Presenting Aiden Michael Lauer!!!!

He's finally here!

Aiden Michael Lauer was born on Monday, November 9th at 11:21 pm after a long and arduous day!

So I had my 41 week doctor's appointment on Monday, and went in at 11:30 wanting to talk to the doctor about the changes I had been feeling all morning. I was thinking either a.) the baby had finally dropped, b.) I was having Braxton hicks or c.) something was going on! All I really knew is that it was finally something different than I had been feeling for the past two weeks, and I was hoping this would lay to rest the idea of having to induce me.
I met Mike at the Dr.'s office and was worried I would have to use the restroom before I had a chance to give my urine sample for the day, so when my name was called, I rushed right into the bathroom - where my water broke!!

I realized this when the color was all wrong (there was meconium in it) - otherwise I don't know if I would have recognized it for what it was! The nurse seemed awfully calm, and put us into the examining room, and I had Mike start timing what I now am realizing are contractions. It only surprises me more when Mike says that they are 2-2.5 minutes apart! I guess I had always thought of contractions as feeling sharper or more distinct. All morning they had just been an uneasiness in my stomach, as if someone was tightening my belt on my pants and I had just eaten a really full dinner -that plus some mild crampy feelings. I will admit, now that my water had broken, they were getting more painful - now they were more like a stitch in your side, just all across my belly.

The Dr. came in and decided to wheel me over to the hospital (the office and hospital are connected) - I was officially in labor!!!

To make a long story short, my water broke at 11:30, I was admitted around 12 and was about 3 cm dilated but the baby hadn't dropped. By 1:00 I had decided an epidural was going to be a good idea. They had to do two takes on the epidural, the first one put in had a kink in the catheter in my back and was stopped up, so they had to put in a second about an hour later. By 5:00 I was 8cm, and at quarter to 7pm I was 100% effaced and 10cm dilated, but still no droppage from the baby - so it was time to start pushing. After 3 hours, the baby hadn't moved very much, and his blood pressure was dropping - that with the meconium in it, they wanted to get the baby out sooner rather than later, so I was wheeled to the OR for a C-section, and our beautiful baby boy, Aiden Michael Lauer was born at 11:21pm on 11/9/9!

We arrived home on Thursday, and I can't believe that he is officially one week old now! Here are some pictures of my new baby boy:

Here he is home from the hospital:


A few with Daddy:




and at one week:





Ahh Sweetness: