BENJAMIN EDWARD LEWICKI

Hello world. We're finally home! Well, I guess I should start back at the beginning...Its kind of a long story, but I show up at the end, so Mom thinks it's worth it.

Monday, Mom was determined to walk until I arrived. No one thought she could seriously "walk me out" , but she and her friend Rebekah walked some pretty big hills, and went a lil faster than mom usually walks. Little did they know, I was dropping down in place for my big arrival soon, and life went on as usual for a Monday. Dad was super late at the office with college students, and Mom watched Dancing with the stars and took a really long bath. She kept thinking she should clean the bathroom floors, but went to sleep at 11 without doing a thing. Daddy got home between 1 and 2 and everybody slept good for a couple hours...Then things got exciting.

We're a little fuzzy on the exact times, but around 4AMish, Mom noticed that she had been out of bed so many times to go to the bathroom since 3 that she couldn't count them. So she started timing them and by 4:45ish she woke up Dad to let him know that her contractions were 3-11 minutes apart, and averaged 6ish min apart...After announcing this, Daddy started snoring, so Mommy tried to sleep too.

She woke up 4 minutes later, and kept waking up 3-9 minutes consistently until 5:30. Then she called first nurse. Mommy didn't want to take any trips to the hospital just for them to tell her to go back home and wait, so she was VERY hesitant to say she was in labor. The nurse on the phone said that unless they were all 3-7 minutes apart, they were probably unimportant, so just to try to go back to sleep. Mom tried...but then the next half hour the contractions were not only close, but they hurt her pretty bad. She woke up Daddy again and told him that she wanted to start packing and kinda wanted to go to the hospital. She was scared to actually say she was in labor, but her contractions hurt so bad she just wanted to be by a dr. Daddy was SOOOO tired from a late night working, and around 5:45 it registered that it could be a special morning and he needed to get his game face on. So he took a shower, and they packed some stuff and by 6:50 they were at the hospital.

The details of where to go and what to do were a little fuzzy in the excitement of the moment, so it took a couple tries to get the right floor. We got there and they seemed to question if Mom was actually in labor, and they stuck us in a super tiny room with a small bed (without pillows) and a horrible flickering light that made the room very erie. The nurse was kinda crabby and momma started hurting enough to cry a little bit. She was dialated to a 3 and definately in labor. People started moving a lot faster and that was exciting.

The rest of the time line is fuzzy, but mid-morning mommy was dialated to a 5 and realized that the pain she was experiencing could be prevented. Her plan was to go drugless as long as she could, but to be open minded to the idea of getting help. She knew if it only lasted another hour or two she could do it, but there was also the possibility that things could go A LOT longer. After realizing this, and going through another contraction, she called for the epidural. She wanted the nurses to decide for her weather to get the epidural or not, but they wouldn't...Dad didn't like to see her in pain, so they decided that they would just try it. That was a good decision. She dialated from a 5 to a 7 in just a few minutes. Then she took a 45 minute nap.

They woke her up after her hard sleep. (she snored pretty loud) After a little bit there was her main nurse and two students in the room with us. Daddy was being such a good help and it made things pretty easy for mom. The next time they checked they said it was game time, and the nurse and daddy helped mom push through contractions. It was hard to push without feeling what was going on, but Daddy helped SO much and after about 8 pushes in an hour, and a great dr (Dr Beer), they got me out! It was AWESOME. Daddy saw I was a boy first, and got to cut my cord. Mommy cried a little, and everybody agreed I was pretty handsome.

There are a lot more details, but I'm pretty hungry so we'll have to wait and tell you our stories later. The main point is IM HERE!