Josiah Jonathan Potratz

I woke up Friday morning Oct. 29th with lots of energy. The doctor had warned me that I may get a boost of energy before labor and so I was thinking today might be the day! I went to the chiropractor and to work feeling really great. When I got home around 6 p.m. though I started having contractions, which seemed like my normal Braxton Hicks contractions that I get every evening. However, they started to get a little more painful throughout the evening and I was thinking to myself "maybe labor really will kick in tonight!" I went to bed around 11:00 p.m. but never really fell asleep because of the painful contractions. At 11:30 they started to get really painful and seemed to come every 7 minutes. At 12: 50 a.m. I decided to call First Nurse and see if I should come in. He said to wait until my contractions were 5 minutes apart. Well, only an hour later my contractions were really painful and coming at 4-5 minutes apart. I called First Nurse again and they told me to go ahead and come in. At this point I was freaking out because I was in SO MUCH pain that I could barely move and I just kept thinking to myself "we NEED to be at the hospital NOW!" We got to the hospital a little after 2 a.m. and they immediately put me in a delivery room (thank goodness they didn't put me in one of those tiny triage rooms that they did before). I immediately asked for an epidural but the anesthesiologist had just gone back to do a C-Section and would be quite awhile. I was in horrible pain and the contractions were so close together! They checked me and I was only 5 c.m. but my labor progressed very quickly and I was a full 10 within 2 hours. The anesthesiologist made it into my room to give me the epidural at about 4 a.m. (just in time for me to start pushing). However, it took a couple of hours for me to push, so by the time Josiah was crowning I was already in pain again. I didn't even use the actual epidural because they give you a medicine that numbs you from the waste down first that only lasts 2 hours. I was having such a hard time pushing that the doctor said not to start the actual epidural once the numbing went away. It was so painful! They ended up giving me an episiotomy because I was having a hard time pushing. After they did the episiotomy, Josiah was born within a few minutes after a few more pushes.

My little boy was born at 6:35 a.m, 8 pounds 7 ounces, and 20 inches long. He was a very healthy little boy!

It took me a while to recover after delivery. I was put on lots of pain medication because of the stitches and the painful contractions that come with nursing. A few hours later I tried to get out of bed for the first time and passed out on the way to the bathroom, so I sat in bed until late afternoon before getting up to clean up from delivery. It was nice that he was born so early Saturday morning because we had plenty of time in the hospital over the weekend to rest up while Josiah slept in the nursery. We came home Monday afternoon and it's been a roller coaster since. Each day seems to get a little better as I find time to rest and as I get better at nursing. What we have learned so far about little Josiah: He loves soft blankies, will one day be a musician because music soothes him immensely, and loves to be cuddled.