April Fool's!

   On Friday, I woke up at 6:45 a.m. to find that my water had broken. Climbing back into bed with Tim after a quick trip to the bathroom, I woke him up and said, "I think my water just broke." He gave me a worried look and said "Seriously?" and then said, "Wait, is this an April Fool's joke?" The funny thing was that I had considered playing an April Fool's joke on Tim dealing with going into labor, but decided against it. Now, I was trying to convince my husband that I was in fact going into labor and that I wasn't playing a joke on him! 
     We got up and took showers and began to pack any last minute items. Luckily, I've had my hospital bag packed since I was 36 weeks pregnant. We left for the hospital at about 9 a.m. because I wanted to labor as long at home as I could (though not too long because the risk for infection increases once the water has broken.) I labored naturally for about six hours, walking the halls and rocking in a chair and sitting in the delivery room's jacuzzi. The contractions were pretty steady and strong by then. At 3:15 p.m. I had an epidural because I had progressed far enough that it wouldn't drastically slow down labor and because my legs were cramping so much that I could no longer walk around and use gravity to help labor progress. I was given Pitocin at about 8 p.m. to help me reach the point of pushing. I began pushing at 10:15 p.m. with the help of Bonnie the nurse and Tim. The doctor came in about an hour and fifteen minutes later and Owen was born at 11:54 p.m., just six minutes shy of an April 2nd birthday. 
    Here are some early pictures of our little man.

 Owen with my dad, Grandpa Blomquist.

 Owen with my mom, Grams. 

 Here he is just a hour or so after he was born. 

 Wearing his going home outfit and ready for his photo shoot for the hospital's newborn website. 

 Waiting to be discharged from the hospital. 

Finally arrived at home, alert and happy.