Hi All--well I dropped of the face of the earth because my water broke at work on March 16 (I was due April 1) so I went to the doctor's office and was sent straight to the hospital. Eric met me there and was a calm quiet presence throughout the entire thing. My sister-in-law, a labor and delivery nurse, was there, too, and was great help in making decisions about pain medication, etc. She also could adjust the monitor for me, change chucks and help me to the bathroom while hooked up to the IV. Anyway-- They started Pitocin at 4 pm and I didn't feel any pain until about 1 am, even though there were contractions on the monitor. It started really hurting at about 4 or 5, when I asked for "something" but did not want an epidural. I really did not want to have one at all. So the nurse gave me Stadol which helped for about 1/2 hour and when I asked for more they said I had to wait 2 more hours! Well! I promptly asked for an epidural and the doctor said fine, but the anesthesiologist had three ladies ahead of me. 20 minutes later (20 minutes of really feeling weird and freaky because of the pain), I was complete and started pushing. I pushed for 2 hours! At the end of this, my doctor asked for medication to numb me and I said "Oh I don't want you to cut me!" She said "I think you really want this baby out now," and I said "You're right!" So I got the episiotomy (which I had been dead set against) and William Henry was out after 2 more pushes. He was born at 7:22am on March 17, weighed 7 lb 7 oz, and was 20 inches long. I was really happy with how the birth went, regardless of all my preconceived notions. I planned to do a lot of walking, use different positions during pushing, etc, and ended up confined to the bed because of my blood pressure!

Sorry this is so long! Will is now 12 lb 4 oz and doing beautifully. He has a full head of black hair, and has learned to smile and coo. We had a very hard time with breastfeeding and after lots of tears and soul-searching, he now drinks Enfamil.

Now a question: where do I belong?? In the March playgroup, or here with all of you, that I went through pregnancy with?

Congrats to everybody on your beautiful babies. Claire, mom of Will.