This was originally posted on the Tightrope a little over a week ago, but I was asked by a few readers to post pictures over here on this blog. So here's the Monkey's arrival story, with his birth and coming-home pictures. Fair warning - there may be a little TMI for a few of you. ;-)

So many of you have probably already heard the news, either through Twitter or my LabSpaces blog, but our little Monkey has finally arrived!! The Monkey was born Monday afternoon, weighing in at just under 6 pounds and measuring almost 20 inches long - a skinny but very handsome boy:

I evidently went into labor on Saturday evening, but I didn't realize it due to the fact that the contractions were coming and going somewhat irregularly. I finally called my OB on Sunday morning due to the pain and inability to sleep - she informed me that I should rest up since I'd probably be heading to the hospital that evening. I totally didn't believe her, and instead went about my day doing laundry, cleaning up around the condo, and getting my last few job applications sent off (thank goodness on this last one). By 1am Monday morning, my contractions were 5-7 minutes apart, and it finally occurred to me that I might actually be in labor. Pretty ridiculous, huh? All I can say is that this same thick-headed attitude of mine is what makes me stick with my crazy TT goal. ;-)

Hubby and I headed to the hospital after talking to the OB, luckily hitting the smoothest parts of the route during my contractions, which were now fairly intense and coming every 3 minutes. When I got to the hospital, I was only dilated 3cm, though, indicating I had a ways to go. By 7am when the OB showed up, I was still at 4cm, so we decided to let her break my water. Now I've read differing accounts of the effectiveness of this tactic for hurrying labor along. My personal experience - IT WORKS. I had planned on having an unmedicated delivery. After breaking my water, though, my contractions got so intense - causing severe nausea and vomiting - that I could no longer breath my way through them. This, combined with no sleep Saturday or Sunday night, led to my acceptance of an epidural - probably the smartest decision I ever made.

Three hours of peaceful rest later, I was at 10cm and started pushing (with some actual energy stored up from intermittent sleep). The epidural was light enough that I was able to feel these later contractions quite well; they were just much more bearable than they would have been without the meds. This part of labor was by far the most difficult, though - imagine two hours of weight-bearing aerobics. But it was worth every second the first time I laid eyes on our little Monkey!!!

So here we are with this new little life, causing some severe lack of sleep, combined with a few tears and some frustration, but making Hubby and I happier and more complete than we ever imagined.

Surprisingly enough, I hadn't even thought about work until tonight. I've been healing very quickly, mostly due to the lack of any complications during delivery, so Hubby and I sat down to look at the calendar this evening. My current plan is to head back to work just after the New Year. This will give me 8 full weeks away from work, but I'll only have to take 6 weeks off due to the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year holidays. So I'm starting to feel confident about my ability to handle my recovery and take care of the Monkey. Now if I can just stop worrying about getting scooped in the next couple of months...