Presenting....

So I tapered off a little bit at the end of my pregnancy because there was so much going on that I didn't even have time to get extra sleep, let alone write on here.

The girls' hockey season began 2 weeks before my due date so I was worried about getting them to their evaluations, parent meetings, etc. With Ryan working for the Bengals, it has made it difficult for the scheduling of their hockey stuff matching up with some of his overtime evenings but we have made it work.

I also had to finish prepping for yet another big change in our lives. And guess what? HE FINALLY ARRIVED!! On September 30, 2015 at 8:35pm to be exact!

Introducing our wonderful bundle of joy, Sterling Duncan Craig. He weighed 7lbs, 3oz. and was 20.5 inches long. I wanted to write a post on his birth story, more for my purposes in the future but also to share the eventful, interesting day.

We went to Chuck-e-Cheese with my dad, Bonnie (his girlfriend), her grandson, and the girls the on September 29, 2015 because Bonnie's daughter had just given birth to her beautiful baby girl and Bonnie was watching her son while she stayed in the hospital. My dad came down for the birth since it was a scheduled C-Section so it made it easy to time out. All day I had been having some serious back pain but I figured that it was just my son kicking me in the back or shifting around... He was pretty snug in there. I had also been having back pain and hip pain through the pregnancy so I assumed that I just overdid it while trying to work on his room/hospital packing or slept funny the night before. I did lose my mucus plug in the afternoon but after a quick Google search, found out that for first time moms, it usually is a sign that you will have the baby in around 1-2 weeks (my dad found the same results). Also, on September 28, 2015, I had an OB/GYN appointment in which I was informed that I was "closed up like Fort Knox" and had zero effacement or dilation. Boy were we wrong! The girls and Bonnie's grandson played a ton of games while I sat down trying to get comfy, and eat pizza and salad. We eventually left because the kids all needed to get to bed before school the next day.

When I got home, I laid down to go to sleep and I was pretty successful... Until I woke up at about 12:45am with some crazy back and stomach pains... Yay contractions! The worst part about it was that when my contractions would have a break, there would be major back labor that killed in-between every contraction. The back was the most painful part. We called the doctor to let them know that things were getting started and they gave us some timing instructions and instructions on when to go to the hospital. I called my mom to let her know that she may want to get ready to come over and be with the girls so she got up and ready to do come over. Ryan called my dad to let him know it was going down. I felt so bad that it happened like that because he had just gotten home at 12am (he lives in Ft. Wayne, IN so he has a little over a 3 hour drive). If I would have known that I would be going into labor, I would have just told him to stay the evening at our house. Ryan then called his parents to let them know it was happening. Ryan was running around getting things ready for us to take to the hospital. I just got on all fours on the bed and rocked side to side. When a contraction hit, I would lean forward into a downward dog style position and that relieved the pain I was experiencing quite a bit. We eventually decided that it was time to go to the hospital at about 3:45am. I tried to do some of the exercises that we did in my birthing class but unfortunately they were centered around sitting on a birthing ball, which did not relieve any pain at all. As we were on the way to the hospital and at home, I was eating some light snacks (crackers) and lots of water. I just knew that I would be hungry and didn't want to starve for however long it would take to give birth.

We got to the hospital and they hooked me up to the monitors and checked my cervix... I didn't believe it when they told me I was only 3cm dilated! I felt like I should have been farther along! But they admitted me to the hospital because whenever I had my contractions (which were registering fairly high on their scale), my son's heart rate dropped so they wanted to keep me so that they could monitor me and make sure he was safe. I didn't progress at all by 9:00am so they told me that they wanted to put me on Pitocin to try to speed things along because his heart rate kept dropping. They wanted to see if it would positively affect him. My in-laws arrived at the hospital at about 8:00am, and my mom arrived shortly after she dropped the girls off at school around 9:30am. I finally progressed to 5cm at 3:30pm when my dad got there (he told me he would leave work at 12pm unless we told him that things were moving faster). They had to keep turning the Pitocin off because his heart rate kept dropping. They broke my water at about 12:00pm because they wanted to see if my body would start to progress faster on its own. If it didn't and his heart rate kept dropping, they were going to take him via C-Section... Which I was adamant that I didn't want unless necessary! They had me laying on my side and switching every half hour to see if that helped. They didn't want me walking around because they wanted to be able to monitor me. They gave me one last shot at the Pitocin before we decided what to do.

