new arrival

well, it started on tuesday early in the morning.  i woke up a few times in the 5 o'clock hour with some contractions.  while we were getting breakfast ready later on, i told ryan i was having pretty steady contractions.  not too strong, but steadily every 5 to 10 minutes.  just to keep him on alert for the day.  

around 4 or 5 that afternoon, the contractions continued steady and were getting stronger.  not terribly painful, but i was beginning to breathe through a couple of them.  during the day, i got bags completely ready for me and cody and got a few last minute things done around the house - just in case. 

ryan got home from work and was pretty skeptical about me possibly being in labor.  he went with me to drop cody off at his friend cora lynne's house before mutual, just so we wouldn't have to wake him up later if we decided to go to the hospital.  

by the time ryan got home from mutual, i felt like i was ready to go down to the hospital to get things checked out.  we got to pomona valley hospital around 9:30 p.m. and when they checked me i was dilated to a 3.  they checked with the doctor who wanted them to give me a dose of antibiotics and start walking.  ryan and i walked for about 10 minutes before the doctor wanted to break my water and keep me in my bed, around midnight.

things started moving pretty fast from that point.  within an hour i was at a 7 and ready for an epidural.  by the time the epidural was in around 1 or 1:30, they had me start pushing and we welcomed our new boy at 2:38 a.m. on january 16.

he had a rough time transitioning, so they let me hold him for a while before they measured him.  he weighed in at 7 lbs, 12 oz and measured 20 3/4 in.  pretty good size for 9 days early!!  we're grateful he decided he was ready early so i could have a successful vbac!

we stayed in the room where he delivered a little longer than usual while the nurses observed the baby for a while.  he ended up staying in the newborn nursery for a few hours (and then a few more hours due to some confusion about who gave him a bath). 

ryan and i moved upstairs to my post-partum room around 5:30 and got some much needed sleep after a long night.  the baby joined us again around 11.  it took us several hours to come up with a name - as we weren't quite prepared to have an early baby.

we finally decided on

isaac bradley varga

 my mom drove over that day to lend us a hand while ryan had to be at work.  she picked up cody from another friend's house where he'd spent the day and brought him to the hospital to meet the new baby.

he was so excited to hold 'zac-it' (sounded a bit like 'jacket') 

and give him kisses

and, of course, grandma berta was thrilled to meet grandson #2 and grandbaby #7.

it was a bit of a whirlwind of a day...or two, but we are happy to now be a family of four!!