's mom had spent the week with us and had been planning on going home. When we were up early, however, she surmised pretty quickly that there would be a change of plans. After having gone to the hospital the first time around in the middle of the night, Ryan and I were both pleased to have had a good nights sleep.

I looked at the clock in our hospital room as I was getting into the bed, and it read 10 til 8. Not knowing how long it would take and seeing my contractions were still about 5 minutes apart, Ryan set about connecting to the hospital's internet access. We managed to watch half an episode of Pushing Daisies (great show, btw) before anyone came and checked me, which seemed to be about an hour later. To their great surprise, I was almost fully dilated. The nurse asked me if she could get me anything to which I replied as calmly as I could "an epidural."** I was told I could have one so long as my water didn't break, but the anesthesiologist was in surgery. It became a bit more difficult for me to concentrate on the show after that, but Brennan obliged his mommy and stayed in just long enough!

Kerensa popped in for a visit mid-morning and gave me some kisses and hugs. I think we started the pushing process around 12:30, which was blissfully brief, and Brennan made a quiet arrival three minutes after one (it really was quiet - he didn't want to cry at all). The delivery nurse took this photo of the three of us:



Here's some additional photos (some from the hospital and some from home):







Well, the baby boy is waking up, so I've gotta run!

**I'm sorry to fail those of you who managed to have a child naturally. I actually had been managing the pain pretty well, which is why the nurses had left me for so long (they apparently did not think I was really in labor - really they told me that), but I frankly did not know if I could handle the remainder. Since my epidural wore off on my left side for awhile and I could feel everything, I think I made the right decision.