Welcome Luke Alexander

Luke Alexander was born on Monday, March 24th at 2:55 pm. He weighed 7lbs 3 ounces and was 20 1/2 inches long.

What these pictures don't show is that we actually arrived at the hospital around 2:40 pm! Maybe 2:45, I don't think either of us took the time to check and the next 10-15 minutes were utter chaos.

I will backup a bit. I thought I could be in labor as I dressed for work that morning. I took Hunter to daycare and decided to stay at home in the morning to make sure that I was in labor. Around 9:30 I decided I was and called my mom to let her know I thought she should plan to get to our house in the early afternoon. At the time I didn't think I needed to be more specific so we didn't establish a set time. That would come back to haunt me!

Kerry went to a meeting that started at 11am and I knew he would have his phone off during that time. He told me the meeting wouldn't last that long and I told him not to worry, I was in labor with Hunter for many hours before it got to a point where the contractions were every 5 minutes for an hour. By noon the contractions were really painful and 5 minutes apart. I called to check on Kerry, the phone was still off, and called my mom to see where she was. I got not answer and her cell phone wasn't on. Kerry called me around 12:30 I told him yes, pick Hunter up and hurry home. Shortly after my mom called and I told her to hurry as well. I called the doctor and waited for a call back.

Kerry got home and we tried to get Hunter down for a nap. He was a bit difficult and I was feeling enough pain to send him up to bed with an entire bag of cheetos (whatever worked.) We left for the hospital around 2:10. Kerry commented that these contractions sounded stronger than with Hunter. I agreed. I think about 15 minutes into the ride my water broke. With each subsequent contraction I started to push. This was not a good sign. Kerry told me to stop. Easier said than done.

We got to the hospital and instead of him dropping me off like we planned I told him I needed his help. I got out of the car and couldn't walk and dropped to the ground. Hospital staff saw me and rushed out with a wheel chair. They rushed me up to triage, and I remember saying "I want an epidural." One of the women with us said "Oh honey I wanted one with my second as well." And laughed.

5-10 minutes later Luke was born in triage after about 3-4 pushes. Amazing.