Peter's Grand Entrance

A little story about the newest addition to our family via timeline:

Wednesday, July 18

- All day long I was feeling very mild and inconsistent contractions.  It's more than I'd been feeling, so I was hopeful that this might be the day!

- 8:00 pm - Matt went with the Young Men and Young Women on a hike, and I called to tell him that if there was anyone who needed to come back early, he should volunteer to go back with them rather than stay the whole time.

-10:00 pm - Still feeling contractions but I was wanting them to get going, so we decided to go for a walk.  While we were out, the contractions were stronger but still far apart.  I still thought things might pick up, so I got ready for bed to get a little rest in case we were going to be up all night.

-11:00 pm - Contractions 10 minutes apart.

Thursday, July 19

-12:00 am - Contractions 7 minutes apart.

-12:30 am - Contractions 3 minutes apart.  Let's go to the hospital!  We said goodbye to my mom and got in the car.  On the way there, I felt every bump in the road, and labor went into fast-forward-crazy-strong-contraction mode.  I couldn't tell where one ended and the next began.

-1:00 am - Reached the hospital and walked inside.

-1:10 am - Checked in and we were led to our room.  The on-call doctor was paged when they discovered I was dilated to 10 cm, but he wasn't answering.  The nurses were getting the room and equipment ready.  I just barely got myself on the bed when I needed to push.  The nurses said to try and not push (yeah right).  Five seconds later, I said, "I can't NOT push.  Here he comes!"

-1:23 am - Peter Grant Orton came into the world, slip n' slide style, with no one to catch him except the hospital bed.  The nurses looked at each other for a couple of seconds, a little bewildered that there was a baby there.  The doctor finally showed up to help finish up.  I think I should get a discount for delivering my own baby!

Peter Grant Orton

8 pounds 15 ounces

21 1/4" long

  

The rest is blissful brand-new-baby history.  My dear friend Carrie came to visit and brought her camera along.  I'm ever thankful to her for capturing the most tender images of little Peter just hours after being born.

My personal favorite.  I get weepy when I look at it, remembering cuddling my baby boy in a few moments of a quiet afternoon.

12 of 12 - July

1 - No that's not the curve of the earth.  That's my 9-month pregnant belly...hopefully it'll be gone in a week!  (Posting this today on the 18th still no baby at 39 3/7 weeks along.  We're getting anxious!)

2 - Three more days until Grandma gets here - yay!

3 - My best friend these days.  I take this little fan wherever I go in the house to keep cool.

4 - I took a little rest and after a while started to hear Lydia gently playing the piano singing "I Am a Child of God."  What a nice way to wake up!

5 - The expiration date on the milk is my due date.  I'm on the home stretch!

6 - So that in February I can look back and know that sunny, cloudless days do exist in Washington.

7 - Overrun by lettuce!  Time for salads every night, and that's OK with us!

8 - Eating dinner in our new favorite place...the patio!

9 - Lydia likes to make sure she looks good, even if it's at Seth's t-ball game.  She loves getting Mom's lip gloss out of my purse.

10 - After getting prettied up, Lydia went to help Dad coach at 3rd base.  That lasted about 2 minutes before she was off to play at the playground.

11 - My favorite photo of Seth at t-ball.  Look at his cute, chubby, determined face.  Love that little boy!

12 - We went for a drive down by the lake after the game, and we were treated with a glorious sunset.  I so love living here.