Luke!

Here are some pictures of our new little guy, Luke Christopher Olsen. He was born on May 17th at 11:49pm. 6lbs 11oz, 19 inches. He has brown hair and most definitely my hands and feet! :) The family coming home!

After a VERY long day (PKU test, Hep B shot, and getting "snipped" as Zac calls it, finally dressed and ready to go home!

Nicely sleeping and enjoying life!

Right before his first bath.

Well, early Sunday morning (around 3:30 or so) I woke up thinking I maybe ate something that wasn't sitting right or that I had slept in the wrong position. I readjusted and tried to keep sleeping and wasn't having success. Around 5:30am I decided that I just couldn't get comfortable and that maybe I was having some strong Braxton-Hicks. I went downstairs to watch some tv and not bother Zac with my tossing and turning in bed. The contractions were getting stronger, but not very consistent. So, I figured it most likely wasn't labor (little did I know...) Zac and I had plans to have breakfast with his cousin Cory and his wife Kim. We went for breakfast and had a great time hanging out with them! After breakfast, Zac had plans to modify something on his Jeep, but I asked him how long it was going to take and he said all day. We decided that just on the off chance, he maybe shouldn't go and be stranded. I kept having contractions but still wasn't really sure if I was actually IN labor or just not feeling right. I called my Mom who said that it sounded like I was in labor and to start keeping track of the duration and time. I did that for 2 hours and the duration was pretty steady at around a minute in length, but it fluctuated between 7-10 minutes apart. My mom called me back and asked if I had called the on-call doctor, I said no. She threatened me that she would keep calling me until I called... So, I did call and the doctor said, "Well, why don't you just come on in and they can check to see if you have progressed. Worse case, you at least know how far along you are and can go home." Zac and I packed what we had (thinking the whole time that we would be told to go home) and went to the hospital.

To our surprise, I was fully effaced, 3cm dialated and 0 station! Ok, so... I guess the show is on. After a short while, I was already 7cm. The nurses and doctor asked me a few times if I really wanted an epidural because I was handling the pain so well. Um....yea. You don't win any awards for going through pain (and I didn't want to know what the pushing pain felt like!) I was able to get an epidural (which felt weird) and relax a little bit. I was having a lot of back contractions, which were VERY uncomfortable. My water hadn't broken yet, and the nurse went to check to see how far along I progressed again and as she was finishing it broke. Yay! About an hour later, the doctor came back to see where I was and I was ready to push. She needed to go check on another patient and asked the nurse to practice pushing with me. I did a round of practice pushing and learned how to effectively push. Another push and the nurse had me stop because he was coming quickly, she called the doctor to come back in. We had to wait about 10 minutes or so for the doctor to come, but once she did, I pushed 2 more times and he was here! (I didn't know the average person pushes for around an hour to hour and a half- I was about 25 minutes or so with waiting - I guess he was ready to come into the world!)

A special thanks to everyone at the hospital! They were all wonderful, especially our nurse Tammy who helped me through labor! :)