He is Here!

Easton Lyle Gappmayer was born early Friday morning weighing in at 7 pounds 8 ounces and measuring 20 inches. The story is pretty mild compared to last time, but it was still exciting enough for us. We went to bed Thursday night around ten after a busy day. All week I had been either working, going to appointments and/or just generally trying to get things ready for the next week (when I thought the baby would come). I woke up around 1am to go to the bathroom (one of my several usual trips during the night) and I couldn't fall back to sleep because every 15-20 minutes or so I would have a contraction. By 2am I was having contractions about every nine minutes and by 3 they were coming every seven minutes. I was hoping I could let Eric sleep until 5 or 6, but by 4am I was moving around so much that I woke him up. He was ready to go to the hospital right then, but the contractions were still every seven minutes and somewhat bearable so I wanted to wait a while longer. All of a sudden the contractions started hurting really bad and they were every 2-3 minutes. I still wanted to wait, but then I quickly reconsidered after the next contraction. Eric called his mom and asked her to head over and then I made him go check the car cause I knew we were supposed to get "some" snow. Who knew it was going to be 6 inches. By the time he was done cleaning off the truck and shoveling a path for me, I knew we needed to get going. (I was a little worried we were going to be too late.) His mom wasn't there yet, but we left anyway and called our landlord and asked him to listen for the kids until she got there. We got to the hospital a little before six and started checking in. The lady was asking me the questions, but I could barely talk with the contractions so she started asking Eric after a few minutes and was working pretty quick. I got to the room and changed. The nurse came in right after. She asked me a few questions and then checked me. I was a seven, but my water hadn't broken yet so she asked if I wanted an epidural. I told her yes, if she thought I had enough time and she said she would get the anesthesiologist right away. He was in the room a few minutes later and after a little bit of rethinking if I really wanted/needed the epidural, in what I was sure would be a quick delivery, I decided to get one. Well, it did end up being a quick delivery, but I was SO glad I got the epidural. It was working by 6:35am. The doctor came in around 6:45am. He waited until 7am to check me and I was almost complete by then. The baby was posterior so I had to push a few times to get him to turn. Then I was complete and ready for the really thing. After a few sets of pushes, the baby was born at 7:22am. It was so nice. Pretty much what I was picturing for Carter and didn't get. Most of the staff actually remembered Carter's story and kept saying things like, "I can't believe that was you. I was here that night. Blah, blah, blah." I kept saying things like, "This is so much better than last time." That's the story if you cared to know it. It is more for my memory than anything else. He's only a day and a half, but he is so good. We are so glad to have him in our family. The other kids love him. Carter can't stop touching him. Hopefully, the novelty of him wears off quickly for him. Thanks for all the well wishes and to our families who have stepped in and helped so much.