HE’S HERE!!!!!!!!

After all of the stress from an overwhelmingly frustrating pregnancy, my baby boy has finally arrived safely to join the rest of his family. Hudson Ryan Karl was born at 2:32 a.m. on Thursday, June 10th. He weighed 7 pounds, 2 ounces and was 20 inches long – at 3 weeks premature! He’s a very happy and healthy baby boy, and we are just thrilled to finally meet him!!

It has been an excruciatingly long pregnancy (starting on February 4th when I was put on strict bed rest at 19 weeks) with lots of ups and downs, and I am so unbelievably happy to be on the other side of this! Through all of the stress, and scary times, we always held out hope that we would have our happy ending, and that is exactly what happened!

After several trips to the hospital, 16 weeks of bed rest, 3 days of hospitalization, and oh so much more – my doctor took me off “strict” bed rest at 35 weeks. It was the general consensus that after I stopped the anti-contraction medication, I would go into labor within 24-48 hours. Since I had been given the steroid shots to develop the baby’s lungs when I was in the hospital – my doctor said she would not stop labor if it started any time after 35 weeks.

I was thrilled to be off bed rest, and off that horrible medication!! I was also SO excited that our baby should be coming ANY DAY!!! It was all I could think about and I was just SURE that we would be meeting our son within a few days. To my dismay, that is not what happened, and suddenly, I was in a position where it would pose no risk to the baby to go back to work full time again. What?? So, at week 36 – I was given the ‘go-ahead’ from my doctor, and began working full time from home.

In the meantime, based on the size of my stomach, my doctor ordered a growth ultrasound to see how big the baby was getting. Based on the ultrasound estimates, he was 7 pounds, 12 ounces … at 36 weeks, YIKES!!! Now I was starting to panic. If I went full term with this baby (as it was looking like I might), he could be between 9 and 10 pounds at birth … not okay.

At my next doctor appointment, I started asking about induction. Unfortunately, they would not induce me prior to 39 weeks regardless of his size. I came home from that appointment in tears, and resigned myself to the fact that I was destined to have a giant baby. The next morning, I woke up and decided to change my attitude. It may not be the birthing experience that I would have wanted, but at least I was going to have a strong, healthy baby, and I needed to just get over it! I spent the day working from home, and going about my day with a renewed spirit. And that’s when it happened …

After dinner, on the evening of Wednesday, June 9th – Adam and Payton were at the dining room table with their desserts, and I was in the kitchen getting my nightly ice cream. We were all visiting, and I was saying something to them when … whoa! I felt like I peed my pants! I looked at Adam and Payton mid-sentence and told them I had to go to the bathroom! Payton looked at Adam and told him she thought my water had broken and Adam said “We better hurry up and eat these then!” They both had a good giggle and then ran to the table to quickly finish their desserts! I then yelled at them “MY WATER BROKE!!!”

Adam’s parents were attending a funeral in Portland, Oregon. Adam called to let them know that my water broke, and we were headed to the hospital. It was three hours from the time they hung up until the time they were standing outside my hospital room (this includes a half hour traffic snarl in Tacoma). They may have been a teeny bit excited!

With Molly and Adam in the delivery room, and Payton, my mom, Irv and Laura in the waiting room, I labored for 6-1/2 hours and in the wee hours of the morning, Baby Hudson arrived!

After what seemed like a never-ending journey, I felt like I had collapsed across the finish line when the doctor laid this beautiful baby boy on my chest and I looked at him for the first time. Then I looked at my amazing husband, and the tears in his eyes, and it was euphoric.

Here are some pictures of Hudson’s birthday:

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