Baby Henry

He's here!  After 41 weeks of grueling pregnancy, Baby Henry is finally on the outside of my body.  What a relief.  And he's so cute!

RIGHT???!
Worth it.

Here's Henry's birth story:

As usual, I had to be induced.  The long version of this story is grueling and boring; so I'll just skip to when we got to the hospital.

The practice I went to here in Buckhannon was more of a natural/homeopathic type place.  Most of the babies are delivered by midwives with the rare exception of c-sections handled by the couple of OBs who work there.  Even though I ended up with the OB on-call, she used a lot of natural methods.  I liked them better!

Matt and I got there at 8am.  The dr came in and checked me (3cm) and went ahead and broke my water.  Then I was given instructions to walk around the hospital for an hour and get on the birthing ball for an hour.  It was nice not to be hooked up to the bed or any machines, but breaking my water did not put me into labor.  At 1:00pm, they decided to go ahead and give me 1/2 of a pill intended for stomach ulcers (apparently, it has a track record for putting
people in to labor).  After I took my pill, I had another hour of walking and another hour on the birthing ball.  By this time, I was in active labor and getting in to a little of pain, as well.  I hung out for a couple more hours timing my contractions, etc.  At 5pm the doctor checked me again (for only the 2nd time that day).  I was a little discouraged to find out that I was only at 5cm.  My contractions were every 2.5 minutes by this time, so they didn't see the need to give me any pitocin.  I had decided to have a wait and see attitude about the epidural, which I continued to put off.

By 7pm, I was in a good deal of pain.  I decided to ask the doctor to check me.  If I was at 7cm or less, I would go for the epidural.  If I was at an 8 or more, I would tough it out.  I was at 8cm.  I figured I had 1/2 hour or so before I would be ready to push.  I was in  A LOT of pain, but I guessed it would be short lived.  2 hours later... I was still waiting for progress and I was DYING!  It was like you see in the movies-- screaming, crying, begging.  I can't believe I never swore!  At 9pm, she checked me and I was at a 9.  By this time I honestly thought I would not make it through the pain of the actual delivery.  At 9:15, I told Matt to go tell the doctor that she had do so SOMETHING, ANYTHING!  She called the anesthesiologist and ordered a saddle block (shot in your back that lasts an hour).  Before the saddle block kicked in, I felt like I had to push.  It was 9:30pm.  I had been in labor ALL DAY.

7 pushes later, Matt Malone delivered Henry Flake Malone at a whopping 9lbs 9oz and 21 inches long.  He was beautiful and perfect!

I felt so much better!  The saddle block never fully kicked in, but I think it must've taken the edge off atleast.

Oh, we were so exhausted!  It was 10pm by the time we were ready to be moved to our room.  All I wanted was sleep, but they poked and prodded all night long (as usual).  They didn't let us go home until Wednesday morning. (Henry was born on Monday night).

This is the first baby I've ever had without my Mom being able to come for some of it (she's on a mission in Panama) so I was sure to send her a picture or two every day.

Day 1: (Tuesday morning)

Day 2: (Wednesday)

Day 3 (Thursday)

Day 4: (Friday)

Day 5: (Saturday)

And today (Day 6) We got to skype with Grandma and Grandpa!  They love their sweet little grandbaby!

How could they not?