HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Meet our new addition!

Our little peanut (AJ which stands for Alan Jr.) finally made his way into our family on October 4th, 2010 at 5:45pm. He weighed 8lbs 11oz. and almost 22 inches long.

I had my first contraction on Saturday night (the 2nd) and they continued every 2 hours through out the night. At 5am I just couldn't sleep anymore out of pure excitement knowing my little guy was coming soon. So I got up and spent 3 hours cleaning, doing laundry, vacuuming, etc... Just wanting everything to be perfect. At 10 am as we were watching conference my water broke BUT I wasn't sure if was my water so I decided to wait for my contractions to speed up. Through out the whole day, they were all over the place. I would have two about ten minutes apart and then I'd go one or two hours before feeling another one. My sister kept telling me to go in but I really didn't think it was time. At 7pm she called and lectured me, telling me that since my water broke I had to go in because it could cause infection. That I didn't know! So we got ready and headed to the hospital.

Leaving for the hospital. Wow, I didn't realize how big I was!

They checked me in at 8pm and did tests on me to see if in fact my water did break. No one could tell me if my water actually broke. They put my tests under a microscope and if your water has broken it will look like one big fern. Well mine was a string a ferns. Something they'd only seen once before. They decided to keep me and just induce me because they weren't sure. I was only dilated to a 1 and 50% efaced so they spent 12 hours thinning my cervix. My contractions were getting so intense I couldn't sleep all night. Alan laid on the couch and talked me through every contraction by rubbing my feet and saying, "just breath. It's OK. Just breath." Then he'd try to go back to sleep. I of course, couldn't sleep at all! I was too excited and in too much pain to sleep. My sister came at about midnight and stayed till 4am just to be with me. She's always been there for me. By 9:30 am I couldn't take the pain anymore. I'd been crying through all my contractions and they were almost on top of each other giving me no time to relax between contractions. I was done! I got my epidural and that was the best thing ever! I could finally relax and sleep. At 10am they started me on pitocin to induce labor. I was able to take a 2 hour nap because I was so relaxed. 2 of my sisters came that morning and hung out with Alan as I slept. They came to video tape the birth and take pictures and of course for support. By 3pm I was dilated to a ten and at 4:45pm the nurse wanted me to start practicing pushing. As soon as I started to push she realized how close I was so she hurried and called the doctor. I pushed for an hour. WOW! I'm so glad I worked out during my pregnancy because that was quite difficult to do. Especially at the end when my contractions were on top of each other and I didn't have time to recover before I had to push again. I watched the whole thing in a mirror and it was so amazing to watch. At 5:45 AJ's heart rate dropped too low so the doctor had to cut me to get him out. When he pulled him out little AJ looked terrified and started to cry. The best moment of my life was when they laid him on my chest. He was shaking and grabbed on to my hair with both his hands. I started to talk to him and as soon as realized it was me, he let go of my hair, stopped crying and started sucking on my neck. It just melted my heart. I get emotional just thinking about that moment.

He's only been in my life for less than 2 weeks and I can't imagine my life with out him. I went to the store today and left him home and it made me so anxious. I hate being away from him and can't get enough of him. He's such a little snuggler. He loves to snuggle and suck on a pacifier or my finger. He snorts sometimes. I heard him snort for the first time as they were laying him on my chest right when he was born. He snorts when he cries or when he's hungry and getting ready to feed. He makes the funniest facial expressions. He cracks me up! Awe, I love my little boy! It's been an amazing 12 days and I can't wait to see him grow but also don't want him to grow at all. He's such a good baby and I'm so in love with him!

We've been spending our days figuring each other out, bonding, sleeping and feeding. He's picked up breast feeding so well but just can't stay awake for it so feedings take about an hour. He doesn't sleep much during the day and likes to be held most the time BUT he sleeps like a champ at night so I can't complain. We are trying to work on a schedule and that has been more difficult than I thought because I feel like all I do is feed him (he's ALWAYS HUNGRY eating every 2hrs) and hold him. We'll figure it out!

Here are a bunch of random pictures I've been taking with my cell phone:

He loves snuggling with his dad