The delivery

I just realized that I hadn't posted on how the delivery went. So here goes. (I ended up writing more than I thought, so you can skim it if you don't want every little detail.) On Wednesday, October 29th I started to have counteractions that felt different and I little painful. I started feeling them before school started, and started timing them during my first class. They were about 20 to 30 minutes apart, but were not consistent. My second hour is a team planning time and Wednesdays are the days that the administration come in and talk to us. I was trying hard to pay attention, but I just didn't feel right. Before that period was over I decided I should go home. Whether I was in real labor I didn't know, but I knew something wasn't right. I called in a sub for the second half the day and then went back and taught my next two classes. I didn't tell the kids because I didn't want to freak them out if it wasn't real labor.
Wednesday's are Rob's days off, and he sometimes helps a friend work on houses. I gave him a call to see if he was helping Perry and let him know I was coming home. He was dropping stuff by Perry's but wasn't going to help him that day, but they were about to go out to lunch. So I met Rob, Perry and his wife Suzy at a Chinese restaurant on my way home from school. We kept timing the contractions, but it was staying about the same. Rob and I ran by Toys R Us to pick up a Christmas present I saw was on sale then headed home. We worked around the house getting some things done that we wanted to before the baby came. I then drove us to Goodwill to drop off some stuff we had sitting around. (yah, we know I probably shouldn't have been driving). We came home ate dinner then went to the park so I could walk around and see if that made the contractions speed up any. Rob played disc golf while I walked with him. By this point the contractions were about 10-7 minutes apart and little more intense. We still weren't sure if it was real labor, but we thought we should go to the hospital. The worse that could happen is that they send us home.
By this point it is about 7:30 pm. We load up our labor bag in case it is real and head to the hospital. They check me in and put the monitors on me to watch the babies heart beat and my contractions. The nurse said I was still 3 cm dilated, which is what I had been on Friday when I had went to the doctor. She said they would watch me for an hour and see if anything changed. Rob helped me breath through the contractions which were now seven minutes apart. At 9 the nurse came back and said that I was still 3 cm, and my contractions weren't regular, so most likely they would stop. But, they wanted to keep me over night to make sure. We called our families to let them know I was staying the night in the hospital, but that it wasn't real labor yet.
By midnight Rob was getting really tired, so he pull his "bed" over to mine and thought we could try and sleep every seven minutes between contractions. Then at 12:15 I had a really hard contraction and then they started coming every minute to two minutes. Rob called for the nurse, and she checked me again to find out that I was 5 cm and was in real labor. By this point I was already pretty tired and wasn't handling the pain very well. I didn't yell out, but I was getting nausea from the pain and almost passed out. I asked for the epidural. They had a hard time finding a vein for my IV, which was making me freak out even more. They finally put it in my wrist which is still a little tender. I got the epidural at 1:40 am and it was wonderful. Rob and I could finally relax a little. My parents got there around 3. The epidural had slowed down my contractions. My water broke sometime in there, but I can't remember what time. About 4:30 it was time to push. Dad went to the waiting room and Rob and Mom stayed in the room with me. Rob did a great job counting while I was pushing. I think the whole hospital could hear him. :) but it helped me push and by 5:06 we had a beautiful baby boy. Rob got to cut the chord.
It was such an amazing experience. Our life is forever changed. Rob and I were amazed that we could love this little guy so much from the first time we saw him. How can anyone go through this a doubt there is a creator God?