He's FINALLY Here!!

Wesley Michael Spencer has arrived, making his debut at a whopping 9 lbs 4.4oz and 21 inches. We were SO ready. It all started with our Doctor appointment on Friday morning......enter BIRTH STORY:(details for family and remembrance..sorry to bore some).

Mr. Wesley was 3 days post-due and we needed to see how he was doing. To our surprise the ultrasound predicted this "little man" to be between 9lbs and 9lbs 13oz....WHAT! We were shocked, we thought we'd have a big baby(I was 8.2 and Mike 8.8), but weren't expecting 9+ pounds. My body and the baby were showing no signs of progressing to delivery. Given the size of this kid and no signs of my being ready to deliver the doctor thought that maybe we should consider a scheduled c-section with the added risks of delivering a Large Baby, rather than risk an emergency c-section.

This was not at all what I had expected. This has truly been a great pregnancy, I have felt great and was still sleeping relatively well (even in this last month). So a c-section was not even a thought I'd considered. I broke down and had a rough afternoon processing the news from our doctor. Mike was such a rock, reminding me that all he wanted was for his wife and son to be safe and healthy. The positive was that we knew we wouldn't have to wait too much longer to see our baby. My Dr offered to do the c-section on Sunday as he would be on call anyway, so we knew it was coming.

My mom arrived Friday night. We sat down to watch a movie and out of no where I started having regular contractions. We timed the contractions and they were lasting between a minute and a minute and a half and were spaced about four minutes apart. After about two hours of regular contractions we thought that maybe the Dr. was wrong and we would be having a baby the old fashion way that night.

(Watching a movie, timing our contractions)

(Arriving at the hospital Friday night)

So we packed up and went to the hospital. When we arrived they hooked me up to the monitor and began to assess my "readiness" to deliver. Well, wouldn't you know it, once hooked up to the monitors the contractions became less frequent, less intense and I was making no other progress. They kept us at the hospital for a couple hours for observation, we walked those halls for 2 hours straight trying to get something started, but no progression meant were were getting sent home.

Saturday the contractions came back but were all over the place. At about eleven that night the contractions were so intense we decided we needed to go back to the hospital. This time I didn't go home. I was still not progressing (dilated to 3, baby not dropping) and since the c-section was scheduled for the next morning they started an epidural to see if I would last through the night. The epidural was my best friend! I seriously don't know how women do it without, I love modern medicine. I felt amazing as soon as it started, I could breath and smile and get excited for what was to come. We slept until the Dr got there and we were ready to go...then we got bumped 3 hours later because 2 emergency c-sections came in. At this point, my body had been laboring since Friday night and it was now 10:30a Sunday morning, I was exhausted.

(Ready for the c-section to start, the BEST NURSE ever, Gina)

(Mike all gowned up to meet me in the OR)

We got ready for the OR and within minutes Wesley was born. The 2 doctors working on me kept saying how anxious they were to get him on the scale. 9 lbs 4.4oz and 21 inches long! A big boy!

They finished stitching me up and took Wes to the NICU to monitor his breathing. By the time I was finished and through recovery Wes was ready for us to come visit him. He did so well that they let us bring him right up to our room and he didn't have to stay more than 1 hour.

(recovery Room)

We are all doing fabulous. Mike is a wonderful Dad, taking care of us all and making sure everyone is rested and happy.