Baby Tristan is here!

Tristan Nicolas Sanchez was born on Wednesday, March 23, 2011 at 4:34pm after 21 1/2 hours of labor (from the time we got to the hospital...who knows how long I was in labor before that...I didn't even know!) .  He weighed in at 7 lbs. 1.6 oz. and 21 inches long (he's really long and skinny!). 
          I was scheduled to go in to the hospital on Tuesday night at 8 pm to be induced the next morning.  When we showed up at 8pm we had to wait in the ER to check in since the regular admissions desk is closed after 6.  It took an hour for them to call my name since there were a lot of people in the ER that night.  With the fires burning in the mountains and all of the smoke in the air a lot of people were having trouble breathing.  So at 9pm we finally got up to the 3rd floor of Rose Medical Center and got settled into the L&D room.  Our nurse Steffanee hooked me up to the fetal monitor and the contraction monitor and said "did you know that you're having regular contractions?"  I had no idea!!! I'd been feeling some tightness in my stomach for a few hours, but it sort of felt like the beginnings of a gall bladder episode so I just ignored it for most of the afternoon.  I guess that's what those first contractions feel like!  I was so excited because the fact that I was having 5-1-1 contractions meant that we would have been at the hospital that night to deliver the baby anyways!  I am so glad that he was ready to come out all on his own since I'd been praying that he would for several weeks!  I was still only dilated to 3 cm so they gave me Cervidil to open and efface my cervix some more.   I could definitely feel the contractions at about 10pm but they didn't hurt so I felt really good.  Nick and I watched a couple of movies, talked and napped until 8 am. 
          Dr. Zarlengo came in at 8 to break my water and after that things started getting pretty intense.  They were going to put me on Pitocin at 9, but I asked if I could walk around for a bit before just to see how things progressed on their own. So until 9 Nick and I walked through the halls and every time I had a contraction I'd hold onto him and rock my hips side to side until the pain stopped.  At 9 when Steffanee checked me again I was only 4 cm. dilated but 100% effaced.  Then I got in bed and they turned on the Pitocin.  I did okay for a little while but then the contractions started getting really really intense and because I was hooked up to Pitocin, I had to stay in bed.  All of my natural childbirth class prep went out the window.  I couldn't stand up and have Nick hold me while I rocked or get on my hands and knees, or use the birthing ball or sit in the jaccuzzi tub (which I was pretty excited about). I just had to sit in the bed and try to breathe through the contractions. 
          Well, I only could handle that for so long. At 11am I couldn't handle my contractions and was starting to black out, so Nick and I decided it was time to ask for an epidural.  I now know what labor feels like, but the epidural helped SO much.  I felt like a bit of a baby asking for an epidural when my plan was to go all natural, but I'm really glad that I got it because sitting in bed through contractions is not fun.  The rest of labor went really well. At 1:30 I was fully dilated and ready to push.  By that time we had a new nurse, Jessica who had me do 5 practice pushes.  At the 4th push she went and got another nurse and I pushed one last time.They both agreed that they should call the doctor because his head was visible on the last 2 pushes.  Dr. Zarlengo was at another hospital delivering 2 other babies, so we waited an hour or so for him to arrive. I felt the urge to push but it didn't hurt, it just felt like pressure, so it wasn't too hard to stop myself from pushing.  Nick and Morgan and my mom and I all played Monopoly Deal to keep my mind off of the pressure and the strong contractions, which I could feel but didn't hurt.   Then at around 4:15 pm Dr. Zarlengo walked in.  He asked me to push through one contraction and then said that the next push I would have the baby!  I ended up needing an episiotomy, so he made me stop half way through the push and then I gave one last little push and Tristan was born!  
       He was pretty blue so I only got to hold him for a few moments before they took him to the corner of the room and gave him oxygen.  I was so happy that tears were streaming down my face.  I was being stitched up, so Nick went over and watched as they took his vitals and gave him his shots.   When he wasn't so blue anymore and he'd been cleaned up a bit the nurses brought him back to me.  We hadn't picked a name yet so Nick asked me what my first impression was and I decided I needed to think for a few minutes.  But then when I asked Nick what his first impression was he said "Tristan".  It had been his least favorite name on our list and my favorite so it was a surprise to me (a nice surprise though).  I love him sooooo much!!!!

I'll post pictures later :)

36 weeks and 2 more to go!

Yesterday I had my doctor's appointment and it looks like I will be induced a bit early.  Nick and I will go to the hospital on the night of the 22nd and they will start inducing labor then.  Exciting! And a bit nerve-racking.  Just two more weeks until he's here!  We still don't have anything set up in the baby's room, but it is all painted and it looks beautiful! The bassinet is in our room and our dresser is big enough to become our changing table for a while.

This is all just so surreal.  I can't believe how much our life is about to change.  It's going to be a great change, but I'm getting nervous about whether or not I'll be a good mom, how I'll do those first few weeks and how labor will go.  I guess those are all normal concerns. 

I hope we will make some kind of decision on a baby name too... So far we have Tristan, Gabriel, Azrael (Nick's choice, not mine) Xzander ( I like Xander, but Nick likes to spell it this way), Declan (not my fav.).  I think we still need to add to this list because so far I'm not a fan of most of them.  Anyways, I just hope that the right name will magically come to us.