Drew's Birth

Well, I though it was time to tell the story of the wonderful experience we had delivering precious Drew.

Things started get serious around 9 pm on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009. Natalie had been having weird contractions earlier in the week. But this time, the contractions came at more regular 15 minute intervals. We kept timing the contractions throughout the night. By morning, the contractions were more painful and about 6-7 minutes apart. It was about time to head on in to the hospital. We got there at 8:30 am. Natalie was dilated only to 1cm so the doctor wanted to wait another hour to see if she was progressing. An hour later, 2cm. We were admitted. After discussing options with the staff, Natalie agreed to an epidural. Contractions were getting tougher. Around noon, the epidural was in and it was time to relax. Things hadn't progressed too far. Natalie was only at 3.5cm. I made a few trips to the car to get some more comforts and posted some updates online. By 4pm, Dr. Fitzpatrick did another check and still 3.5cm. We thought it would be a good idea to take a rest. It looked like it was going to be a long night. Only an hour later I was awakened by Natalie telling the nurse that she felt some weird pressure below. "You're at a 10. It's time to push." the nurse said. Wow! I couldn't believe it was time. So, I had a few moments to send out a couple of text messages while preparations were being made. By 5:30, the Doctor was ready and it was show-time. With nurse Joan on the right and me on the left we helped Natalie through her first big push. The nurses were great and coached her through each contraction. By the second push I could see the crown! There was a lot of long black hair. "That's the baby's hair, right?" I asked. By the fifth push little Drew was out and placed right into Natalie's arms. That's when I cut the cord. After a few minutes, Drew went over to get cleaned up, weighed, tested and warmed up. Everything went OK with that. During that time, Natalie was getting stitched up. The doctor said she bled a little more than he likes to see. But that everything was fine. Then, Drew was back over to Mom and got to eat for the first time. Little Drew had big blue eyes that looked around the room seriously until they gazed into Natalie eyes. She looked as if she was thinking quite seriously about the whole situation. After nursing for a little bit, I accompanied Drew to the nursery for her bath and a few shots. While we were there she received her first visitors, Grandpa Ted, Sharon and Adam, who greeted us with grins and smiles. Soon, we were all back in the recovery room.

We were so excited to have our little baby girl with us. That night we offered our thanks to a loving heavenly father who blessed us with such an amazing little spirit.