Finally!

We finally had our baby! 9 months always seems to DRAG on and on when you are pregnant!
Oakland David Gifford was born 10/10/08 at 8:05 p.m. He was 7 pounds 10 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long. This was much later than we anticipated, but what can ya do?

We were supposed to go to the hospital at 6:30 in the morning on Friday, to be induced. However, they called at 5:30 and said don't come in yet, we will call you (I guess they were swamped). So we waited. Finally, they called and said to come in around 10:30. When we got there we had to do all the paper work and we didn't get "settled" until about noon. I was dialated to a 4. They started me on the pitosin and the waiting started.

I was anticipating it to go really quick, being my 4th baby and all. With Erin and Ivy I was only in labor for about 4-5 hours. So around 4:00 I was VERY disappointed to find out I was only at a 5! The nurse tried to make me see the positive by telling me "at least you aren't going backwards!" Is that even possible?

The doctor came in several times, also disappointed by the late start and how long it was taking. His son was playing in an important football game at 7:00 that he was supposed to be cooking hotdogs for.

So Dave and I kept ourselves busy by catching up on Gray's Anatomy. All of a sudden (while we were watching) A nurse came running in all upset, started looking at the monitors, rolling me from side to side. I guess the babies heart rate had dropped suddenly. It went from 135 to about 60. They stopped the pitosin and had the doctor come in. He said he really didn't want to do a c-section with my last baby but would if the babies heart rate continued to do that. They kept me off the pitosin for about an hour, which stopped the contractions almost completely, but the baby was doing much better. They decided the baby was doing well enough again, so they started the pitosin back up.

Around 7:30 they decided it was FINALLY time. However there were so many woman having babies that when my doctor went to find some help... no one was around! So he did all the grunt work himself! He told me we would do it on our own if we had to. When we were just about ready to push, the nurses finally came in. I pushed about 4 or 5 times and the babies heart beat plummeted again. The doctor said we needed to get the baby out NOW. So he did an episiotomy (that he wasn't going to do with it being the 4th baby and all) and he got the vacuum. 3 or 4 pushes later Oakland was born. He gave us quite a scare but once he was out he did really well, thank goodness, and the doctor made it in time for 1/2 time! Hopefully all of that wasn't more than you wanted to know :)

Here are a whole bunch of pictures, and I am sure they won't be the last!

This one was taken right after he was born. I saved you from the REAL YUCKY ones! Your welcome!

Here I am (looking my finest!) holding him for the second time. (The first time was right after he was born while Dave was cutting the cord.)

Proud sister Erin. Oakland was not more than 30 minutes old here so he still had goopy eyes and crusty hair.

Finally a brother for Austin! He is very excited to have a brother to share a room with. He wants to know when we are going shopping for bunk beds!

Ivy and Oakland. If I had a nickel for every time Ivy told me "how cute" Oakland was, I'd be pretty wealthy!

Oakland looking VERY bored. I guess he is not impressed with this outside world.
Oakland still looking bored... only now with red eyes!
More Oakland.
Here we are, finally at home, Oakland is getting his first sponge bath. He did not like it, but I guess you can see that!

We are all doing well and happy to be home. Now if the kids would quit fighting over who gets to hold him next!