Lack of Brain is bad for the Sleep!

I know that babies are supposed to keep you up all night, but our ambitious little guy wanted to make sure that happened on night one! Labor started at 9pm on Friday night. It was light so we were able to sleep until 2:30am. By 9:30am on Saturday morning the contractions had stalled out. The came back after some napping and were becoming consistent by 5:00pm

Lauren, Ruth and I packed the VUE and went to go find some stores for walking. The Rooms To Go had great places to stop and rest, but was a little too warm. The mall was to warm too. To all of you expecting moms out there, Gander Mountain outdoor store has great AC and plenty of walking room. (Plus its a good place to take expecting fathers to keep them calm and distracted).

At 7pm we went to Fazoli's because any women in labor will tell you that what they really want it spicy marinara and garlic filling their stomachs. We figured the carbs would be good energy.

After dinner we went to Dorris Ann's house. Dorris Ann is a doula. A doula is a professional birthing coach. A Dorris Ann is an awesome woman who was instrumental in making last night go so well! (A million thank yous!)

We labored at Dorris Ann's house and walked around her neighborhood a couple of times until Lauren felt that it was time to go to the hospital. I haven't mentioned how truly amazing Lauren was, I was going to wait until the end...

We checked into the hospital at 11:45AM. Lauren and Doris Ann went into Triage to get set up while Ruth and I waited on pins and needles in the lobby. Lauren was dilated to a 5. By 12:30 we were in the room. That is when we met uber-helpful nurse Cindy. Cindy was also had a huge roll in the nights success!

So this is were Lauren shinned like the rock star that she is! Lauren labored for 3 hours then pushed for 20 minuets then had a beautiful baby boy, all without any pain medication, Pitocin, or even as much as an IV. Her weapons were ice chips, a great birthing team and an army of family and friends praying for her. (and a liter of lotion rubbed on her back by Doris Ann!)

It only took 10 pushes to produce that crying little miracle named Aaron. (Well, nine months of pregnancy, 12 hours of labor and 10 pushes).

There were a couple of times where it was really tough for Lauren and she felt like it wasn't going to ever end, but that was only the smallest part of this amazing production where Lauren played a brilliant leading lady! Good job sweets, I love you!!

So I'm at home now after taking a 2.5 hour nap and writing a 45 minute blog. It's hard to sleep at the hospital. Every 10 minutes someone is coming in the room to drop off something, pick up something, or take someones vitals (Why does no one care what my blood pressure is?). I can't complain though, the hospital staff has been great. One kind woman even gave a sleepy dad a hot breakfast. Thank you.

One final note. A super huge thank you to Ruth!! Lauren's mom Ruth flew into town last Sunday and will be here for another week. She has done so much, not only last night, but also in helping us get everything ready for Aaron's arrival. Ruth did so much for us that I can't list all that she did around our house because I'm sure the Feds would make me pay payroll taxes and make us bring our house up to OSHA standards! I don't know what we would have done without you here. You are what love looks like. Thank you!!

More photos of baby to come. Good night everyone.