Tristan's Birth 7/6/2007

Tristan Michael Evans
Born July 6, 2007, 2:12pm

Tristan's finally here. Despite my initial reservations, I went ahead with the induction. After receiving a medicine to ripen my cervix I had some contractions, but made only 1.5cm progress from 6:30am to 12:00pm. At that point they broke my water but we still figured it would be a while. I started getting more pain over the next 20 minutes, so because the only anesthesiologist (and my doctor) would be tied up in a 12:30pm C Section, I thought we'd better play it safe than sorry and get the epidural. About an hour later I started to feel pain and was able to press a button for additional pain relief, but after a short while the pain became so intense we called in the nurse who explained only the anesthesioloist could provide additional pain relief....when she became available. While the nurse was in the room my pain became so intense I was in tears and couldn't catch my breath during the contractions. She checked, and I was now 10cm and Tristan was ready to join the world. She called for reinforcements but since everyone was in the C-section things were a bit concerning. I asked her if she'd done this by herself before and she said she had, but had no desire to do it again. Fortunately, the doctor was able to finish up and get in to the room. I asked for more pain medicine, but he told me the anesthesiologist couldn't leave the other patient, so I could either hold out for her or give it one good push to get him out. Needless to say desperate times call for desperate measures. Two pushes and he was out. The medical staff was astounded at how quickly I made that last progression (I was told there is an average progression of 1cm per hour and I went 5cm in one hour).

All in all, I don't have too much room for complaints. There was about half an hour of severe pain, but that's it. I have some of the usual post-partum aches and pains as expected.

In the end, the most important thing is that we have a beautiful, healthy baby boy. Babies are amazing. It took me the rest of the day yesterday to realize he was really ours and that we really have 3 kids now!

Amelia wants to hold him all the time, and Emme just points and says "Bay-bay". I think they're both happy to have us back, although the next few days will be rough on everyone. I'm glad Michael's mom and my sister are here to make sure the girls don't feel so left out and lonely.

Well I better get to bed before he wakes up again. Good night!