Harveys birthday

was on Easter. I thought the moment would never come. I swore I'd have to be induced....but then at 12:00 I woke with contractions. It's like a bell rang or an alarm went off in my body or something....could ve range earlier that's for sure. At first I thought the alarm was just telling me I forgot to put out the Easter baskets for the girls. So I attended to that first. But then it was unmistakable labor. I couldn't sleep....so I read. I read until 6:00 when it felt like my water broke. i woke up Danny, called my mom and dad, and the girls woke up and immediately found their baskets. On the way to the hospital we passed by a prostitute I think and hit every pot hole and that really hurt. I was sure I was probably totally dilated, ready to push, pretty much done with labor. So I got there and I was only a 5. So we walked around, laughed at the nurses while they tried to blow up the humongous inflatable birthing tub thingy, I took a bath and read a wimpy kid book, bounced on the ball.....tried all my tricks. Still no Harvey. So around 3 o clock I had my midwife check me and I was still only a 7. So I kept at it...I went in my huge inflatable tub and I started to feel like maybe this was going to be a really long night. So I got the epidural. Which turned into a spinal and now I have a killer headache. but anyways.....that was around 5 or 6. I was getting really tired. Harvey wasn't moving down...he was floating up high. I can't really remember what happened for the next three hours. At 9 o clock I was totally dialated but he was still really high and they couldn't get him going south. Luckily the Dr. who delivered Addie and Eva was there and he came to save my midwife who was pretty much out of ideas. He helped me out with the vacuum and around 11:15 Harvey Daniel was born with a huge ball on his head from being sucked out and a knot in his cord. As he was emerging everyone was yelling "HE"S HUGE!!" so instead of me holding him and loving on him...I got to hold him for a second, and I wondered if he could open his eyes enough to see...he had alot of fat on his face. Everyone swept him off to the scale to check this enormous baby's weight and he was 12 lbs 1 ounce!!! I could not believe it. OUCH. He was the biggest baby my dr. had ever delivered. So I (with my sore abused body) got the prize of largest baby. And that prize is extremely sweet. He is a mellow man...I kinda got that feeling during delivery. He had a long pretty torturous labor and he was like perfectly stable, with no meconium, and when they pulled him out after 2 hours of pushing he didn't cry, he just grunted like he was slightly annoyed. So here is the little man who has stolen my heart and Danny said he's not jealous at all because he's in love too. now just to recover from it all....

I decided to add something to this a full 22 months later.  Giving birth to such a beautiful, big boy was truly one of the joys and prides of my life.  I did use hypnobirthing with Harvey and I think it was one of the reasons I was able to feel so calm and relaxed throughout labor.  Recovery was no harder with him then with the girls.  One of the cool things was how he slept.  He slept 20 out of 24 hours a day for like the first three months.  And for the four hours he was awake he was all smiles and sweetness.  He still is a relaxed, healthy, sweet almost 2 year old.  And he is still big but not enormous.  About 30 pounds.  I regretted for a while that I didn't get the totally unmedicated waterbirth I had with Eva,(she was 9 pounds) but have come to peace with it and feel the epidural was what I needed at the time to cope with the long, intense, labor.