Minneapolis Transplant: Our life changed for the better 2 weeks ago...

That's right, little Coleman Robert Carr was born on Monday, May 21st at 6:39pm. He was a long skinny thing weighing 7 pounds 7 ounces (close to his Mamma's birth weight) and measuring in at 21" long!

Heading to Mother's Day dinner (ie. night before Due Date): Manny's for steak with Adam and Gammy Lulu

A little about his birth story:
Starting about a month before Coleman's due date, I was progressing nicely at my weekly appointments. Was starting to get contractions and dilate. At my 38 week appointment, Dr. Block said she would be shocked if I made it to my due date since everything was moving along so nicely. That's when the little guy decided to take over and let us know who was boss! He decided to make his way into the world at 41 weeks after being forced out (ie. induced!).

On the 21st, I entered the hospital shortly before 8am and was taken immediately to my labor & delivery room. Adam was there with me the entire time and my mom was in the waiting room (yes, the entire time...I told Gammy Lulu that it could be a 24-36 hour process, but she didn't believe me :)

At around 8am, Dr Block came in and broke my waters and the nurse, Katie, started me on a saline drip. Around 8:45 they started me on Pitocin. For those who don't know about Pitocin, it's long been used to induce labor and it is NOT fun. Imagine going from 0 to 60 in a short period of time. That's what it does to your body!

Even though the contractions weren't fun, I was progressing nicely, making it to 5cm by 11am (around 1cm/hour, which is the target). At around 11, I got a text from Sarah Taub, who had her baby Hadley back on February 7th. It was simply a picture of cocktail napkins she happened upon in Florida - they read "Natural Smachural, Take the Drugs!" Right after that, the contractions started to get closer together (back to back) and I quickly caved on going natural.

Epidural = AMAZING!!!!!!!!

I went from a 5 to 10cm in just over 2 hours (thanks to my body being able to relax) and they decided to take me off Pitocin for a while since Coleman's heart rate kept dropping more than they'd like (as did my blood pressure - Adam tells me I dropped into the 70's over 50's!). During that time, they pumped me FULL of saline (leading to some not so fun swelling!), but Coleman relaxed and both of our heart rates returned to where they wanted them.

At around 4:45 the nurse, now Florence since Katie left around 3:30, said it was time to push. Florence was a fantastic birthing coach/nurse! Between Adam's support and Florence's know-how, we were able to get the little guy to where he needed to be for Dr. Block to be able to deliver him! Little did I know that the blood work taken in the morning was in preparation for a c-section since Dr. Block was fairly certain that would be the grand finale, but my dedication, Adam's support and Florence's help got him to a point where he was able to join us (with a little help from a vacuum on his head!).

We stayed in the labor & delivery room until around 9:30pm or so, during which time they continued me on both the pitocin and saline to help my body recover. They took me up to my recovery room, 423, at around 9:30pm and Adam and I settled in after ordering sandwiches from some horrible 24-hour delivery restaurant (hey, neither of us had really eaten since the night before!).

We stayed in the hospital until around noon on Wednesday and made our journey back to the condo to try and figure out life as the 3 of us.