And the story continues.The Laaaaaabor and Delivery!

So, I left off with saying I had let the excited/nervous/anxious parents-to-be know that the show was on the road.

I made it back up to the hospital just fine, but was definitely feeling me some painful contractions. I had caught Joe in just enough time that he was able to leave work and actually follow me back up to the hospital and make sure I made it ok. We let the valet guys at the hospital park the car and the poor kid who was taking my keys looked pretty scared when I couldn't talk to him because I was having a contraction. Like I was gonna deliver a baby in his lap or something. Or maybe that was just my perception of it. : )

I made my way back up to L&D with a very surreal feeling...and very wet pants that I was hoped no one was noticing. I actually passed the husband of the last patient I had taken care of in the hallway and smiled and told him it was my turn too! He just laughed in disbelief and so did I!

When I made it through the doors of my department my friend Amanda was the only nurse around. She looked at me like "shouldn't you have gone home like an hour ago?" All I could say was, "My pants are soaked." LOL

So, by the time I got in my room and was admitted I was starting to have some serious pain. Like,"Um, I need that epidural sooner rather than later" pain. Which was taken care of very nicely and quickly, thank you very much! By that time Sarah and Brian had made it there...and the clock started ticking...and ticking...and ticking.

Of course, since his parents had made haste and gotten to Toledo as fast as they could, baby boy decided to take his time. At one point I actually started to think it was my labor with Grace repeated all over again and was going to have to have a c-section.  I made it to 9cm fairly quickly, but then putzed around for.ev.er.
But, finally I was fully dilated and ready to start pushing.

I only had to push for about a half hour, thankfully. Despite a few quirks in the delivery, he came out and pinked up and started crying pretty quickly, much to his mother's relief.

Though most of you probably saw it on Facebook awhile ago, here are his official stats:

Gianluca Anthony born at 4:21 p.m. on
Wednesday, September 21st, 2011.
8 pounds 1 ounce and 19 1/2 inches long.

And then, for me, the real fun began...