Baby Danny!

Daniel Robert Hales

8 lbs 2 oz

Born May 26, 2013 1:24 pm

I was due May 25th, but I have never gone over 39 weeks before, so once the 18th rolled around, I felt like I was overdue.  I did my best to be patient, but I sure did a lot of walking.  :) Starting on Wednesday I was having quite a few contractions, but nothing regular. We almost went in Saturday night, but when they started slowing down again, we decided to try for a night's sleep first. I'm SO grateful for that sleep. When things picked back up Sunday morning we decided it was time to get moving. Michael's co-worker and her husband came over to watch the kids. We sure have some great surrogate grandparents around here. Thanks Debra!

I only felt a few contractions on the 20 minute drive to the hospital and we were both getting worried that they'd send us home. When they hooked me up to the monitors for a few minutes and I felt nothing, I was convinced. The nurse looked at the printout and said, "Oh good, they're coming even closer than 5 minutes apart." Michael and I just looked at each other like, "What?" She checked me and I was almost to a 7! Whew! I guess I don't feel a lot of my contractions. Feel free to hate me.  :)

We checked into our room and they called my midwife, Cathy. She wasn't technically on call, but she came over anyway.  Love her! I feel like I've finally found the right balance for me when it comes to birth. Jessica was born at a huge women's hospital where there were a lot of interventions that I think I would have handled differently now with experience. Chandler was at a super small hospital with an awesome nursing staff. Benjamin was born at a birthing center with a midwife. It was a great experience, but it was also a 45 minute drive with no traffic. We weren't comfortable risking it this time around since I went really fast last time.  We tried another birthing center closer to us, but I just didn't feel comfortable there.  We decided to give the hospital/nurse-midwife thing a try. It feels like the perfect balance to me.

Cathy walked the halls with us. At one point she mentioned that we could break my water in order to speed things up. I knew from experience with Benjamin that once my water breaks things go into hyper-speed and I can no longer claim not to feel many contractions. It gets really painful and I start regretting the whole "natural" thing. I decided to hang onto the slow, less painful, progress for a while longer. Honestly, I was really scared of what I knew was coming. We walked for a while longer and when I was checked again I was to an 8. After Michael and I talked it over, we decided it was probably time to get things going. They broke my water and it didn't take long for things to pick up. After what I think has got to be the most crazy, painful, amazing experience in a women's life, our perfect little Danny was born.

A few hours later, after going into the recovery room, Michael went to get the kiddos. They were so excited! Benjamin would practically scream, "BAY-BEE!" Jessica was a little mommy right from the start. She has trouble sharing Daniel with anyone else. :)

This was Ben's first time holding Danny. It doesn't look it, but he was SO happy and excited about the whole thing. He's a great big brother.

Danny wasn't so sure about his first bath. It was a little colder than he used to. Once he can have a little more water, when his cord falls off, I think he'll be much happier.

We are so glad to have Danny in our family. I have trouble keeping these kids from smothering him. :)