Gabriel is here!

Gabriel surprised us all by arriving 4 weeks early on Sunday, August 23rd at 9:57am.

This was the first Saturday that Eric and I didn't have a million things to do so we decided to sleep in and make beignets. The only thing that I actually had to do that day was attend my last Baby Shower at 2:00pm. Eric and I awoke around 8:00am and I went to the bathroom. When I went to the bathroom I discovered that I had lost my mucus plug and I was having some light bleeding. We figured that it was nothing and that we still had 4 weeks or so before Gabe made his entrance so we started making breakfast. I realized very quickly that I could not stop peeing...or so I thought. We called the hospital to see what they said and they told me to lay down, put my feet up, and call back around noon if things hadn't changed. Eric and I decided that we needed to go ahead and pack our hospital bags just in case this was the real deal. We made a few calls and let everyone know what was going on and to be on alert just in case. Well...noon came and I was still leaking so the doctor on call asked me to come in so that they could check me. We got to the hospital around 1:30pm and got settled into the room. The nurse got me all hooked up to everything and checked me. Sure enough...my water was ruptured and I was 3 cm dilated. We then made all the appropriate calls and let everyone know that Gabriel would be making a surprise appearance within the next 24 hours. The doctor came in and discussed our options with us. Since my water was ruptured I had to stay in the bed because there was a chance that Gabe's umbilical cord would prolapse and we would have to have an emergency c-section...which was the last thing that we wanted. We decided to let things progress on there own to also reduce the risk of a c-section. We watched TV, got on Facebook, and ate Popsicles until around 10:00pm when they moved us into a big fabulous room across the hall where it was nice and quiet since we were going to be there for a while.

Around 1:00am or so they gave me some pottosin and I started having pretty consistent contractions. Eric and I were wanting to try to have Gabe without the use of an epidural and that went really well until about 2:30am when I awoke with really heavy contractions. Not being able to walk around or get out of bed made it really hard to manage the pain so we called in the anesthesiologist and got me an epidural. Eric and I were then able to take a nap which was really nice and needed.

We woke up around 6am and had the Grandparents come and visit before we got everything ready for Gabe's arrival. The next few hours went so fast...we started pushing around 8:30am and Gabe was born at 9:57am.

It was the best experience of my life and I started crying as soon as I felt him come out. He was perfect (of course). I would do it all again in a heart beat and I love being a Mommy.