Dean Michael Kardos!

Born on Saturday June 23, 2007 at 6:58pm.

Weight: 7 pounds 4 ounces

Length: 20 1/2 inches

We are all so excited about the arrival of baby Dean. Mom is especially happy that she went into labor on her own Saturday morning and didn't need to be induced on Sunday! Drew is thrilled to be a big brother and gives Dean lots of affectionate kisses and "nice" touches. For those who are interested, I'll share the labor & delivery story below along with an at-home-update.

Labor

Around 2:30am on Saturday I started having some mild contractions. They were about 15 minutes apart, making sleep a challenge, and I lay anxiously awaiting the dawn. I woke Chris up at 5:50 (just as Drew started babbling a bit too) and told him we needed to pack our bags and head out! We were at my mother's house by 7:30am and my contraction seemed to be growing closer together, although the pain was definitely manageable. Chris, Drew and I went for a walk around Bonnet Shores and my contractions grew closer together. We returned to my mom's and sat for a bit...suddenly my contractions eased up a bit and we began to wonder if this was real labor or just braxton hicks/false labor. Still every time I was on my feet they grew in frequency and intensity. At 11am I called the doctor who told me to "Enjoy the day" because if it were real labor my contractions would continue to increase regardless of movement. I decided to lay down while Drew napped - from about 12:15 - 2:15pm - yet still (12 hours after they began) I was having contractions every 8-9 minutes, each lasting about one minute. After resting (who can sleep at a time like this?), Chris and I decided to walk again. Just standing caused me to contract...and when walking my contractions became incredibly painful and quite frequent. By 3pm I had contractions every 2-3 minutes lasting over one minute. We finally went to the hospital.

We arrived at Women & Infants around 4pm and I was nearly in tears with every contraction (Ok, I cried a bit!). I was seen right away and was 90% effaced and 6 cm dialated. I begged for the epidural. They tried to move things along quickly so I could get this beloved pain medicine, and by the time I was in the labor room I was already 9 cm dialated. It took my doctor FOREVER to ok the epidural (apparently he was enjoying the day) so by the time they arrived I was nearly ready to push. I'd had the sensation to push for quite some time and felt no comfort in my deep breathing. The doctor who attempted to administer my epidural was incompetant to say the least. "Is it in the center? Can you feel it? Is it to the left or the right?" I hated to tell her it wasn't centered because I wanted the meds, but she couldn't seem to find the right spot. They kept telling me it would kick in soon enough, but when it didn't she was called back to up the dosage. No luck. In any case, it was time to push...which actually brought some relief. As Dean's head begins to crown I am told to stop pushing while we wait for Dr. NiceDay to arrive. At this point I'm screaming "I need to push!" and within ten minutes of pushing beautiful Dean arrived! (Oh yes, Dr. Slowpoke had arrived.)

We're home!

Before leaving the hospital it was noted that Dean was a bit jaundice. This is common in little ones, but it turns out we have incompatible blood types (I'm O positive and he's B positive) which exasperated the problem of too much billirubin. He received a phototherapy treatment before we left, seemed to be eating well, and we were released. He is now under a "wallaby blanket" which provides the therapy at home. I'm happy to say today his level had dropped (yippee!) so it's improving.

Of course, as with all new babies, we're not getting much sleep. I'm amazed I found time to write this lengthy entry...but it's as much for me (to remember!) as it is to share with everyone. We've been grateful for all the calls & emails, but it's hard to contact everyone individually so I thought I'd share our news with everyone at one time.

Thank you for thinking of us. We can't wait for baby Dean to meet everyone. We're so happy to see our family grow - and to watch our first baby become an amazing big brother!