Our Halloween Treat

Heeeeere's Sammy!

So...we had a baby. And it's amazing. He's amazing. It really is such a miracle, especially once you've lived it.

His name is Sam. Or Sammy. Sometimes Sammy Mac. Officially it's Samuel Michael McCartney Wiser.

A quick rundown of The Birth Story for those who are interested, then I'll post some a pics. It's taken me a while to go through the 800 pictures taken of Sam his first 3 days. And no, I'm not exaggerating.

My water broke around 6:45 Tuesday evening, but contractions were very slow and irregular. I called Wiser and he cancelled his last lesson for the evening and headed home. I did instruct him to stop for cupcakes from Cuppies & Joe on his way home - a little gift for our nurses or whoever else would be taking care of us (I'm not above bribery). When Wiser got home, we picked up dinner from Othellos (our favorite Italian restaurant). I figured a little carb loading couldn't hurt for the quickly-approaching marathon of labor. After dinner, we called Chris (our doula) to let her know things were happening and then went to bed, wanting to rest as much as possible before things really got going. About 2:30am (Wednesday morning) my contractions were becoming stronger and I was getting more restless so Wiser decided to start timing contractions and we discovered they were only 2.5 - 3 minutes apart (we were supposed to head to the hospital when they were 4 or 5 minutes apart, oops). So we quickly gathered up our bags, called Doula Chris to meet us at the hospital and headed down the turnpike.

When we arrived at the hospital, Wiser dropped me off at the emergency room (the only part of the hospital that's open at 4 in the morning) and we started the check in process - I guess I should have been screaming and hollering instead of sitting quietly in the wheelchair, because everyone seemed dubious that I was really in labor. When the triage nurse finally checked me, I was fully effaced and dilated 6 cm and the admissions process seemed to speed up at that point.

We were moved to a delivery room around 5:30 and poor Wiser had to head back to the car to get our bags - he called all the family to let them know we were at the hospital while running that errand. Things progressed quickly and smoothly; at 7am, the Dr told me it was time to start laboring down and at 7:54am, Sam made his appearance with daddy there to help catch him. Sam's stats were: 19 inches long, 6 lbs 10 oz and the most beautiful baby boy we'd ever seen ;)

The entire experience was just what we had hoped and prayed for: I was able to deliver naturally, my Dr was so gentle and caring (crazy, right?), the nurses were all attentive and helpful, our doula was an amazing support for both Chris & I, and Wiser was so protective and tender, already such a great daddy.

And that's the story of how we became a family of 3.