Boston's Birth Story: Part I

It's hard to believe that my little guy is already three weeks old today. When Harper joined our family two and a half years ago, I felt like time started to pick up it's pace and it started to pass by quickly. Yet, since adding Boston to our mix, I'm realizing that when you have two babies, time passes at lightning speeds. In some moments, I feel like our little guy has been with us forever and in others, I feel like he just got here which happens to be what I want to talk about today. So let's start from the beginning....
When I went in for my 38 week check up on Thursday, February 18th, my doctor informed me that she wouldn't be on call the weekend before Boston's due date so she asked if I'd like to be induced the following week. The question caught me completely off guard as she's not one to just take your baby early if it's not medically necessary so coming up with a response took me a moment as I mentally weighed the pros and cons.
You see, Kevin and I had discussed induction prior to my appointment and I had told him along with my coworkers, family members, and friends that with this pregnancy, I hoped to go into labor on my own. I wanted to experience true labor...contractions, water breaking, and all as I felt like I had been gypped out of this experience when I was induced with Harper and I wasn't sure whether or not I planned to have more children so this could be my only chance. Yet, the other part of me considered the fact that Harper came late and with late pregnancies comes a variety of other complications and risks. To top it off, Kevin had been working non-stop, fifteen days in a row in fact, and the following week he was actually scheduled to have some time off making it much easier for him to be home with me and the baby. So after thinking it over for a few minutes and sending Kevin a quick text to ask him what he thought, we decided that moving forward with an induction was the way to go. I talked it over with my doctor and we had two options. I could be induced on Tuesday, February 23rd or Thursday, February 25th. Since Kevin was scheduled to be off on Tuesday, we decided that that would work best. So when I left my OB-GYN's office, our little guy had a birthday scheduled for four days later.
Heading into work the next day, I let my principal and teammates know that Monday would be my last official day of work. Many of my coworkers encouraged me to take Monday off and enjoy my last day resting and relaxing before our family was joined by another member, but I just laughed and told them I'd be there Monday because there really wasn't any point of just sitting around at home and using a vacation day when I could save it for after the baby got here. But just in case I changed my mind or Boston decided to make an early appearance, I stuck around school later than usual that Friday tying up loose ends, completing paper work for my leave, laying out everything needed for the following week, and straightening up my room before I called it a day and headed home. 
Kevin had to work that Saturday and Sunday so while he slept during the day, I soaked up my last few moments with Harper as an only child. On Saturday she and I headed to Greensboro with my sister and did some shopping as I figured that would be the last opportunity I'd have for a while...after all, the thought of shopping by myself with two babies is a bit daunting. We grabbed Starbucks, as was Harper's request, and stocked up on groceries for the coming weeks. On Sunday, Harper and I slept in, watched cartoons all morning, then whipped up some lasagna for my family to come and eat after church. It felt like a successful weekend, yet all I could think about was how good it would feel to spend the day at home tomorrow instead of going to work. So I sent one of my teammates a message and told her I was struggling with the decision to take the next day off or to "suck it up" and go in. As a mom of two kids herself, her answer came quick and with certainty... get a sub and enjoy the day at home! So with that, I reported my absence and lined up a sub....all the while feeling completely guilty. But then Monday rolled around....