Timothy Ryan Hanson

Our newest family member was born Sunday, December 5th, 2010, at 2:19 am, and he arrived in a hurry! We had sent Wes home with Brandon's dad for the weekend so we could finish preparing the house for Tim's arrival on Thursday, Dec 9, our induction date (the due date was the 10th, in case you're confused). Late Saturday night, around 10pm, I was complaining to Brandon about some cramps I was having, and had been having off and on all day. I decided at 10-ish that I should maybe pay attention to the "cramps," and told Brandon I thought I might be in labor, but I wasn't sure. After timing them for the next hour, they were coming 5-6 minutes apart, lasting about a minute each. Now, during all this timing, I laid down for a little while, then got back up and continued BENDING DOWN and PICKING UP BOXES and TOYS in Wesley's room. Brandon was a little more anxious than I realized at the time. He worked like a madman in the basement, getting as much done as he could. At 11, I told him we needed to go to the hospital. At 11:30, I was doubting myself, so I told him maybe I should try to sleep it off. At 12:00 we left for the hospital.

And not a minute too soon. Once we arrived at the hospital, the contractions got more painful, and the nurse who admitted me in the ER said she was timing them at 3 minutes apart. We skipped Triage thank GOODNESS and were put in a room right away, around 1:00 am. I wasn't officially admitted though until a delivery nurse checked me and announced that i was 6cm, fully effaced, with a bulging bag. And i wanted to try to sleep it off!

I asked for an epidural, which called for IV fluids and blood work. It took the nurse and the anesthesiologist almost an hour, and three attempts on each arm to get the iv and blood drawn. At a little after 2am, I was relaxing as well as i could, the epidural having taken the edge off. The doctor came in and said she was ordering some pitocin (sp?) to help augment my labor. But as she checked me, my water broke! She said I was complete (meaning ready to push, I learned pretty quickly) and the "team" began streaming into the room. She put her delivery scrubs on at the foot of my bed, Brandon got the camera ready, and the nurses got me ready. After about 5 rounds of pushing, a total of 10-15 minutes, Timothy was born! Brandon cut the cord, and Tim was whisked across the room for his evaluation. And I lay there, bewildered, and thinking, "I didn't even get a chance to rest after getting the epidural!" Not that I was disappointed. Seeing Tim's sweet face, so like his brother's, was all I needed to restore myself.

The rest of the night was a blur, with nursing, bath, and postnatal meds for Tim, and the recovery and changing rooms for me. Randy brought Wes up to see Tim at 7:30am, and a steady stream of visitors followed throughout the day.

So here are a couple of pictures of Tim. Wes's response was exactly as we predicted: he could not have cared less that we'd just had a new baby. He really like the buttons on Mommy's bed and the curtain that closed off the room from the door. His reaction to Tim was, "Hi, Tim!" then to Brandon, "Does it cry?"