Mason was born at 2:02 am on December 10th, 2011. He weighed 8 lbs 3 oz and was 20 inches long. Except for a lot of grunting, he's been a happy baby. He eats well, and he's not very fussy. The only issue he has to deal with is an obstructed tear duct in his right eye, but that should clear up on its own in the first year. He looks a lot like Chase, but much chubbier :)
Now for the birth story:
It's too bad that my doctor told me that I'd probably deliver during my 37th week, since Mason didn't actually come until the 39th week. That makes for a very long two weeks :) You can probably tell here in my last pregnancy picture that I'm not too happy about still being pregnant. This was 6 days before Mason was born--at 38 weeks:
The friday night after the doctor told me I would probably deliver within the week (December 2nd), I went into labor-but it turned out to be 8 hours of false labor. My mom was scheduled to fly in on Sunday the 4th and leave on Saturday the 10th, so we were really planning on the baby coming that weekend.
Alas, it was not to be. It wasn't until my mom had been here 5 days and changed her flight to leave on Wednesday the 14th that Mason decided to make his appearance. It was Friday night (the 9th) at about 8:30pm and we were watching Super 8 (dumb movie, I thought...) that I started having real, and regular, contractions. They quickly became 5 mins apart and we decided to head to the hospital at 9 pm. We got there at 9:50 but they didn't get me up to a room for about another half hour. Because my doctor wasn't the one on call I had to deliver at the same hospital where I delivered Chase (which I didn't want to do--I didn't have a good experience with the nurses there, and it's an older, less-updated hospital). When they finally checked me in to a room, the nurse checked me and I was dilated to a 7 already. She was surprised and decided to get another nurse to double check. When the other nurse came in a minute later, I was dilated to a 9! They immediately started rushing around thinking I'd deliver really soon, and I was excited to think that the labor would soon be over and Mason would be here!
Again, it was not to be. I was 9 cm dilated with pretty intense contractions--and no epidural!---for 4 more hours!! The nurse said I sounded like a train whistle whenever I breathed out. That's what happens when you never take a birthing class and you make up your own way of breathing :) The doctor on call didn't want to come in until I was 10 cm, so the nurse told me to let her know when I start feeling different pressure "down there". Buddy was doing great at helping me get through contractions, but the hours were getting long and I was getting desperate and emotional. I kept telling the nurse to come in and check me because I thought I'd felt a different sort of pressure, but it was never anything, and she would leave soon after. I finally asked if the nurse could stay to help me get through the contractions--I felt like I needed more people distracting me than Buddy even though he was doing all he could. Then I was begging her to try and stretch me to 10 cm. The first time didn't work, but she tried again later and had me push to get to a 10--and it worked! Immediately all heck broke loose: My water broke and he was coming! Two more pushes and he was out! I'm pretty sure I was screaming at this time. I never knew I could be so loud. The nurse pretty much delivered the baby, since it all went so fast. The resident on the floor barely ran into the room in time, and the doctor never even made it to the hospital!
It was so relieving to see Mason for the first time. To know it was over and he was healthy and perfect...and big! Chase was only 5 lbs 12 oz, so when I saw Mason he looked like a giant baby. He was taken to the well baby nursery after I nursed him for the first time, and he joined us soon after in the recovery room. We're so glad to have this little (big) guy in our lives! It's already proven to be a lot of work to have these two boys close together, but it will get easier, and I'm sure it will be awesome to have them close in age when they're older..as long as Mason's not beating up on Chase by then :)