At that point, I told them I needed a few minutes to pray before they started it again, so the nurses and doctor left the room to allow me to have some solitude. I prayed hard that God help my son, keep his heart steady and strong, allow me to make the progress that I needed to quickly, make my labor easy, and allow my son to be healthy when he was born. They checked my dilation (still at 5cm), then turned on the Pitocin and I watched the screen, anxious, crying, and hopeful that my prayer would be answered... And IT WAS! His heart rate stayed strong and steady through all of my contractions. Ryan and my dad left after they made sure we were OK to go grab some food... Poor Ryan didn't eat because he knew that I wasn't allowed to since I was admitted due to the possibility of a C-Section. I progressed extremely quickly after they left... So quickly in fact that they had only made it to the lobby of the hospital when I called to let him know that I made it to 10 centimeters. It was 10 minutes between the time they checked me before Pitocin and the time I called him, no joke! The hospital I was at has the laboring moms sit up for an hour before having them start to push. Apparently it allows the baby to settle into the birth canal further and prevents any undue pushing or stress. So they continued to go eat while I waited. They returned and it was go time... Or so I thought!

My mom sent the girls into the room because we had decided (after their insistence and begging) that they would be in the delivery room during the birth. They were at my head and taking pictures and thought it was the coolest thing in the world. The nurses had me do a couple test pushes since it was my first time. They wanted to make sure that I was doing effective pushes and not pushes that were full of effort and strain, but not effective. Well it turns out that I am a really good pusher! I did 3 test pushes and they could see his head. They made me turn on my side and close my legs because the doctor was currently in another labor. The nurses didn't think it would happen that fast since I had progressed so slowly that day. I ended up getting sick due to my lack of food that day (it happens to me even when I'm not in labor!).. Which only caused me to feel like he was coming out more. The doctor ran in at just the right time. I laid on my back in the position, the doctor rubbed my perineum to try and prevent tearing, then had me push. 3.5 pushes later and there was a screaming, bloody baby being presented to us (Ryan says half because he popped out halfway in my 4th push). He was so adorable! And I didn't care that they laid him on me covered in goo! They took him away to weigh him, prick him, check him, and wrap him up. As they did that, the doctor gave my stomach a few swipes and the placenta was out. Easiest. Labor. Ever. I can't wait to see what the future labors are like (crossing fingers an praying that it is as easy and smooth as this one was). The funny part about my son is that while I was pregnant, I was told that he had a quarter sized patch of hair on the crown of his head. When the doctor broke my water, he said he could feel a lot of hair. When he was crowning they told me he had a full head. When he came out, sure enough he had a full head of bright red hair! Totally unexpected! We know that red runs on both sides of our families but it was not anything we expected!

The girls immediately rushed over to the scale/bed to see him and see how much he weighed. They also got to see the placenta... Which fascinated them. We were all in love with him the moment we laid eyes on him! We had some visitors that came and loved on him. We had kept his name a secret the entire time since we figured out what we were naming him. We chose Sterling because it was awesome and different but not so different that he would hate his name forever. Duncan is after Duncan Keith, a defenseman for the Chicago Blackhawks. Ironically, he has a red beard! We chose that because Ryan and I had made a deal that if we got pregnant during the hockey season and our team (the Blackhawks) had won the Stanley Cup that year, we would name our child after one of the players. We decided on a few names and Duncan was one we loved. Well sure enough they ended up winning. And even funnier, Duncan Keith scored the winning goal in game 6 and got the Conn Smythe award as the MVP! I love it!

Anywho, back to my son. Sterling was healthy but then refused to eat after a day in the hospital. I tried breastfeeding and it was surprisingly working on my end. My supply was building, which is a struggle that women with PCOS have, so I was surprised. We tried everything we could. He ended up get jaundice and had to go under the lights for almost 2 days. This was the hardest time I have ever had to go through. They took him out of our room and would only bring him back every few hours for 20 minutes so that I could feed him. We would try to breastfeed as much as I could get him to do then we gave him a supplement bottle. Luckily, the hospital I was at allowed us to stay for free after being discharged. It was a wonderful service because I couldn't imagine leaving that hospital for even a second with him still being there! He was eventually discharged on Sunday, October 4, 2015. To this day we are having feeding issues with him but are getting them checked out with his doctor. So we shall see what happens with that.

I am so excited to spend the rest of my life loving this amazing little boy! He has honestly stolen my heart already!

I have attached a few pictures below, take a look at my super cute baby!

Hope you all have a wonderful week!