So, here's how it all went down...

So...as I mentioned, last Wednesday, the Doc said that she expected Shaundar to go in 24-48 hours. I "worked from home" for the remainder of the week to time contractions. Shaundar was having a lot of pain. 5 or so pains in 20 minutes, and then nothing for an hour. Not good enough to go to the hospital. What's more...some of these pains were over 4 minutes.

On Monday, I went back into work. I am sure this was key.

Shaundar called the doc because she read that long contractions were bad for the baby. The Doc sent her to triage.

We spent about 3 hours in triage. The resident here said that they weren't picking up any contractions. Huh? Shaundar had been in pain for 2 weeks. What the heck.

That's when the first one hit...for real. Shaundar was in mid-sentence and I watched the graph spike up. This happened twice in 15 minutes. The Dr. said she was in early labor and sent us home to labor in more comfort.

The contractions continued until we returned to Triage at 7:00. They were short, but coming every 2 minutes or so. When we got back, Triage said she was at 5 centimeters, 80% effaced and clearly in labor.

We were in Labor and Delivery by about 8:15. Dr. Okorn was already there. Shaundar sat on the birth ball for about 5 minutes and then migrated to the jacuzzi tub where she spent the bulk of her labor time. Nurse checked her out after what felt like an hour or so (times are fuzzy, here). She was up to 7 centimeters. "Time to get out of the tub," says Nurse Elizabeth.

Shaundar gets out of the tub, has a contraction, and nearly pulls us both down onto the bathroom floor. Good thing I am so freakin' strong. I was able to keep us both vertical.

I neglected to mention that Shaundar's water hasn't broken, yet.

We go to the bed. Shaundar's original plan was to use the squat bar and have the baby in the squatting position. Well...plans change, quickly. Shaundar's in the bed, exposed to the world, when the doctor walks back in. Doc doesn't even sit down. Looks right at Shaundar down there and says, "Whoa...slow down." She and the nurses quickly get everything set up.

I don't if they broke Shaundar's water or if it broke on its own. What I do know is that there was a bit splatter that resembles a burst water balloon.

Did I mention that Shaundar went without pain meds? Holy crap, this woman is strong. It was clearly painful. You know those sounds that someone makes on TV when they are being tortured? Imagine Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon when they have him dripping wet and they shock him with electricity? He makes a sound kind of like, "EEEAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!" That's what Shaundar did. About 4 times.

Then, there was Desmond. He was placed immediately onto Shaundar's chest with a cute little "Born at Swedish" beany cap.

He was born Monday, November 17, at 10:46. It's now, Thursday. Holy crap...that thing people say about not getting any sleep. That is NOT a lie. Cry, Cry, Cry. And...no matter how much reading you do, it's not all covered. Breast feeding has been challenging. Sleeping when the baby sleeps in challenging. Getting him to stop crying is challenging.

Here we go.