Welcome to the World

Delivering a baby is one of those things that no matter how well you plan and prepare for it, you never really know just how it's going to work out. You might remember me saying, I'm not quite ready to be told, "Yep. This is it. You need to go directly to the hospital.", but that is exactly what happened.

We headed to the doctor's office at around 11:45 on Friday, February 17. I'd suspected that my water had broken earlier in the day, but since there was no obvious gushing sensation like everyone tells you to expect, I wasn't convinced. When we got to the doctor's office, the doctor confirmed that my water had indeed broken. Despite of how they make it seem in the movies, it's actually pretty uncommon for this sort of thing to happen. According to webMD.com, "Only 10% of women experience premature rupture of membranes (PROM) that is, having your water break before labor has actually started." So, the doctor advised me to head straight to the hospital where they would induce contractions.

After about 12 hours of labor, 8 unmedicated and 4 blissfully under the influence of an epidural, and 20 minutes of pushing, Brick Anthony Tucker made his way into our world at 12:25 AM on Saturday, February 18th.

He's a big, healthy boy, weighing 8 pounds and 8 ounces at birth and measuring 21 1/4 inches.

We were released from the hospital yesterday and are slowly getting used to life at home. Overall, Brick's temperamentt is wonderful. He's content almost all of the time. So far, he seems to prefer sleeping through the day and keeping me awake at night, but I'm learning to get some rest on his schedule and am hoping that his rhythms will adjust with time.