Welcome Evan Allen Hodge

Our son made his early arrival on Wednesday 4/29/2009. We were due to be induced next week, but he had other plans. All day Tuesday I felt like crap with terrible back pain. Went home and passed out for a couple hours. Got up and packed the hospital bags. (glad I did) Prepared some last minute things and went to bed around 11:00pm.

I woke up around 1:00am with what felt like menstrual cramps and I knew they were probably contractions, but I had been having some off an on for a while so I didn't think much of it. I got out of bed to go to the bathroom and my water broke. I knew it was my water this time because the contractions intensified immediately. It got to the point when I couldn't talk through them anymore so I knew we needed to go to the hospital.

We got to the hospital around 3:00am, I was checked and it was my water so I was a keeper. I had to wait until 8:00am to get my epidural because of my blood thinners. I thought "Hey no problem it is only 5 hours." Well, by 7:00am I couldn't take it anymore I was crawling out of my skin so I asked for Stadol to get me to epi time. This was heaven. I was able to sleep for a while and relax.

By 1:00pm I was 10 cm and ready to push. I pushed like a mad woman for 57 minutes and my baby boy made his grand entrance. The cord was around his neck so they had to work on him for a minute to get him to breath, but then he cried and we all cried. Jesse saw and participated more than he thought he would want to and was glad he did. I tore a little and needed some stitches, but so far so good. The worst part of recovery is how sore my whole body is. I feel like every muscle in my body has been run through the ringer. We are very blessed and cannot wait to go home tomorrow and start our lives with Evan.