New Arrival

HE'S HERE... THREE WEEKS SOONER THAN PLANNED
CAMDEN MARSHALL ALTICE
DECEMBER 26, 2007
7.2lbs 20inches

Christmas morning I woke up at 6am noticing that I was having contractions...I started counting them out and woke up Dean around 6:30 to inform him that I was having contractions about every 7 mins lasting around 30 seconds each and asked him what we should do because we hadn't planned for an early arrival. I called my mom to tell her the news and then got in the bathtub to relieve so pain and called up the midwife on call to inform her of the news. She told us to wait until they became 3-5 mins apart and 60-90 seconds in length. We decided to open Christmas presents and then shortly went to Timpanogos hospital. We were there for 3 hours and then went home to wait it out a little longer. We had Christmas dinner at Sharon and Josh's around 4pm and then went to see National Treasure 2. I told Dean that I didn't think I'd be able to make it through the movie and I was right...we left about 30mins early and went into the hospital around 8pm...they still didn't think I was in active labor. They continued to check me every hour but I was progressing very slowly. They said if they could get me to a 3 they would keep me. Finally around 3am I heard the wonderful news...I was finally at a 3 and that I could now get an epidural! I was experiencing horrible back contractions and didn't think I could last any longer! Around 3:30 the dr came in and I was able to get some relief and sleep for about an hour before it was back to more testing. Around 7ish the checked and I was still only at a 4 and the next hour they came in and I was an 8!!! At this point my contractions were about 2 mins apart and by the time I was at a 10 and ready to go I was now having contractions only 4 mins apart. They gave me pitocin to try to bring them closer together...but it didn't work. They decided to keep my legs up to help prevent him from going back up between contractions. After 2 1/2 hours of pushing he decided to show up...sunny side so he could see the world! This was a surprise to all but it helped explain the prolonged labor. His head was bruised very bruised from my pelvis bone. I was very relieved to be done...I didn't know if I had the energy to push any longer! We were surprised that he was as big as he is because he was three weeks before his due date...after testing his reflexes and everything they guessed that his due date was off and he was more like 39 weeks instead of 37.