Gone in the Blink of an Eye

Quick, while the little man sleeps! Can you believe it's been nearly THREE WEEKS since I last updated this blog? Well, maybe you can, but I'm having a hard time reconciling the length (19 whole days?!) with the amount of...well, life...that's happened since. Unfortunately, Toby doesn't sleep quite as long as I'd like, so this post won't be able to capture everything we've done, seen, experienced, etc (like I could even do that), but we'll give it a go.

I'll skip the minutiae of our labor experience and just hit the highlights. My water started leaking at 11:05 PM Thursday the 23rd (way to be almost on time, Tobin) and we went to hang out at the OB triage for a while. Feels like I was in the triage area waiting to be admitted longer than the birth took...but they took care of me and it was relatively quiet allowing us to get some rest. Once admitted, the Dr found that I was no further dilated or effaced than I had been since my very first check over two weeks previously. But since my water was broken, Tobin was destined to arrive within 24 hours. I was induced using some sort of medicine (not Pitocin) that was to take up to 12 hours to be effective. Whelp, Toby and I got into gear and were up to 4 cm within 45 minutes. I got my epidural about 30 minutes after that (already to 6 cm) and life got MUCH better. ^_^ J.Paul and I actually got about an hour of rest before my Dr checked again and I was at 9.5 cm and almost feeling ready to push. Tobin screamed into the world - literally, the kid has a good set of lungs - at 10:05 AM (5.5 hours of labor from induction to delivery, praise the Lord). J.Paul followed him while we was cleaned, vaccinated, and weighed, then I got to hold my precious little boy. Here are a few pics from the morning:

We're so thankful for the amazing hospital staff (we highly recommend Banner Good Samaritan, for any Phoenix ladies) and, of course, to our loving God, who gave us a perfect little Tobin and a swift delivery and recovery.

Now, I hear Toby starting to wake up, so I'll post more later. You can still see our photos online at our Picasa website (link here). Thanks for following us!

Love in Christ ~ Valerie