Labor Part 3: The part where all plans are thrown out the window...

In the morning, after being in labor for about 18 hours or so... I knew what was going to end up happening. Monkey was not responding well to the epidural lowering my blood pressure, so they had to continue to drive it up with medicine.

But epidurals = win. I am not going to pretend to be brave about it. Labor hurt. Like A TON.

So at about 8:30-9ish my doctor (who is amazing) came in and checked me and I could tell by her facial expressions that we were done.

"We need to get him out now!" She said and she was gone to get her scrubs.

There was something completely surreal about the 10 minutes that followed. My doctor left, put on her scrubs and came back in in a manner of a minute. They handed Mr. scrubs and the lovely pain meds people talked to me. I gave my consent for the procedure and off we went.

At the OR, I was separated from Mr., and prepared for surgery. It was nerve wracking and exciting all at once. We made sure the cord blood was going to be donated to Dana Farber. (Our son gave a second chance at life to some one and I am so proud of that!)

Then they laid me down and laid out my hands, they put up the blue sheet and brought Mr. in. After about a minute and a half of the the violent tugging and pressure, my little Monkey was born screaming even before the suction. Mr. got to see him pretty much right away.

And then I was by myself on the table while the doctors were working on me, and it felt like forever.

They forgot to raise his head to show me, so all I saw were his boy parts. I got the doctors laughing by proclaiming that "All I saw were his balls!" I couldn't wait to see his face and meet the little boy that I had gotten to know over the last 9 months.

Then Mr. came around the corner, sat down and said "This is Monkey". My heart melted... it still does thinking about it.

But finally both my boys were in my sight, and it made life feel a little sweeter.

We finally got moved back to our labor room, where Monkey and I got to bond over milk and snuggles, and we got to spend our first moments as a family.

Life is good.