9 months in a Nutshell

Thank you all for your well wishes - Mr. B, Casco, Thomas and I are all doing well and adjusting to life as we now know it.  My face is no longer swollen from IV fluids, so I'm a happy camper.

We chose not to share the pregnancy on the blog for a number of reasons - work, family and, honestly - pregnancy just wasn't something I talked or thought about in detail - it was very private to me.  I loved being pregnant (after morning sickness subsided) and was excited to meet the little person, but the details weren't my thing and I didn't even talk about them with my best friends, sister and mom much.

So, here's a quick recap:

We found out we were expecting Tommy one week after we bought our tickets to Italy and in the midst of preparing for our extended family to be in town for my grandfather's funeral.  I did a lot of fake drinking and "Oh, I have to drive home, I'm okay, thanks" to the offers of flowing wine at the family get togethers that week.  I was sick sick sick until well into my second trimester.  We told our parents about Baby McKevitt at 12 weeks, but held off for another few weeks before telling the rest of our immediate family and close friends.  We kicked off the 3rd trimester in Italy and I had no trouble keeping up with all the hiking and touring.  My pregnancy was uneventful until 33 weeks when I went to the dentist and fainted during my routine teeth cleaning.  I came to with oxygen on my face and a lot of very concerned dental hygienists standing around me.  Lesson learned: Don't go to the dentist at 33 weeks pregnant.

The closest thing we have to a "belly shot" - the 1st day of the 3rd trimester hiking in Cinque Terre, Italy.

I was planning to try a natural birth - just to see if I could handle it.  I went to the doctor for a regular appointment on my due date, June 16th, and mentioned that the baby had slowed down a lot.  We were sent to lunch and ordered to come back for a non-stress test, which Baby McKevitt didn't pass.  The doctor sent us to Labor and Delivery for more extensive monitoring and we were informed about 2 hours in that we needed to induce.  Long story short, I labored without an epidural for 5 hours when we were told the baby's heart rate kept dropping and Pitocin would need to be turned up to get us to delivery more quickly.  Enter the epidural, administered by the most gorgeous anesthesiologist that I've ever seen - Tommy was almost a Roger in honor of Dr. Gorgeous and his pain relieving magic - and an hour later we were told this baby was not taking well to labor, was in distress and needed to be born.  I cried and ranted to B and my mom some mumbo jumbo about doctors and hospitals rushing patients through a natural process and pressuring C-sections and how I was not going to add to that statistic especially after I'd already submitted to their ploys to induce me.  Eventually Mr. B decided the conspiracy theories needed to be put to rest and said, "Em, I know your only birth plan was to avoid a C-section, but the doctor is saying the baby's not okay, we need to do this".

So that's what we did.  Not my ideal birth story, but my ideal outcome: a healthy baby.  Mr. B was speechless when they held Thomas up for him to see, so Dr. Roger the gorgeous anesthesiologist and temporary love of my life shared the news that Baby McKevitt was a boy (my hunch all along).

And now we're home - Casco's adjusting well and Thomas is working on sorting out his days from his nights.  Nursery reveal coming soon!