Special Delivery-Welcome to the world Landon!!!

Bye Bye Belly! Hello Baby!!

On Thanksgiving morning I woke up around 7:30am and when I couldn't fall back asleep, I started looking up different ways to induce labor on Babycenter. Being 2 days past my due date I was starting to get very antsy! When you're over 9 months pregnant, feeling huge, swollen, hormonal and exhausted...(not to mention anxious beyond words to meet your baby!) every hour you go over your due date feels like days!  I had been dilated to a 3 and fully effaced for the past 2 weeks, so everyday I woke up thinking, "Today's gonna be the day!" only to have another day pass with baby still in my belly. 

Well not anymore!  As I'm laying in bed and reading, all of the sudden my water breaks!  I raced out of my room, (leaking amniotic fluid the whole way! haha) to go tell the soon to be grandparents!  We got all our things together and made it to the hospital around 10:30am.

Posing for one last belly picture before we head to the hospital!  Right before Grandma went to the hospital to have me 25 years ago, she posed for the exact same picture- in the nursery and in front of the crib- so the tradition lives on!  One more tradition we carried on was measuring the belly before we left for the hospital...41 inches around! I look like I'm having twins!

A Labor of Love!

Even though my water had broken a few hours before, I still wasn't having any contractions (that I could feel) when we got to the hospital.  But since I had tested positive for strep B, they had give me an IV with antibiotics and let it run for 4 hours before inducing labor.  Around 5pm they started the Pitocen and it definitely lived up to it's purpose!  As the contractions got stronger (and more painful!), Grandma helped me walk the halls and breath through them.  When I was done with walking, I sat for about an hour on the birthing ball which really helped take the edge off the pain.  After almost 9 hours at the hospital and 2 hours of strong contractions, they checked me and I had not made any progress from when I came in!  All that pain for nothing! haha So being the whimp that I am and having absolutely no tolerance for pain, at 7:30pm the anesthesiologist came in and gave me the epidural!  That was no walk in the park either...it took a couple of tries for her to get it in right because she wanted to make sure it was in perfectly so I wouldn't get the dreaded epidural headaches.  But as soon as it took effect, I was a new woman! Grandma even asked the nurse if I was even having contractions anymore or if they had stopped because she couldn't believe how I was smiling and laughing with everyone...Epidurals are the way to go! :0) 

Had I known it'd be 15 hours before I'd have the baby, I might've eaten a little more before going to the hospital!  It didn't help that it was Thanksgiving and all everyone was talking about was turkey and pies!  Thank goodness for lollipops, they helped keep the hunger at bay :) 

Catching up on my reading...ahhh thank God for epidurals!! :0)

This is it!!!

Around 11pm I started pushing and the nurse called Dr. Falk to tell him to come to the hospital.  I've known Dr. Falk and his family for almost 10 years since I started babysitting for their two children, Rachel and Jason when I was 16.  It was amazing to have recieved such great care from him throughout my pregnancy and I felt so blessed that even though he wasn't on schedule and it was his day off, he was coming to the hospital to come bring you into the world! 

One thing I was not prepared for during labor was how emotional I became!  In the movies you always see those labor scenes were the woman is freaking out, yelling and screaming.  Well, as my labor progressed and I was about to start pushing, the tears just started falling!  I couldn't stop telling Grandma how much I loved her, what an amazing mom she'd been to me all these years, how I wouldn't know what to do without her...As I was moments away from motherhood myself, I think I began to realize the incredible depths of a mother's love for her child...how much my own mom loved me and how I was going to love my own baby the same way for the rest of my life.  What an overwhelming feeling!

With all these emotions plus all the excitement and nervousness I felt, my adreneline was really going and I could not stop shaking as I began to push!  I pushed for about 2 hours until finally I could hear everyone, "You're almost there! One more big push!"  Up until that point I'd had my eyes closed tight in concentration, but I opened my eyes and.. there you were!!!  I will never forget how my heart felt when they lifted you up and I saw you for the first time...My perfect baby boy!!!

Landon Robert Kalmick
born at 1:01am
8 lbs, 10 oz...21 and 1/2 inches long

My big beautiful baby boy!!!  You surprised everyone with your big, healthy size!  Right before I delivered you, Dr. Falk felt my belly and said, unless you were hiding, that you would be about 7 or 7.5 lbs.  Well at close to 9 lbs, you had us fooled! ;0)

Baby's first bath
I remember the first thing everyone noticed about you was your "impressive conehead!"  You looked like a little alien baby...a very cute and adorable little alien baby of course! ;0)  Also noteworthy...look at those long fingers of yours!  Maybe you will play guitar or piano!

Love at first sight

After 9 looong months, we finally meet!  I couldn't take my eyes off of you!

Sweet little smiles - 1 day old

Welcome to the world Landon!!! <3