What a week!!!

This week has been easily the busiest in our lives. We moved on Friday to our new house, closed on Monday and had a baby on Wednesday (yesterday). First topic...the move! We kept Hunter home from school on Friday so that he could be a part of the action. He was such a helper! He probably carried 20 boxes all by himself out to the moving truck. One of the movers even commented, "Wow...Hunter's puttin' me to shame. I've gotta pick up the pace here!" It was really cute. We were thankfully able to move in a few days before closing because the previous owners of our new house allowed it. The closing on our house in Milwaukee kept getting pushed off because of some minor paperwork issue with the buyers. It was a mess but it all worked out. We absolutely LOVE our new community and our neighbors are awesome! There are a lot of kids in our neighborhood for Hunter to play with. It's everything we wanted and more!

Monday's closing went off without a hitch! I was over at the house on 39th Street for the last time that morning to pick up one last thing and it was bittersweet walking through those doors for the last time. We made some really great memories in that house. We brought our babies home there and watched them take their first steps, eat their first foods, and smile their first smiles. We really did love that house and will miss it. But our new house is even better and we have plenty of memories to make there! We'll be taking home our new baby there which brings me to our final topic...

Yesterday morning I had a doctor's appointment and learned that I was dilated 5-6 cm, 70% effaced and my doctor mentioned that all I needed was for my water to break and that baby "would just fall out!" We made plans that if I didn't go into labor naturally by next week, she would admit me to the hospital and break my water and make it happen. The reason being that now we live further from the hospital and need to wait an hour before even leaving for John's parents to arrive from Madison to take care of the kids. Since I was already dilated so much she feared I wouldn't make it to the hospital. I agreed that it was a good plan. I did not want to end up delivering at home or on the freeway, especially given that I wanted a VBAC (vaginal birth after c-section) which is already somewhat risky. The rest of the day I spent unpacking boxes and chasing after two toddlers as normal. By the time we walked down to the bus stop to get Hunter I was feeling somewhat regular contractions and decided to start recording them when I returned home. They started about 20 mins apart, moved to 10 pretty quickly and were about 6-7 when I called John at about 4:45 p.m. to alert him to hurry home. He was already on his way and called his parents to come on over. John's mom's best friend Laurie lives in Hartland, which is much closer and she asked her to come to cover the interim between when we left for the hospital and when they arrived. Laurie and her husband arrived about 10 mins later and we were off. By the time we got to the hospital the contractions were about 3-5 mins apart but not too intense. I was still 5-6 cm dilated a few hours after arriving and at 8 p.m. my nurse said that Dr. Schell's orders were to allow me two more hours to progress naturally and if there was no change in my cervix by 10 p.m. we could return home. She also gave me the option of breaking my water to send me into more active labor. I opted to hop in the whirlpool tub and let things progress naturally. And they did. After an hour of the whirlpool my contractions picked up and were much more intense. By 10 p.m. I had progressed to 6-7 cm and 100% effaced. They told me I was staying. Dr. Schell was finishing up a few more charts in her office and would head over to the hospital afterwards to break my water (upon my request). When she got there I was at 8 cm and was having what I think were pretty violent and super unpleasant contractions every 2 mins. She broke my water and went to change into her scrubs. My contractions became even more intense and less than ten minutes later Greyson was born. I had the urge to push even before she made it back into the delivery room. I thought for a second that the nurse was going to catch the baby. I told the nurse that I needed to push and she said that I could bear down but "don't push the baby out." I said, "How do I do that?" I tried my hardest to control the urge until Dr. Schell returned, which seemed like an eternity but was really only about two contractions more. When she got there I told her I had to push and she said, "Well, let's check to see if you're ready." I WAS READY, believe me!!! She said I was at 9 cm but I didn't care. I was pushing no matter what. She said she wanted me to contract which she was checking me to see if I could push past that last centimeter. That was super uncomfortable but worth it because she said, "Yep...One good push and she should be able to do it! Let's get her ready!" I pushed twice and he was born. Greyson Pierce Collins was born at 11:13 p.m. and weighed 8 lbs. 1 oz. and was 20.5 inches long. We are all so relieved that the VBAC went well, no ruptured uterus and that he is healthy. I am especially thankful that I will never have to experience childbirth again. Not fun. But the end-result is soooo worth it! He is so precious!