One week ago our lives changed forever.
Bryson Nash Whittamore was born three weeks early on February 7, 2013, at 6:11 a.m. at Cape Coral Hospital. He weighed 7 lbs, 11 oz and was 19.5 inches long. He is perfect.
I think he may be destined to be a sprinter. I went into labor or started feeling the contractions at around 3 a.m. and woke Scott at 4 a.m. so he could help me time the contractions. We soon realized they were about a minute and a half apart, so I said, "We need to go to the hospital now."
By about 5 a.m., we were ready to go. It took me a while to get dressed because the contractions were coming so fast. I was getting really no break. It was all I could do to make it to the car. When Scott was loading the car, I made it from the bathroom to the office floor where I had to lie down on my side and wait for another contraction to pass.
I was beginning to feel the need to push. He came back in the house, and said I had to get in the car or he was calling the ambulance. So I mustered my strength and made it five more feet to the living room. After the next contraction, I made it to the other bathroom and finally out to the car. I laid down the car seat and panted all the way to the hospital telling Scott that I had to push.
He just kept saying how awesome I was doing and that I definitely should not push. I told him at one point that I never wanted to do this again. The contractions were coming so fast and strong, and I was just trying to focus on breathing and relaxing.
Luckily it was 5 a.m., so there was no traffic. We made it to the hospital at about 5:30 a.m. or so and I managed to get inside and in the elevator before another contraction hit. When we got to the desk, they wanted me to fill out paperwork. I had to leave that for Scott to do since obviously I couldn't focus on anything else. They didn't seem to believe that I was ready to push.
The nurse wanted me to follow her to the triage room. Somehow I managed to make it there without a wheelchair. When she checked me, she confirmed that it was "go time," and called the on-call doctor. My doctor was on vacation, of course. All that stress about switching doctors and he still didn't deliver me.
It took the doctor about 20-30 minutes to arrive, I think, but when she did, there was no messing around. It was time to push!
I think it must have taken about 4 or 5 contractions before I was holding our baby boy on my chest at 6:11 a.m. It is so true when they say there is no greater relief than that.
We were able to go home the next day. And I'm happy to report that I'm on the mend and Bryson is doing really well.
Here's a few from our first photo shoot. I didn't get very far before he woke up hungry. again.
I've got lots of cute props I want to try out, so hopefully I can get him to cooperate this weekend when Scott is there to help.
Today he is one week old. I can't believe it's already been a week.
