By the Numbers

Being a math person, numbers have always been important to me and stick in my mind. Here are some numbers that have taken on new meaning in the past few days:

• 31, 4: At 31 weeks 4 days, I was put on bed rest to try to stop little Xavier from coming too early.
• 40, 4: At 40 weeks 4 days, I delivered a healthy (post-date) baby boy!
• 2: It took two hours of pushing to meet Xavier.
• 18: I experienced 18 hours of labor from waking up in pain to meeting my little boy.
• 8, 13: Xavier weighed in at a whopping 8 lb 13 oz!
• 11/24/09: A new birthday to remember :-)

Timeline of a birth:

• 2:30: At 2:30 a.m. my contractions woke me up and felt significantly more painful than they ever had before - I thought this was probably the beginning of labor.
• 5:30: At 5:30 a.m. I woke Mason up because I wanted to go to the hospital.
• 7:30: At 7:30 a.m. they sent us home because I wasn't progressing far enough to be admitted yet.
• 1:30: At 1:30 p.m. the pain of the contractions in my back was so severe I could hardly breathe. We decided it was time to go back in and not leave without a baby.
• 3:00: At 3 p.m. I was admitted at a 3 and told that Xavier was facing forward instead of down and that is why my back labor was so bad. I was told to lay on my side for a while and then get in the whirlpool tub.
• 3:45: At 3:45 I got out of the tub and was told that I was now at a 7 and he was almost all the way turned around!
• 6:10: At 6:10 it was time to start pushing
• 8:11: At 8:11 Xavier William Straayer breathed for the first time!