Of Babies and Things

On Wednesday June 29th, we arrived safe and sound at my parents house, excited to be there but exhausted from the early morning flight. The next day we planned on leaving for a friends wedding and wouldn't return home until 1am Friday night. After that it would be sit back, relax and wait for my sister to give birth. We had 3 weeks until her due date.
 At 1am we were still awake, talking and enjoying time with family when my sister called.
 A very pregnant sister who should be sleeping doesn't call at 1 in the morning unless something is up. And it was. Her water had broke, 3 weeks and 1 day before her due date. The next hour was rushed, packing my camera, laptop, phone and charger, pillows and blankets (in preparation for an all-nighter) and just general butterflies in my stomach knowing that I was going to experience my sister give birth to her first child within 24 hours.
When we arrived, she was checked in and 2 Cm. It would be a while. She was nervous and felt unprepared since it was so early. Since she wanted to go natural with no pain medication, my Mom talked to her about breathing techniques and how labor would most likely go.

We sat and talked until she was finally allowed to stand up and then we started walking the halls. That hurried things right along, but the beginning stages or labor are still pretty slow and uneventful.

 We decided to rest for a while until things picked up a little, but she couldn't sleep because of contractions every 10 minutes or so. We slept in the waiting room for a while and when I woke up and checked on her, active labor had begun.

 Over the next several hours, she progressed very well but when it came time to push had some problems. The baby was stuck against her pelvic bone and every time she pushed the pain was excruciating. It was a very unnatural feeling for her to do so because of that awful pain. After about 2 hours of pushing and getting no where, (we couldn't even see the head) Greg sent a prayer chain out and I called my dad to pray. 

 Within minutes the baby slid into position and about a half hour later Michael Joseph arrived, 7lbs, 19.5 inches with a head full of dark hair. There were lots of tears of joy in the room as all the tension from the last few hours was released. Mommy and baby (and daddy :) are doing well and Michael just get's cuter every day!

 I am so proud of Claire and the wonderful job she did through her labor. Even at the end when she kept saying she couldn't do it any more, somehow she focused and made it through! Being there was such an emotional experience for me. That day we had announced my 3rd pregnancy to my family :) and that I night watched my sister give birth. Being so tired from the trip, not sleeping all night, the tension from watching my best friend go through a hard labor and pregnancy hormones made a pretty rough trip for me as we left the hospital to drive to the wedding. I cried most of the way, slept a little bit and then felt much better.

On the 4th of July, we all got together and went outside for a few pictures. They will be on my photography blog later but for now I just wanted to share a few.

As you can see, Mom is beaming and looks wonderful!

 Very proud of his little boy

We are both Mommie's now! It's hard to imagine, because life seems the same as it always was. We are still best friends and share hearts about everything and nothing can come between us.

Later, I will share the details of pregnancy/baby #3 and how I told Nate and our families. :)