Welcome Harrison Michael Dea!!!!

He's finally here...our little Harrison! After being over due 8 days our little guy decided it was time to come into the world and I guess when he made up his mind he didn't waste any time. Friday night brought on some contractions, but like before nothing came of it. All of a sudden at 4AM on Saturday I started getting "real" contractions.  I was so excited and so I started writing down the times and all morning we anticipated heading to the hospital.  We decided to go on a walk to really help get things going. To our surprise it actually it did the opposite...they stopped again. I took a nap to rest up and got pretty depressed thinking that we stalled out again.  Happily enough they started up again about 4 hours later...just in time for the BBQ we were supposed to go at Danny and Min's to welcome the Dobberfuhl family to Glinton. I ended up staying at home because my contractions were getting pretty strong by this time.   I first called in to the hospital around 5:30 and told them they were about 7-8 minutes apart. They recommended I wait until they really got 4-5 minutes apart. We called again around 6:30 saying they were getting stronger but still 7-8 minutes apart, they still insisted on waiting a while.  The next couple of contractions after I got off the phone were bad enough that Kevin and friend, Sarah, talked me into heading to the hospital anyway. Addison was off playing with all the kids at the BBQ and didn't even realize we were leaving. Kevin and I hopped in the car around 7:00 and drove off to the hospital while my contractions now started coming about every 4-5 minutes. We didn't have to worry about parking spaces because it was the weekend and the construction workers were not around. As we got into the hospital, they had us walk upstairs to the delivery suite...yes, WALK up a flight of stairs...that kicked in the rate of my contractions. We checked in with the mid-wife desk and they got me in a room to get hooked up to the monitors. Lindsay, our on-call mid-wife, asked if I was interested in the Mid-Wife led care unit...she warned though that if I wanted to go that way I wouldn't be able to get an epidural. I said I really wanted an epidural and I was fine to stay in the delivery ward.  She did tell us that she would stay with me unless she got pulled away to the MW unit because that is her first priority.  We were fine with that.   At first she seemed convinced that I wouldn't be very far along and shouldn't be upset if they have to send me back home, but after 20 minutes my contractions went to 2 minutes apart and very intense.   She got me hooked up with the gas/air to help take the edge off the contractions, but they got me pretty loopy the first time so Kevin warned that I needed to try and control it a little better...I think it freaked him out when I started spacing out the first time. Lindsay came back to exam me about 20 minutes later and had a look of despair as told me that I wasn't going to be able to have my epidural. I instantly started to cry as she told me that I was fully dialated and the only thing holding my baby in was my waters. This baby was going to be here in an hour's time. Kevin instantly starting supporting me by saying it would be okay and I could do this.   By now I was practically squeezing his hand off and trying to jump out of the bed to deal with the pain. The midwife said I could start pushing whenever I felt like it...."What, push, I'm not ready for this."  I was just in shock because this was not what I planned on at all.  After that moment everything went so quickly there wasn't time to worry or get upset. It was in God's hands and after the next 20 minutes that it took to push little Harrison out, I understood the joys and pains of natural childbirth. Harrison was born at 8:51 PM. Lindsay was an amazing midwife...she did everything that three nurses and an OB doctor had to do when I had Addison. It was great just having a quiet and calm environment and not a lot of people tripping over each other. With both Kevin and I being pretty skeptical on how things were going to all work out with the hospital, we couldn't have asked for anything else. Kevin asked if I could it all over again would I have wanted the epidural, because to him it looked like I was in just as much pain this time as with the epidural. I really couldn't answer because it was either way it takes a lot of work to push, but this time around I knew what I was pushing for because I could feel it all and because it hurt I was more motivated to get if over faster. After it was all done, the three of us were left alone to just be together. In the States, they rushed Addie away from me and did all the shots, eye smear stuff and give her a bath in the nursery. I liked it here so much better...I really got some time to bond even though I was in shock on how fast everything went.  After a while they helped me over to the shower room which was just next door to my delivery room. Kevin got some nice bonding time while I got cleaned up. It was now 11:30PM and they were working on getting me a bed ready on the maternity ward, but I really just wanted to go home. I was feeling pretty good and I just wanted to be with Kevin and sleep in my own bed. We did get released to head home at midnight, but had to call the next morning to line up a time to come back to the hospital to get Harrison's pediatrician exam and hearing test. By 12:30AM, 5 hours after we arrived at the hospital, Kevin, Harrison and I arrived home. We hopped on Skype and called our families so they could see the newest addition to the family and since they were 6-8 hours later than us it was about dinner time for them. Addison ended up spending the night at Danny and Min's house (her first sleep over), and that was a blessing so we didn't have to worry about disturbing her if the baby would wake up in the night. It wasn't the most restful night of sleep because I was running everything over and over again in my head, but it had to be a million times better than being stuck in a hospital by myself with baby. 

The next morning, Min brought Addie back over around 7:45 along with breakfast tray for Kevin and I. Addison loved meeting her new baby brother and gave him lots of kisses. Min also brought us an amazing lunch of sweet and sour pork, sweet corn soup, homemade spring rolls and fried rice. It's been like having my very own personal chef...Min you are AMAZING!!!! Emily our babysitter has also been AMAZING as well...girly, you did an amazing job helping with Addison, you are so special to us. Sarah, thanks for coaching me through contractions and getting us off to the hospital when we did otherwise you may have been helping deliver the little guy. Thank you to everyone for everything so far. We love all and can't wait for the rest of you to meet our little man.