Matthew Jon Hager

After a fairly short labor and a delivery that lasted all of a few minutes we welcomed Matthew Jon Hager into the world on Monday, April 20, 2009 at 3:02pm! Only 1 day overdue! He was 7 lb. 14.2 ounces and 19.5 in. (exact length as Joshua and only a few ounces heavier than Joshua). These photos were taken during his first bath an hour after his birth. We hope to have more photos of our sweet, adorable and content little guy on the blog later today.

As for the labor and delivery - contractions started at 7am at 10 min apart. I had a lot of back pain and abdomen pain that accompanied all this. I called Cory and work at 7:30am and put him on notice that this may be the real deal, I didn't want to assume as we didn't experience things this way last time as Joshua was induced. By 8am they were consistent contractions that lasted 30-45 seconds and were 5 minutes apart. I called my OB's office to see if my doctor wanted me to go to the hospital. The nurse called back about 40 minutes later telling me to go to the hospital. I prepared Joshua and his things for a day with Uncle Shawn and Owen as well as prepared the rest of my things for the hospital. Joshua was off with Uncle Shawn by 10:30am as excited as could be! Cory was home by 10:15am, packed his things and put everything in the car. We were at the hospital by 11am which was good because the contractions were getting stronger and were now 3-4 minutes apart. I was put in a labor and delivery room and quickly situated. I was hooked up to a variety of machines (fetal heart monitor, etc), cervix checked and looked to be at 5 cm. and the doctor on call broke my water. Soon after the much anticipated anesthesiologist came in to put my epidural in. Life was good once this was in place and contractions weren't felt again! About an hour after all this my cervix was at 8cm. When the nurse checked again around 2:40pm I was complete and she got the room ready for delivery. She had me do a practice push at 2:55pm and the doctor was called to come for delivery. The nurse then had me push twice during one contraction and on then twice again on the second contraction - the top of baby's head could be seen. On the third contraction I was about to push when I got sick and started to vomit. Apparently as I was vomiting little Matthew flew out and the nurse caught him on the bed! She calmly asked Cory to hit the call button for an extra pair of hands to help her since she was the only one in the room! A couple other nurses and a resident came in to help with the umbilical cord and the delivery of the placenta. The doctor on call came in just a few minutes later. It was quite the enjoyable experience, especially compared to the last time! Immediately after he was born I got to snuggle skin to skin with Matthew for about 45 minutes and feed him (he kid was a champion at eating from that very first moment, again very different than last time around)! We are doing well and hope to be home Wednesday late morning or early afternoon adjusting from a family of 3 to a family of 4!