Well, if you haven't heard already, our littlest guy decided to come into the world two weeks early and he was coming quickly!
Tuesday, I went to the doctor for my routine checkup, and I was dilated 2+, was 70% effaced, and the baby had dropped and was at station +2. She stated that it could happen any day, and we went ahead and stripped my membranes at that time. Wednesday, I lost my plug (I'll leave it at that). Thursday, I began having contractions around 4:00 pm and they began coming every 20 minutes, by the time I decided to go to bed they were coming close to 10 minutes apart. They were very mild so I decided to go ahead and try to get some sleep (in the event that I had to endure another marathon session of labor soon - remember I was in labor for over 24 hours with Mason). In the night I had a few contractions strong enough to wake me up, but they weren't consistent. When I woke up Friday morning I felt fine. Fortunately, Drew's parents had come in for the holiday, and we got out and ran a few errands on Friday.
Friday evening I watched the fireworks display on t.v., and then walked outside to watch them going off in the neighborbood. I started having mild contractions again around 10:30pm. Again they were coming every 20 minutes so I didn't think much of it. They were much like the ones the evening before. I went ahead and went to bed, the contractions became strong enough to wake me up. I began watching the clock and recording contractions. I woke Drew up around 2:00am - the contractions began coming every 5 minutes and were growing increasingly stronger and longer lasting at least 3 minutes. I called the answering service, and the doc on call was Dr. Ivonne Smith - she told me to go ahead and come in. It was about 2:40am at that time. Drew began loading the car and moving vehicles around so that we could get the car out of the driveway. In the meantime, I was still having VERY strong contractions and EXTREME pressure. He ran upstairs and told his parents that we were headed to the hospital, and literally had to drag me out to the car. I really didn't think we were going to make it. It was probably about 2:50am at this point.
My water broke in the car on the way to the hospital, I was screaming, crying, and praying - in complete agony, and Drew was trying his best to calm me down. He was breathing and trying to get me to focus on my breathing, and it would help for a few seconds. Of course, because I hadn't left the house in days in my vehicle, I hadn't filled up the car like I kept saying I was going to. Our gas light came on about halfway there! Drew was, of course, driving like a bat out of hell and we also passed a cop that tried to pull us over. Drew never slowed up, and tried waving him up beside us all the while trying to unlock his phone so that he could call 911 to tell them that unless the officer wanted to deliver a baby he could follow us to the hospital! However, when we exited into the medical district the officer pulled off. We're not sure quite how long it took us to get to the hospital from Spring - 10-15 minutes at the most. Thank God it was the middle of the night we would have never made it traffic. (Just as comparison the trip home from the hospital at 2:30pm on Monday took us almost 45 minutes.) Nor would we have made it if we had had to strap Mason into a car seat.
We pulled up at the front doors to valet park, and they got me a wheelchair and we went straight to the 3rd floor. I was breathing heavily, and Drew was still coaching, and the hospital staff was directing us through the halls to our room. As soon I got into the room, they got me up out of the chair and changed into a gown. They hooked up the monitor and began checking my cervix. I was already complete! So they called for the doc. on call. Only 8 minutes passed from the time they hooked me up to the monitor and the baby was born at 3:23am. There was no time for anything - no time to call my doctor and no time for any pain medication and no time to videotape.
I delivered completely natural! Me - the same person who had to get an epidural just so that they could break my water when I delivered Mason. It all happened so fast and seemed so surreal! There were about 7 other nurses in the room with us and they were wonderful in getting me to focus on the task at hand. After the fact, they had me signing consents and got Drew to check me in. My labor and delivery nurse came to my room the next evening to tell me that I set a new hospital record for fastest monitored delivery. She said, "Of course, we have those that give birth on the first floor but you're the fastest time hooked to a monitor." Crazy!
What's even more amazing is that I felt remarkably well after the delivery. I was on a complete adrenaline rush! And best of all, I had a new beautiful little boy!
On the way home from the hospital
Mason showing off his Big Brother t-shirt
The Woman's Hospital of Texas has a great program where you can order a sibling cake for older children to help celebrate the birth of their new siblings.
Mason thoroughly enjoyed his cake!
He loves his brother very much too. He has done very well in adjusting to the new baby. He occasionally exhibits some jealous traits, but overall, he has done much better than I expected. The real test will be when Gran C leaves and he's got to share Mom's attention.
This past Friday morning Mason woke up with a runny nose and a fever. Fortunately, we were already heading to the pediatrician for Ian's newborn checkup so we got the doc to check Mason out as well. He was diagnosed with a cold, and we were advised to keep him away from the baby - a pretty difficult task. 
Ian's check up went very well, he's almost back up to his birth weight but not quite. He goes back for a followup this week. He's doing great!
