The Big Night

9/10/08 – The contractions started around 3:00am on Wednesday. Sari went to work that day and headed to doctor’s office for her last appointment before the baby. At that point, she was 1 centimeter dilated and 98% effaced. That night, she went to dinner with some friends and having contractions every six minutes. She called her parents to come over, and when the contractions starting occurring every five minutes, she called the hospital.

Since it was a Wednesday night, Brad was hosting trivia in Perry Hall while Sari was at home. Brad had just read the final question and, while he was waiting for the teams to bring him their responses, Sari called and simply said, “I think this is it.” Brad begged the teams to bring him their answers immediately, quickly tallied the final scores, threw the prizes at the teams, and rushed home.

Although our baby wasn’t due for another week or so, we had already prepared a hospital bag. We quickly put the bags in the car and headed up to GBMC in Towson. Sari usually told Brad to slow down while driving, but this time she told him to drive faster. We arrived at GMBC around 11:00pm.

Sari was 3 centimeters dilated when we arrived at the hospital. The contractions were painful, but Sari received an epidural around 2:00am that made her a lot more comfortable. Sari was so appreciative of the epidural that she wanted to name the baby after the anesthesiologist – Dr. Douglas Alexander. We hung out all night watching TV while Sari became more and more dilated. She was 10 centimeters dilated early Thursday morning, and her water hadn’t broken, so the doctors broke her water and began the delivery procedures. After about an hour and a half of pushing, we heard a cry. It was the best sound in the world. Jordan Reese was born at 8:32am, weighing 7 pounds, 1.6 ounces. He was 21 inches long.

We had lots of visitors over the weekend, and it was great to celebrate this occasion with so many friends and family. After two days in the hospital, we went home and started life as a family of three.

Here are some pictures from our weekend in the hospital: