And then there were four...

The lead up...  We spent the first few weeks of September soaking up the late summer sunshine and spending as much time together as we could.  We knew our days as a family of 3 were numbered, so we ventured out as much as possible and spent a lot of time loving our little man.  We even went to the zoo and Crosby and Drew got to spend a lot of time at their favorite exhibit, the penguins.

And now the story of how we became a family of 4...
If you don't like labor stories, you can skip this section, but I've been asked a lot about how the day went, so I figured I might as well blog about it! Minus too many details!
Around the 8th of September I started getting some pretty steady contractions...days of steady contractions.  We were pretty sure that we'd have a baby the weekend of the 10th/11th, but our little man decided that it wasn't quite his time...so we continued our normal routine a bit longer.  We got to celebrate my 30th birthday on the 13th together - not really an exciting birthday when you are THAT pregnant, but sweet to spend it together none-the-less.

On the 14th I started having contractions ALL day. 5 minutes or less apart.  Literally, all day.  By the afternoon I called my mid-wife and told her what was going on, though the contractions were slightly uncomfortable, they were nothing bad, but the frequency was interesting so they sent me into Labor and Delivery just to see what was going on.  A quick visit later confirmed what we thought - still only dilated to a 3 and not really going anywhere. Disappointed, but not surprised we went home.  That night while reading books with Crosby he looked at my tummy and said "I push Jackson out for you mommy" and "I take you to the hospital".  I went to bed convinced it would be days, if not weeks before we'd meet our little man...apparently Crosby knew something we didn't!

I woke up at 5:45am as usual, and hopped in the shower. I noticed I was still having contractions, but that wasn't surprising given that I'd have them for a week. But as I showered I noticed that these contractions were a bit different.  They started to hurt.  I didn't quite know what to do, I didn't want to go into L&D again to be sent home, so I just thought we'd go about our morning like usual.  Well, that changed when I stepped out of the shower and was drying off.  Suddenly I felt "IT" and yup, my water broke...no turning back now!  Drew and I got ready, called my mom to come over to watch CJ and made our way to the hospital.  That was the longest 15 minute drive of my life!  We arrived around 7:15 and I was in PAIN... Now you should know that with Crosby my water broke sending me into the hospital, but that when I arrived my contractions were mild and I didn't make much progress - after hours they gave me pitocin and an epidural to kick start labor...so I never had really felt a REAL contraction before.  They checked me in and we went up to the intake area of L&D and the first nurse that checked me out thought that I was only dilated to a 4, not effaced much and that the baby might be breech....WHAT?!?  I was very disappointed....all this pain and I'm a 4?!  And breech?!  The mid-wife finally came in, did an ultrasound and checked me out herself and proclaimed, nope, that's at least a 6, 90% effaced and head down low...you aren't going to last long!  And, blessedly, Drew chimed in as I was breathing through the overlapping contractions "I think she's going to want an epidural"...the most brilliant words he has ever uttered. They moved us to our room and the anesthesiologist was there waiting for us.  10 minutes later I was in heaven...no more pain!!  They checked me again and I was already a 9.  Wait, what?!  Not too long after that I was pushing and in less than a half hour Jackson Drew Miller was born at 11:31am.  He was 9 pounds 5 ounces and 20.5 inches long.  We were visited in the hospital that evening by Grammie, Papa, Big Brother Crosby, Uncle Andy, Aunt Hilary, Uncle Greg, Aunt Amanda, Isaiah and Brielle.  Crosby was very shy at first and just wanted to be held by Drew or I, but got curious about the baby all wrapped up before long.

 

 It's hard to believe it's already been a week since we came home - we are enjoying our time all home together and starting to find a bit of rhythm to our days.  Oh course that will all change again once Drew goes back to work next week!  Crosby and Daddy have been the best of buddies this past week while I've needed to tend more to Jackson...so sweet to watch all my boys!