labour and delivery.

You know how they say the birth of your first child is usually a long, slow, walk around the hospital for hours kind of process? Well Lachlan and I sure proved "them" wrong!

I'll spare you most of the gooey details (because no one wants to know all of that stuff) and just stick to the facts... as well as a few lessons we learned along the way.

You see, it all started with a checkup on Saturday morning. I had been having a few signs of labour since Wednesday and they wanted us to come in just to check to see what was happening. Turns out, nothing was happening and we went on our happy way with a warning that things would probably start happening within a day or two.



As we drove home from the hospital we started a long mental list of what we wanted to get done that weekend and decided it would work best for us if Lachlan made his entrance Sunday night or later.

Enter Your-Wife-May-Go-Into-Labour-At-Any-Moment lesson number 1: A baby comes whenever he wants regardless of your plans or the length of your to-do list.

Once we arrived home, Max decided it was my job to do nothing while he ran around like a chicken with his head cut off trimming the hedges (don't ask...) and running random errands.

Enter Your-Wife-May-Go-Into-Labour-At-Any-Moment lesson number 2: During unknown times NEVER skip meals and always be freshly showdered!

And there in the middle of watching my second episode of The Amazing Race, I HEARD a pop and my water broke. My contractions started almost immediately and by the time I called the hospital five minutes later, my contractions were already very intense and only three minutes apart.

Fun Fact: Fewer than 15 percent of pregnant women experience a rupture of the membranes (your water breaking) before labor begins (source).

Max rushed home and off to the hospital we went! From that point forward, everything went so fast that we didn't even have time to go back out to the car to get the camera, my bag... or food for Max (see lesson 2 above) until I was 9cm dilated and my epidural was finally in (my personal choice of pain relief). 

At that point we had about 30 minutes to take a few pictures and get some food into my husband/birth partner.



6-7 contractions every ten minutes... ouch!



Just after the epidural was in place and just before pushing began... hence the smile.



45 short minutes later our son was placed in my arms and I became a mamma :)









All 8lbs 6oz of our big baby boy.












Father and son



Love at first sight!



Only 5.5 hours from my water breaking at home to the minute Lachlan was placed in my arms! It was fast. It was intense. It was painful, amazing, scary, beautiful- 5.5 life changing hours that I wouldn't change for anything. And while I have skipped a lot of the more intense parts of this story (don't want to scare any pregnant ladies out there) the second I laid my eyes on that sweet little face, it made every minute totally worth it.

3 November 2012- an amazing, life changing day that will never be forgotten!

** A special thanks to my amazing husband for supporting me through this crazy process without losing his mind, passing out or complaining that I was squeezing his hand way to tight. I love you more than anything and am so happy to be on this journey with you!!