Introducing our Phoenix Jonathan Gar Wolfe

Our Birth Story:
Short Version-
We welcomed our baby boy- Phoenix Jonathan Gar Wolfe at 12:35 am on Friday, Dec. 2nd. He weighed 7 lbs. 4 ozs and was 20" long and was the cutest baby I had laid eyes on!

Long Version............ Well the day finally arrived! After going to the dr.'s on Wednesday, November 30th at 11 am and having my membranes stripped because I still hadn't dilal ated at all- I went into labor (9 days after my due date). I had irregular contractions until around 9pm but they weren't that strong so we decided to try and get some sleep. After a few hours they were stronger and more regular so we got up and started timing and using the ball and walking and other tricks to get through them. We called our doula at this point and since she was working in N Van we told her to wait until we called her back as the pain increased or we felt we were further progressed. At around 4 am I was really into the walking so I continued this for a couple more hours until they were 5 mins apart for at least 30 sec. long. At around 7am we headed to the hospital to meet our doula as I kept thinking about the traffic being bad (In retrospect I wish that I could have slayed this tiger before hand). So we got stuck in traffic for an hour and a half while I was in the back rolling on the ball trying to not make eye contact with a car beside us! When we got to the hospital I thought that we had made a mistake because my contractions had slowed and I was sure they would tell us to go home so when we got through admitting and checked me and I was only 1 cm, I felt really defeated! The nurse gave us a couple choices to either go home and come back at 4 pm to be fully induced, I could get a shot of demoral and try and get some sleep at home or I could labor there but if my progress didn't speed up they would start a drip with in 2 hours. So our doula said we could go to her house so we labored there all day until 5pm and then went back to the hospital. When we got to the hospital and I was only 3 cm and they said I was dehydrated so I needed an iv- I knew I would need an epidural. I had gone almost 24 hours in labor and much longer without sleep so I decided to get it at around 7 and was fully dilated and pushing by 10 pm. Phoenix entered the world at 12:35 am and took a little while to let out a good cry (longest minutes of my life) but when he did he wailed. I really admire all women that have natural births but I totally welcomed the epidural when I got it and know that I would have been too exhausted to push if I hadn't got it. We delivered at Burnaby General and the dr. and staff were so wonderful. We were so lucky to deliver there because they taught us everything that we needed to learn so quickly that we were home by Saturday and enjoying some much needed rest! He is eating and sleeping like a champ and has regained his birth weight. Oscar (dog) is so awesome with him and Cleo (cat) could care less! Tarren was so great during labor and continues to run around and make us all happy!