Introducing Owen Rick Mortensen...

Here I am at 37 weeks pregnant...after being on bed-rest for a while the swelling gets really bad...I just have to remind myself that I will go back to normal again...it's so nice to be off of bed-rest now that Owen is here...can't wait until I get the go-ahead at my six-week check up to exercise and enjoy the nice Spring weather :)

Here we are starting the labor induction at 37 weeks and 4 days along in the pregnancy. Don't feel obligated to read this...it's mostly for my own records :) I went in to the hospital Thursday night (April 21st) to have some medicine to soften my cervix. They put the medicine in at about 8:00 pm. Then they weren't going to start the actual induction with Pitocin until the next morning. I was really surprised when the medicine to soften my cervix actually put me into full-blown labor. The contractions started coming every 1 to 3 minutes and were getting pretty bad, but I did my best to breathe through them. I had Jason holding my hand and watching the contractions on the screen to tell me when they're starting to go down, and my sister rubbing my feet. Both "coaches" were a great help. Finally, at 2:45 am the nurse was allowed to check me and remove the medicine. I kept thinking, "Please, let something be happening after all those hours of hard work...please let me at least be at a 3 so I can get an epidural!" I was so happy and proud of myself for breathing through all those hard contractions when the nurse told me I was at a 6! Whoohoo! Her next question which I barely let her get out before I said, "Yes!" was "would you like an epidural?" About an hour later I had the epidural in...as anyone who's ever had one knows, that part really sucks, but once it's done it's soooo nice. The only bad part was that the epidural made my blood-pressure drop to about 60/45 which made me feel really dizzy and nauseous. The nurse gave me some medicine to bring my blood-pressure back up which didn't work. Then they gave me Zofran for the nausea...then a second dose of the medicine to bring my blood-pressure back up which still didn't work. Finally, a totally different medication was given and that worked within about a minute to bring my blood-pressure back to normal. Finally, I was feeling well enough to get some sleep. I slept for about an hour. At about 7:00 am, the nurse checked me and said, "Wow, the only thing holding this kid in is the fact that we haven't broken your water yet...as soon as we do that this kid is going to be here!" My doctor got called in for an emergency surgery, so the nurse laid me back and told me that we just had to hope that my water didn't break on its own until my doctor could get back. At about 8:30 am, Dr. Young was back from surgery and broke my water. The baby immediately dropped, and it was time to push! The baby came out in about 3 pushes, and was born at 8:46 am. He was really purple at first, but over by the warmer, he let out a huge cry and started to turn pink. He looked so tiny to me! He's our smallest baby...he came in weighing 7 lbs 6 oz and 19 inches long.

Here he is...just perfect as can be...

Every ultrasound showed Owen with his arms up by his face...I guess this is just how he likes to sleep...

All brand-new to the world...just checking things out...

Proud Mommy...

Happy Big Brothers...

Proud Daddy...

Auntie Sherri...

Delicious cheeks...

Sweet sleepy boy.

Ride home from the hospital.

Sweet little face.

First bath.