Bucket is ONE!!

Bucket is one! I can't believe my baby is a year old. We had his big birthday party yesterday, combined with Kidney Boy's third birthday. My Bucket is such a little sweetie. I feel like it couldn't possibly have been a whole year ago that he popped his little head out before the doctor even got to the bed!

I remember that all day Friday I had contractions. Friday night, I thought about going to the hospital but my mom had offered to babysit so we went to Spaghettini for dinner instead! We even almost went from there to the hospital, but went home to see what would happen. I managed to sleep but every time I woke up to go to the bathroom, I felt the contractions still there!

Saturday morning, I called my mom. She heard me huffing and puffing through contractions and said she really thought this was it and that I should go to the hospital. I told her I'd take a shower and we should just go ahead and go to lunch and if it got much worse, we'd leave her with the kids and go. LOL After lunch, I decided to try to make it to the mall first. Chicken-hair needed new shoes for school. When we got to the mall, I went to the bathroom and saw a bit more blood than what I had been having the last few days. So I called the on-call doc and he said to go ahead in and get checked out. I hung up and said, "Let's just go to JC Penney first. They might have those Z-Strap Skechers that he wants!" We checked and they didn't have them so we left the mall, put the 3 kids in my mom's car, and went to the hospital.

Of course, as soon as we got there, the contractions slowed way down. For the next 5 hours, they were fewer and further between. But when I was checked again, I had dilated another centimeter, to six! So stuff WAS happening. And he had moved down to -1 station. So the doctor broke my water, and the next contraction had me hollering for the epidural already! I guess it was because he moved down so quickly... I have never gone from being OK to needing an epidural that fast LOL About 30 minutes after getting numb, I started feeling pressure. The doctor checked me and I was ready! He told the nurse to let me "labor down" for about 20-30 minutes, until my own nurse got back. Basically that just means you let the baby move down into position before you push, if you can manage it.

I was feeling a lot of pressure so after about 10 minutes, the nurses that were in with me told me to go ahead and give a few pushes to see what was happening. A couple of pushes and she said, "OK! Stop for a minute. I think I better get the doctor." She left the room and suddenly, I felt his head moving. I was watching in the mirror and said, "I think his head is going to come out RIGHT NOW!" The nurse came back in the door saying, "It's OK! Go ahead!" and as she came towards me, the other nurse on the other side of the room came towards me, and his head just POPPED right out LOL The doctor came running into the room and I said, "I can't stop him! He is coming!" and he said, "It's OK! You're fine!" and as he came up and grabbed his head, his body came out in one more pop! Just like that, he was on the bed in front of me. The doctor was still getting his gown and mask on. The bed wasn't broken down. There was no catching him. He just plopped out in front of me LOL They suctioned his mouth and nose, Gama cut the cord, and they put him right on my chest. It was heavenly.

And now he is a whole year old... unbelievable how fast it all goes!