Our son Dominic

Dominic James was born on October 10th 2009 at 8am at 35 weeks 4 days. He weighs 4 pounds 7 ounces and measures 17 inches long. He has strawberry blonde hair (for now lol). He is doing very well.

I noticed my water leaking at about 7pm on the 9th while at work. I went home and rested up to see if it was indeed my fluid and after a few hours at home it became fairly obvious. I called in to the birth center and they ofcourse said to come in. I called Shawn at work and told him to come home. We made it to the birth center at about 10:15pm. It took about 2 second to confirm it was my water and they let me know I would not be leaving until I had the baby. I was given 2 hours (closer to 3) to begin labor and contracting on my own. My body hates me so this did not happen. At about 1am I was checked, 2cm dialated and 90% effaced, and pitocin was started. The nurse only had to up the pit 3 times (not much) to begin contractions. Contractions were coming one right on top of the other and I was having back labor. I asked for an epidural at about 430-5ish. I was checked again before I was given the epi and I was at 5cm. I was given the epi between 530-6am. I was able to take a short nap, about an hour. I woke up at about 7am and was 10cm dialated! After some checking and other such stuff, I was asked to try a practice push so that the doctor could leave the room knowing I could push correctly. I called Tara at 7:38am and told her to head this way,,, she was supposed to be here for the birth. After some pushing on my back, and some very productive pushing on my side; they had me on my back again and had the doctor come in. He was out within minutes. Born at a very prompt 8am!

He started crying, not immediately but before they brought him over to the warmer. He has been breathing completely unassisted, no jaundice as of yet. He is not breastfeeding yet but he sure is trying! He knows right where it is and what to do with it. Just can't quite get it down yet. He is receiving a bottle with formula and pumped milk every 2-3 hours and doing great with that. They have him in an incubator (warmer) but he hasn't seemed to have any issues between that and skin to skin contact of keeping his temperature up.

He will not likely go home with us when we go on Saturday I believe. But I don't think he will be here too much longer. He has to prove he can eat, keep his temp up, and gain weight. I will try to post pics asap!