Mleynek Moments - Meeting Miles I

There are already so many pictures...

So in order to catch up and not overwhelm you, I'm going to do a "Mleynek Moments" series

and just post a group of pictures whenever I have time. I'm not going to promise they'll be completely in order or coming to you on a schedule of any kind... but it's time to get Miles on the blog. :)

I'll write out a little of his birth story: Feel free to skip to the pictures though.

I had a few contractions on Thursday night (starting at the Chiefs game) that felt a little 'funny'.

I've had a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions this pregnancy, but these were starting to wrap around to my back and I was feeling more pressure. I timed them a little and they were 6-8 minutes apart at times. I was able to go to sleep that night and slept well, so didn't think it was the real thing. Contractions started in again the next morning and didn't stop much after that. I had a doctor appointment already scheduled for 12:45pm so Mal (who was still here visiting) drove me over to that and I wasn't dilated at all. I came home and dozed on and off a little and woke up with contractions about 4 minutes apart. But then they'd go back to being 8 minutes apart, back to 3 then 7 minutes. Mal was ready to leave that evening and we talked Derek's parents into coming up that night instead of waiting till morning, just in case we needed to go to the hospital in the night. They arrived about 10pm and we talked a little and I decided to go try and sleep for a while. I laid down around midnight, had one contraction, then another and my water broke! So we headed to the hospital... right after taking this picture:

When we got to the hospital I was dilated to 5cm. So I labored for a while, switching positions, sitting on a birthing ball, soaking in the jacuzzi tub... but by 5am I was only dilated to 6cm and my body was involuntarily pushing during contractions, causing my cervix to swell. At that point I opted to get an epidural so that my body would relax. After that I had a little nap and by 8:50am I was ready to start pushing:

At 9:27am, Miles Eldon (my Dad's middle name) Mleynek made his appearance!

More...much more...to come!