Hello, Ms. Aubrey!

There was no long wait after my last blog.

The very next morning after that was written, I went into labor. Waking up at 5:46 am to empty my bladder, I started feeling a discomfort that lasted all morning long. I tried to sleep it off but didn't succeed. The pain just kept coming back, every 20 minutes or so. By 8am, I started timing them -- I wasn't sure if it was real labor contractions, or just pregnancy pain. But my timer was telling me that it was time. I was averaging minute-long contractions every 2-5 minutes for an hour. I got up right before 9 am to eat breakfast, and I didn't get too far: half a slice into my pizza, I couldn't take the pain anymore. I went to pee again and saw some blood. Papa Egan called the hospital and we were told to head out.

Now our toddler was with us, and since we weren't allowed to bring kids to the hospital, we had to drop him off with his great grandma. When we were getting ready to leave the house, I naturally blurted out a bad word from the pain and here's little Gerard repeating what I just said: "Paaaa!" You take a guess what word I said. I apologized but I couldn't help it.

On the drive to great grandma (it was about 9:30 am), the pain just got more serious. I was conscious about any other bad words so I kept quiet and breathed through the pain. Well, little Gerard started copying my breathing. It was very funny but I couldn't laugh in the moment because of all the pain. We had to get on the freeway and city streets to great grandma, so Papa only had time to drop him off without the chance to change his diaper because we had to trek again to another part of town to get to the hospital. And that's when the bad words came out of my mouth again ;-) Ahhhh.... I need to soap my dirty mouth.

We checked in at the hospital around 10 am and got situated right away. I was brought into triage where they got my information, got me in a robe, and then transferred to the delivery room. I was told that I was dilated almost 4cm, and that we'd deliver sometime before dinner.

In the delivery room, I got hooked up to the IV right away and asked for epidural. Maybe it was a bit early, but I wasn't about to stress myself out over anymore pain. I snuck in a bit of rest before I was ready to push -- that was at about 2:12 pm. It took me an hour of pushing and baby Aubrey came out, then the placenta followed shortly after. Even with all the epidural I had, I was able to feel her head come out. But I had a hard time feeling most of the contractions by then.She was 6 lbs and 14 oz, and 18.5 inches tall. Her lips are very beautiful and she has nice brown eyes!

They put her on my chest right away (something that didn't happen in my first pregnancy), and we had our bonding time for a while until the nurses took her for weighing, hep C shot, and a bath. We tried breastfeeding within the hour but as expected, she did not latch.

We were transferred to the post partum room about 2 or 3 hours later where I still am tonight. Our discharge day is tomorrow (Friday). I've been eating well, and trying to get Aubrey to latch. She's trying! She makes the sucking motion, so I know she's trying. She's had some formula in the meantime.

Aubrey's been such an alert and good baby. She only cries when her diaper is soiled, and other times, she's looking around. For the most part, she's been sleeping.

As for me, I've mostly been in bed and recovering. Being in bed drives me crazy, but I haven't really had the chance to walk around either. I'm still experiencing some pain on my stitches. Painkillers aren't working very well.

I really can't wait to get home and have Gerard see his new sister! I know our hands will be fuller and lives will be even crazier, but I'm so very happy to have these tiny tots around! I'm saying that now..... wait till later, right? Yes--I will wait till later. In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy my two babies!!