DAVIDHERSH

Little Adrian was born Sunday night at 9:24pm, he weighed in at 7.2oz. and  measuring 20 inches.

Apparently Tracy knows something about birthin those babies, because Adrian popped out just 3.5 hours after her water broke, and just over two hours after we got to the hospital. Given how fast Lyla was born, and hearing how second babies can come much faster (like Chloe Pezaris!), you'd think we would have booked it straight for the hospital as soon as Tracy's water broke. Getting there with two hours to spare doesn't seem like it's cutting it all that close, and it really wasn't, but unfortunately for Tracy it meant no epidural.

Tracy had been taking heparin during the pregnancy, and it had to be out of her system in order for her to get an epidural. Unfortunately, we didn't factor in the time it would take to get her blood tested to verify this. By the time the results came back, it was too late. Not even 15 minutes later, while waiting for anaesthesia to arrive, she got hit with the mother of all contractions.

To put things in perspective, Tracy has got a really high pain threshold (unlike me!) and definitely isn't a screamer. Well, that changed pretty fast. Up until this point, her contractions had been met with a clenched face and maybe some quick breaths. When she started screaming, I knew we were talking about some serious pain. The most pain I've ever felt was when the anaesthesia wore off after my shoulder surgery. I think that was probably a low grade headache compared to what Tracy was feeling.

After two of those hellacious contractions, we figured it was time to get some help. Within minutes the doctor and nurses were getting everything set up and Adrian was out about 15 minutes later. I guess the good part about not having the epidural was that it sped things up. I'm pretty sure she only pushed twice. I'm not sure how much of a consolation that was for Tracy though. She really wanted that epidural! The whole time the nurses were scrambling to set up, Tracy was telling them how she still wanted the epidural. They knew that we were way past that point though and did a good job of keeping her from freaking out.

The little guy actually slept pretty well his first night, although I think Tracy was too uncomfortable to get much sleep herself. I brought Lyla over to meet her baby brother yesterday and then we both came home, leaving Tracy and Adrian at the hospital. That was definitely a little strange, but I guess the game changes when you've already got one at home to take care of.
Everyone is home now and doing well. Big thanks to Lisa for coming over at a moment's notice on Sunday night to babysit Lyla!