Welcome home, little Luki

I made a baby. Granted, Ton Ton collaborated with some sperm, and I believe God supervised the entire operation...but, in essence, I made a baby. A real life human person, with ten fingers and ten toes, lived inside me for 9 months, and I pushed him out of an orifice much smaller than he. I did it!

I really think that moms need to start making a bigger deal out of giving birth. Seriously, we should get standing ovations every time we walk into a room. I definitely plan on trying to get special credit for having a son. Next time someone asks me what my greatest accomplishment is, I will not hesitate to answer like this...

...it all started on Wednesday, July 1, 2009 in the late afternoon. I had arrived home from work, and sat on the couch to catch the last bit of the Ellen show. Ton Ton was in the kitchen making dinner, and we were supposed to go see "Away we go" that night. Suddenly, I felt like I was peeing my pants. I got up and stood in the dining room as, what seemed like a pitcher of water, dripped from my crotch.

Ton Ton called Big E right away, and I got on the phone with my doctor's office. After answering a series of questions, such as..."is there anything hanging out of your vagina, like a foot, or an arm?", I was told to go to the hospital. Ton Ton started to freak out and frantically finish packing our bags. I had no contractions or other labor symptons, so I took a shower and leisurely got dressed. On the way to the hospital, we had to stop at the pharmacy so that I could buy some hair gel (I had just ran out that morning!) and, of course, our car's gas light was on, so we had to fill up.

In the hospital, I got checked in and put on the baby monitor. I started to have very minor cramps, and could see on the monitor that they were contractions. "This is it?," I thought.."pffff...I can totally handle this!" I watched T.V. and chit- chatted with Ton Ton and my parents, a few good friends came by to visit too.

I had to get an IV, and it took two different nurses and three tries on both arms to find a vein. At that time, that was much more painful than the contractions. The nurse asked me what my thoughts were on getting an epidural, and I said I was going to try to hold out as long as I could. In my head, I was thinking..."if it took them that long to find a vein in my arm, I am NOT letting them mess around with a giant needle in my back!".

My doctor, Doctor B, was not on call that night, so instead Thor was in charge of my delivery. (That is his real name, by the way!). He didn't come to check me until I had been in the hospital for a few hours. Big E ran into him in the cafeteria and gave him an earful, something about, "my little girl is in labor, and you haven't even come by to introduce yourself..." He explained that he wanted to let me make some progress on my own. When he came, I was 5 cm dilated...and not in much pain. A very good sign. Thor is the most soft-spoken person I have met, he kept mumbling things, and I couldn't tell if he was talking to me or the nurses.

I continued to have contractions, each getting substantially stronger. I would ask Ton Ton to hold me, then to let me go. I was cold, then I was hot. I wanted to be talked to, and the next minute, left alone. The nurses checked me and my cervix was not dilating fast enough. So, Thor ordered that I get a little bit of Pitocin to speed up the process. It was around 5:00 a.m.

At that point, the contractions were so severe that everything is a blur. I just remember I really wanted to push, and they would not let me. A nurse checked me and thought that I was fully dilated, but then Thor came in and mumbled something. The nurse translated that he didn't think I was fully dilated yet and that he would be back in 15 minutes. I stared at the clock through every contraction and kept asking for Thor. I just wanted to push! When he came back, he mumbled something else about it not being time yet, and that he'd be back in half an hour. I wailed FUUUUUUUUUCCK! Big E was much more offended than Thor was.

Finally, Thor came back and he gave the OK to push. Pushing felt so much better! I looked out my window, and could see that day was breaking. I push, push, push, push, PUSHED, and suddenly had a purple little boy in my arms. He came with the sun, at 7:39 a.m.

After meeting him, I couldn't believe I ever thought Belly would be anyone else but him. He is my Luki, Ton Ton's Luki, everybody's Luki. We love him more than we could have ever imagined.