I [heart] Davids It helps me to say these things aloud, I think.

Here’s the story of Henry’s birth. He arrived two weeks early.

The short, edited version

After lunch on Saturday, I awoke after a nap to discover I was losing my mucuous plug. Around 5:30 PM my water broke. We got to the hospital around 6:30 and by 7 PM I was at 1.5 cm. I labored with Dave walking around and swaying on the birthing ball until around 9:45, by which point I had dilated to 4 cm. I requested the epidural at this point, and it was administered by 10:30 PM. By 11 PM I was dilated to 9 cm. By 11:30 PM I started pushing.

I pushed for about an hour and a half and I was in a lot of pain. The baby was facing sideways, not face-down, so he was very difficult to maneuver. After one and a half hours of pushing, we opted for the vacuum extraction, which unfortunately required an episiotomy. It took another hour of pushing to get him out. It hurt a whole lot. Pushing sucks.

Regardless of all that, our precious little Henry was born at 1:34 AM on Sunday morning, March 2nd. He was placed on my chest and I just couldn’t believe my eyes. Dave got to cut the cord and then went with Henry to the nursery where he got cleaned up while I recovered. We got to our hospital room around 3:30 AM and finally got to sleep around 4 AM. We began our busy day around 7 AM.

Now, here is a more detailed, more graphic version. Read at your own risk.

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Tracey won the baby pool!! She had the closest time with a guess of March 2nd, 2:24 am, which meant she was off by only 50 minutes. Congratulations, Tracey!

Shannon was the closest guesser in the weight category, with a guess of 7 lbs 3 ozs, off only by 2 ounces.

Thanks to everybody who guessed!

You can read about Cristin‘s visit here and Ele‘s visit here. Cristin’s Flickr pictures are here.

He’s so famous!

We had lots of visitors while in the hospital. Thanks to everyone who dropped by and brought gifts and well wishes!

We’d also like to thank Tyra for the keepsake box, mom for the pack ‘n’ play sheets, and Jonathan and Dawn for the lucky bamboo plant.

Kerri was our very first visitor.

And Cristin came by to introduce herself, too.

She brought these adorable handmade onesies

Grandparents Sue and Marv drove down from Cleveland

Ele and Will dropped by, and had to leave Finn with Marv and Sue while they visited.

Will is a natural

Jenny loved holding Henry

I know you’ve all been patiently waiting for an update from the Dickens’ household. Here are some pictures.

Swaddled Henry

Bizarro makes a cameo

Dave holds a sleepy Henry

Henry looks up at Granma

Tiny Fingers

Tiny Toes

Flowers from Granma

Henry is ready to go home!

This is for Uncle Eric:

Dad holds Bizarro, tightly swaddled

Sorry it’s been a few days since I’ve blogged. I’ve been busy. 🙂

Dave and I are delighted to introduce you to our gorgeous little man.

Henry David was born at 1:34 AM on Sunday, March 2nd. He weighed in at 7 pounds, 1 ounce and measured 20.5″ long.