Luke Gregory Gessel makes his entrance

Sunday night I went to the hospital to get my cervix prepped with cervadil. I started having some contractions with that. By 6 am I wanted the epidural. I was only dilated to 1 1/2 cm at the time but I was in pain. I had to get the epidural put in twice because they got a blood vessel the first time. I didn't feel it, so I didn't care. Luke's heart rate dropped when they gave it to me so I had to be put on oxygen for a while. I kept progressing so they didn't give me pitocin like they were going to at 9. Luke's heart rate dropped when I was on my back or right side, so they had to keep me on my left side. I had to get oxygen for a time after that happened. They periodically checked up on me and then saw I had stopped progressing. By that time, they didn't really want to give me pitocin because they were afraid that Luke's heart rate would drop again and they didn't want him to be in distress. They checked me again and my cervix had started swelling and the dilation was only like a 5. So they asked me if I would have a c section. I didn't really want to but they were afraid that I wouldn't dilate to 10 cm and that it would end up being an emergency c section. So we agreed. The whole procedure only lasted like 30 minutes from start to finish so it was quick. By that time I was exhausted and had to force my eyes open to stay awake to see Luke. Greg said that the doctors who got Luke out had to put their backs into getting him out. And although I didn't feel pain, it was a really weird "pressure" when they took him out.



After much waiting, Luke Gregory Gessel was born M0nday, August 24th at 1:52 pm. He weighed 8 lbs and 1 oz. He was 20 inches long.




You can't really tell in pictures, but Luke has amazingly long eyelashes that he got from his daddy.


Greg made me take a "traditional hospital gown picture." But I went and combed my hair and put on make up, so I wouldn't look terrible. The gown is bad enough.



Luke, the pacifier kid, with Dad.



Luke and Mommy getting ready to check out of the hospital.

Flower and bear sent by Exxon to my hospital room.

I stayed in the hospital until Thursday afternoon. It wasn't bad eating my meals in bed and having someone at my beck and call (button). There was a night nursery that Greg and I took advantage of, between 11pm and 6am. Greg had some work training he needed to attend this week. Monday was the first day, but he was preoccupied. He went to work Tuesday and Wednesday. Each evening he would come back to the hospital and sleep on the crappy couch bed. What a great sport. Thursday, Luke was circumcised. I was reassured that he wasn't overly traumatized by the fact that he wasn't screaming bloody murder when they brought him back to us. We attended the homeward bound class. We finally got home by 3 pm.

Last night was the first night home. We expected no problems with Luke because he had slept pretty well the nights at the hospital. But he woke up almost hourly and was generally fussy. So it was hard. Hopefully, that is not the new normal.

Otherwise, we are doing just fine. We love having Luke with us. He's a very cute little guy.