Introducing....

The Proctors are pleased to introduce to you our newest addition, Mr. Samuel James.

He arrived on Tuesday evening, December 18th at 10:07pm.  Weighing in at an even 8lbs and measuring 21" in length, he is beautiful and doing very well.


Birth Story:

Like with Abby, I want to jot this down before details are forgotten.  Actually, there's not much to it as he made his appearance pretty quickly.

The story actually starts Friday 12/14.  I had my 39 week appointment and actually started having contractions around 1pm.  Unfortunately, they fizzled out by 3am so our hopes were dashed.  By our official due date, I knew we'd be able to induce on Wednesday at our post date ultrasound, so at least there was a date in mind. Fortunately, we didn't have to wait that long.  On Tuesday 12/18 at around 1pm, the contractions began again.  By 6pm, I shared with Tim that we might want to have my Mom stay the night, "just in case" we had to scoot on out.  Thankfully we did because if we had to wait for her we may have had to deliver on the side of the road.

At 9pm, I had Tim call the on-call doctor to determine if we needed to go in as the contractions were between 5-10 minutes apart and I was leaking a bit of fluid.  At 9:15pm I heard a "pop" and my realized my water broke - which hadn't happened with Abby.  Thirty seconds later Tim received a call back from the doctor and we began to make our way into the hospital.  We arrive at about 9:45 and as I walked from the parking garage through the barren halls to the Labor & Delivery floor, my contractions were quite intense.  Because I had an epidural with Abby, I wasn't exactly sure what they felt like from 5-10 centimeters.  L&D sent us to triage and before I got there they decided by my reactions to redirect me right to Delivery.  With only seconds between contractions, I made it to the delivery room and realized with the next oncoming contraction that I felt the need to push. I stood by the bed, fully dressed, boots still on, and purse still on my shoulder.

The nurse quickly got me situated and checked my cervix.  She claimed, "9+ cm" and then politely barked several orders out to the half dozen people in my room. I realized at this moment and asked, "Does this mean it is too late for drugs?"  She chuckled and shared that I'd have a new baby in just minutes.

I was hooked up to the monitor at 9:53 and they made me breath through a couple of contractions so they could actually get me and the room ready for delivery.  After three good contractions and between 5-10 pushes, Sam was born at 10:07.  We barely made it.... :-)

The worst part of the process was the next 45 - 60 minutes as the nurses and doctors tried to stop by uterus from bleeding.  Apparently, and they were good to not let on, it was pretty serious. By 2am we were up on the Mother and baby floor ready to begin recovery.

We are getting discharged today (Thursday) and will be able to begin the return to reality and settling into a family of four.  What a blessed Christmas present we have!