A little late, but here’s the rundown

12:00pm – Called doctor and he said to come into his office.
12:15pm – dropped of Kill Bill 2 and replaced it with The Rundown…
12:30pm – At the doctors….. they hooked Annalisa up to measure the baby’s heart rate and length between contractions and duration…. Some contractions were 5 minutes apart and lasted for a minute some were 15min. apart…
1:30pm – got sent home and told to call again when the contractions were under 5 minutes apart for more than an hour.
3:44pm – contractions have gotten much stronger and more painful…. They were about four to four and half minutes apart, for one to one and a half minutes for over an hour…
Ready to leave home…
4:30pm – at hospital in triage (interim room, where they monitor vitals and contractions but they don’t give you an official room yet)…. She is at 2cm and 80%…
5pm – they said to monitor for a half hour… sent lola home because it could still be a while…
5:30pm – they said to start walking around because if her labor did not progress (cervix dilated more), they would send us home ‘til it did…. Started walking around… did NOT want to be sent home….
6:30pm – Done walking around… pain is wow…. She could barely talk when a contraction came… much more painful than anticipated…. Fortunately it worked and she was dilated to 3cm… we were admitted into a nice big room…
6:45pm – dilated to 4cm…. Eric runs to get pizza and cookie… makes phone calls…
7pm – epidural put in…. Eric reads Pistons mag to Annalisa… Catheter introduced to keep bladder empty…. Bladder should be empty to get baby by easier…
NOTE: an epidural is administered by putting a hole in your lower back in between the vertebrae, a tiny tube is placed in the hole and the tube is taped to the back… a large syringe attached to a machine administers some anesthetic at a rate of 10mL per hour….
This was the changing point of the whole labor, before this point Annalisa was in an unbelievable amount of pain, afterwards, she was smiling and laughing and free from and discomfort from the contractions…
8pm – all is well…
8:40pm – broke bag of waters!
9:30pm – 5-6cm dilated
10:30pm – 6-7cm dilated
11pm – Pitosin introduced intravenously… the contractions were not strong enough it seems and the Pitosin helps the contractions get stronger…
12:00am – 7-8cm dilated…My parents stopped by…. Hung out for a bit…. Took off…. Annalisa was smiling, laughing, napping, answering phone calls… no problem… epidural rules…
2:20am – not going so great… still at 8cm…. Decided to change positions…. Now she is kneeling over bean bag with butt in the air…. More pressure on bottom developing
3am – position change working, but strenuous… back to lying on back…
5am – 10cm dilated! Started pushing! Eric holds left leg… Annalisa’s mom hold right leg…. Nurses proclaim Annalisa is amazing pusher baby coming out super fast…. 3 big pushes while nurse counts to ten for each push for each contraction…. That is, 3 pushes per contraction which is every 2 minutes now for the duration of a minute or so…
5:46am – Isaiah Ambrosio Agustin is born… 6lb 15oz, 20in., 8/20/04
Annalisa’s mom almost faints… I looked up after Isaiah was born and she was on the ground with a nurse fanning her and asking her to get liquids… Isaiah whisked to warmer…. I’m still with Annalisa…. Should I go to the baby or stay with Annalisa? Tough call… stayed with Annalisa… placenta came a little bit later… took about 10 min though… doctor’s working on Annalisa…. Slight tearing… Can’t tell if Isaiah is cute because we’re the parents and we love him no matter what or if he’s actually really cute….

6-7:45am – Annalisa trying to breastfeed baby..
8am – Annalisa in shower…. She rocked…. I cannot believe how strong she is…

Here are some pix…
Thanks for the thoughts, prayers, phone calls, and love…. Family is doing great….