Welcome to the World!

So it finally happened! Our little guy made his grand entrance into the world on Tuesday September 7, 2010. It all started on Monday afternoon...how fitting that I would go into labor on Labor Day! Travis and I were out running some errands when I started feeling a weird cramp/mild pain that I had never felt before. I didn't really think anything of it until it continued to happen multiple times. But I didn't want to get my hopes up or think I was going into labor because I really didn't want to be disappointed if it turned out to be a false alarm.

So these cramps sorta continued throughout the rest of the day and later that night but nothing really came of them until about 12:45 am. I had just barely turned off the light to go to bed when I had a really intense pain come over me that lasted for about minute or so. And then about 12 minutes later it happened again. And then another 12 minutes later it happened again. So of course I became wide awake and started counting and timing them and sure enough they kept getting closer and closer together and stronger and stronger! I couldn't believe I was actually going into labor! Finally Travis woke up around 3:00 am because he could tell I was in pain and I told him that I was having contractions about 7 minutes apart and they'd been going on for a few hours. Needless to say neither of us were going to get any more sleep that night! So around 4:00 am the contractions were 5 minutes apart so we decided we should probably call our families and let them know what was going on. Travis' mom immediately woke up and booked a ticket to come out from Colorado a few hours later and my family all jumped out of bed and headed down from Kaysville. We hopped into the car and made it to the hospital at about 5:00 am when my contractions were about 3 minutes apart and hurting pretty dang badly! They immediately got me set up with everything, got that life saving epidural in me and we were on our way!

We figured since my contractions had gotten so close together so quickly that I would have a fairly quick labor but boy were we wrong! Long story short, they had to give me quite a bit of Pitocin and break my water and it still took until around 5:30 pm until I was ready to start pushing. That was a long day of waiting...when it was time to finally start pushing the nurse told us that for first time moms the pushing usually would take about 1-2 hours so to gear up for that. Well let's just say that 4 hours and 15 minutes of pushing later our little Lawson was born. Yup. 4 hours and 15 minutes of pushing! All I can say is that was the longest and most painful experience of my life. The epidural began to wear off about 3 hours into the pushing and I have never felt so much pain in my life. I have no idea how anyone could ever give birth naturally...

So at 9:42 pm after almost 21 hours of labor Lawson Carleton Anderson was finally born! (Side note: we actually didn't know his name until yesterday. We had four possibilities that we liked and it took us a few days to narrow down those possibilities. But we finally decided right before leaving the hospital haha).  It really is such an amazing experience to give birth and see the first moments of your child's life. I never knew that you could fall unconditionally in love with someone so quickly. I still can't believe that Travis and I have a son! Crazy. Here are some (actually A LOT of) pictures of our little Lawson. Enjoy!

 Just checked into the hospital and ready to get this show on the road!

Still waiting...

 Gotta love that epidural!

 My doctor said that only real women have 9 lb babies...

First picture with Daddy!

First picture with Mommy!

Still can't believe that he's mine...

First Anderson family picture!

(By the way, going through 21 hours of labor doesn't do much for your looks...)

 

 Travis changing his very first dirty diaper!

 Needless to say we've already changed plenty of these in the last 3 days.

Hello world! Gotta love those big eyes!

He absolutely loves his hands to be right in his face and mouth. Even on the ultrasound at 20 weeks he was constantly putting his hands by his mouth. We definitely think he's going to be a thumb sucker just like his Daddy was.

One of his many funny faces. So cute!

Just chillin with Daddy.

Watching ESPN with Daddy. Travis has already started talking sports with him...

Ready to go home! He's so tiny in his outfit and car seat!

Touchdown! He loves to sleep with his hands up like this.

Nap time with Daddy. We've all been pretty tired these last few days.

Very first bath! He didn't enjoy it very much...

 Seriously, can a baby get any cuter???

So we're definitely loving our little guy and we're looking forward to all the fun (and hard) times ahead of us!