Where have I been?

WOW! Has it really been that long since I've posted to my blog? Guess so, I have been busy. Where to start.....Let's go back to the morning of October 23, 2010.
I'm laying in bed awake at around 5 am with pains. What kind of pains? Contractions. The pains are too far apart to start trying to time them. So, I try to fall back to sleep but can't. I continue to just lay in bed, to tired to get up. Around 6 am the contractions are coming at about 7 minutes apart. By this time, I've got 2 little kids in bed with me. I finally tell Mike, that the contractions are about 7 minutes apart. Not wanting to rush off to the hospital, I get up take a shower and get all ready to go some where just in case. The contractions are still just 7 minutes apart but seem to be hurting a lot worse. Mike reminds me that we do live 45 minutes away from the hospital and that I don't want to risk not being able to get an epidural. So, I call my Mom to let her know that I think today is the day that Baby Halbert is going to arrive. She says that she will come get Gibson & Blanche so if we need to go to the hospital we can. As we wait for Mom to get to our house I make sure my bag is ready and try to tell the kids what is going on. The contractions start feeling like they are coming faster and harder so I sit down to time them. Still 7 minutes apart but MAN DO THEY HURT!!! We decide that maybe we should go to the hospital. So once Mom has picked up the kids we take off for the hospital. As you know, in the beginning we decided not to find out if baby Halbert was a boy or girl. We like the surprise. During all this time we never could agree on a girl baby name. All the way to the hospital we are trying to come up with a girl name. By the time we got to the hospital we had finally agreed on a girl baby name. A name that had never been mentioned before but a name that I really did like....Wrigley Grace Halbert. Yep that's the girl name. Who do you think came up with that one? You guess it, Mike. (Wrigley's field....got to keep baseball in the name. LOL) When we get to the hospital we go through the ER and didn't even have to wait. I get all hooked up and ready to have a baby. The nurse checks me, I'm still only dilated to a 3 and 50 % effaced. BUMMER because the contractions are really hurting and another BUMMER the contractions are still at 7 minutes apart. When the nurse leaves, Mike says they are going to send us home. I keep telling him that the contractions are really hurting, I have to progress. They wait, come back and check me I'm still the same. The baby's heart rate would fall each time a contraction came, which they said was normal but it wasn't rising back up as quickly as they would have liked it to after the contraction had ended. I was getting worried. I'm sitting in bed, texting Mike about my worries with the baby's heart beat. He texts me back saying everything will be ok. It's a Saturday, my dr isn't on call so, they call the on call dr. I'm thinking great a dr I've never meant is going to deliver my baby. Didn't like that idea but what choice did I have. The on call dr comes in (by the way the on call dr was very nice and after meeting him I was ok with him delivering the baby) he tells us that we are going to have a baby sometime today. So, they decide to hook me up to that awful medicine that makes the contractions come faster, draw some blood to check for any infections. It is a Saturday, there is no one in the lab to check the blood and no one to do the epidural. So, we are waiting on some one to check the blood before I can get the epidural then having to wait on someone to come in and do the epidural. GOOD GRIEF!!!! I'm really hurting by this time and keep telling Mike that they better hurry up and get the epidural because I am hurting BAD! Finally, blood work comes back infection free...YES now get that epidural in. I wait and wait what seems like forever before someone comes in to do the epidural. Mike had to leave the room while they did the epidural, sure wish he could have stayed in there with me. FINALLY!!!!! Epidural is in, ahhhh! Nurse checks me again, progressed to a 4 and almost 75% effaced. STUBBORN BABY HALBERT!!! I have a whole cheering group waiting in the waiting room to meet Baby Halbert. My brother and his girlfriend are out there as well as my parents, grandma and our 2 youngest children. Off and on the nurse comes in to check how I am progressing. I finally get to the point where it is time to start pushing. With Mike by my side, they start telling me to push. I push and push the baby just doesn't want to come out on it's own. The dr says with the babys heart beat dropping he is going to have to help the baby. So, they put what Mike calls the plunger on the babies head as they tell me to push they us the plunger to help pull the baby out. As they are pulling the baby out, I hear both Mike and the dr say....IT'S A BOY! They lay the baby on my chest and I begin to cry tears of joy. I get to hold him for a little while before they take him to weigh, clean up and do all that stuff that they do with new borns. He is just perfect!!!! God has blessed us yet again. Mike sends a text to my brother in the waiting room to tell them baby is a boy. He has taking several pictures, so he goes out to show those waiting to see the baby some of the pictures. Once they get the baby all cleaned up, the family can come in to meet him. The looks on Gibson and Blanche's faces are priceless. It was love at first sight for them. Everyone took their turn meeting baby Halbert who has been named: Ripken Buck Newton Halbert. He was born at 4:36 pm on October 23, 2010 weighing 6 lbs 14 oz and 19 inches long. He is just perfect! I'm including pictures of our newest addition to the Halbert family.