LABOR DAY...

So I woke up at 3am Tuesday May 5th with what I thought were cramps.  I decided to time them just in case.  After about 30 minutes of them coming and going every 10 minutes I decided to grab a pen and paper to keep track (still fairly certain this couldn't possibly be labor).  Darren woke up to my rustling and helped out with the timing; after 30 more minutes the 'cramps' were coming about 5 minutes apart lasting for about 60 seconds.  Naturally Darren wanted to rush to the hospital.  I on the other hand was still not fully convinced this could actually be it, but told him I'd go ahead and get ready.  I don't think he thought 'get ready' meant that I'd shower, pack a few things, eat a snack and take my dear sweet time, but it did ;)  By the time we got in the car the 'cramps' which I then realized were actually contractions were 3 minutes apart lasting at least 60 seconds.  We got to the hospital at 4:30 and I was admitted.  This was it... Damon was coming at last.  I continued having contractions that I thought were actually quite tolerable... and then it happened... my doctor came in to break my water.  After my water was broken it took less than a minute for those not so bad contractions to become oh so bad.  It turns out that they hurt so much because I dialated from a 2 to a 6 in 45 minutes.  In this time I was lucky enough to get an epideral (what a relief).  Things progressed fairly fast from there... I went from a 6 to a 9.5 in an hour and then pushed the not so little guy out in about 20 minutes.  Damon officially arrived at 1:55 on Tuesday May 5th 2009 weighing in at a whopping 8 lbs. 8 oz. stretching 20.5 inches long.

What an amazing experience!