When I think about Griffin's birthday, the word funny comes to mind. Weird, I know. To explain -
My due date was May 21. Mom and sister weren't arriving until May 22. Obviously, I wanted them to be here -before- he arrived. Luckily I didn't go into labor before then. Or at all. Surprise surprise!
I was scheduled to be induced at an amazing hospital 5 minutes away from our house on Friday morning, the 25th. We woke up, got all ready, then got a phone call from them saying they didn't have enough room for me. Apparently every woman in West Des Moines decided to go into labor that day. I ended up going downtown the next morning, where the nurse told us they'd had 22 babies there the day I was supposed to go in! Holy cow. Initially I was bummed, but now, SO glad I wasn't there. Wasn't funny then, but funny now? Yes.
This one was a lot different from my other two. We got an AMAZING nurse who was so kind and let us do anything and have whatever we wanted. I was excited to actually be mobile during my contractions this time around. I'd always wanted to stand and walk around rather than being confined to the bed to help speed up my labor. I used a birthing ball for a little bit, and I think the ball combined with walking around really helped. After being started at about 8:30 am, he was already here at 2:35pm.
2 hours after I got the epidural, which only completely numbed me on my right side, we all decided I would take a nap figuring it'd be at least 3-5 more hours. So Nate took the kids with my Mom and went for a walk around the hospital. Not even 5 minutes after everyone left I thought I was feeling an extra strong contraction, but then the nurse ran in saying "His heart rate just went way up!" Then she checked me and said, "You better call your husband and tell him to get back here now!" So I called Nate and told him to get his butt over here! They'd already gotten pretty far away, so Nate RAN back to the room. 3 pushes and he was here. We didn't even have time to get the camera ready or anything, we were so shocked I went from 0 to 60 in seconds!
Funny? Yes. It would NOT have been funny if he hadn't made it in time!
I was lucky to have a friend offer to take all of these beautiful pictures after he arrived for me. I love them all, so here are pretty much most of them!
Everything was so calm and relaxed. I was relaxed and excited all morning, I guess being that it's our 3rd and I knew what to expect I wasn't anxious or worried about anything. It was extremely quiet since we were the only ones delivering that day. It was really kind of just like "Yeah, I'm having a baby today." "Oh he's here now? Great!"
The nurse was more than happy to let us take our time with everything while we enjoyed him and took pictures. No rushing to do anything. This was the first time my baby didn't get taken away from me after holding him for only a minute.
His lips were a little swollen... the first thing Nate said when he came out - "Is he black??" Funny? Sort of. Only in the Nate kind of funny way. All the nurses were speechless. As was I.
Notice his birth mark?
All the kids got to listen to his heart beat.
Cord wasn't sure what to do, he didn't seem to be excited or say much. But the nurse gave the kids their own Griff footprint "tattoo", and he thought that was pretty cool.
And she gave him plenty of "It's a BOY!" stickers to keep him occupied.
He didn't like seeing me hooked up to everything in the bed and kind of stayed away from me, but he got over it after a little bit.
Kennedi was instantly smitten and didn't want to let him go.
This picture is the moment Nate discovered his caveman hair that covered all of his back, shoulders, arms, and thighs. Nice long, long hair.
A cool picture with the gold roofed capitol building in the background. Our Iowa baby!
If only those ugly apartments weren't right in front!
Love Nate's big hand compared to his little face.
Hovering mother #2.
We're so blessed everything went so well, and we can't wait for everyone to finally meet him.
Crazy, we're a family of 5!!
