After a wonderful Valentines Day, consisting of a baby shower thrown by Diane’s work during lunch, the evening proved to be literally sleepless in Seattle. At approximately 10 p.m. February 14th Diane was having contractions that were a bit concerning, seeing as how there were about 3 weeks left in her pregnancy. As she put up with the annoying pains, we contemplated the fact that she may have the baby a month early — as was anticipated by her family. We both denied that possibility since we had plans set based on his delivery falling in March. 
As the night wore on, the contractions worsened. So, at around 1 a.m. February 15th, Diane called the hospital and notified them of her situation. The RN said she needed to take a nice long bath or shower to see if the contractions would stop — she was in “false labor,” the RN said. So, Diane took a 1 hour bath and we went back to sleep. One and a half hours later, she woke up with stronger contractions that were closer together. After waiting another hour, she again called the hospital with again the same result. She toughed it out for a while and I made some home made powdered sugar doughnuts out of biscuits with my new deep fryer. Everything seemed ok until around 8:30 am when new developments occurred. We really knew something was going to happen then and were not going to let them tell us it was false labor. She called the hospital again and the RN said, “Well, you need to come in, but why don’t you see your OBGYN first before coming down to the Birth Center.
So, in anticipation, around 11 pm Valentine’s Day, we had already packed the bags just in case. Since the labor was hitting so soon, we actually didn’t get a chance to buy the car seat. So, before heading to the hospital, I drove to Loren and Annie’s house to drop off the gift cards we received, through 3 of the 4 baby showers, to buy the $200 car seat / stroller combo (super sweet). We were cutting it close for this very important item(they won’t let you leave the hospital without a car seat.) At ~9:00a.m., we picked up the bags and hit the road toward the hospital. After about 1 mile of driving, I got a text-message from Todd (a friend we made, along with his wife Becky, in our baby class). Becky was due on Super Bowl Sunday, but her baby wanted to wait a while. She was slated for being induced that day. So his text-message read, “5 cm [of dilation] to go!” Diane and I laughed because we had discussed earlier how awesome it would be if her and Becky had their babies on the same day. So, Diane texted Todd back and said, “We’re on our way to the hospital now. Having contractions all night.” He responds immediately with, “No way! we’re in [room] 2309. It looked like our joke was panning out.
We got to the hospital at 9:30 a.m. Thursday the 15th, and slowly walked to the OB’s office between contractions. Dr. Hanlon, a different OB than ours, was on shift and checked Diane’s dilation measurement. Dr. Hanlon checks her and says, “Wow, that seems like about 7 cm! Good job. We need to get you down to the Birth Center!” Well, no crap! — I was thinking anyway.
As Diane was being wheeled across to the other side of the complex, I was texting and calling everyone that wanted to be there for the delivery — pretty difficult while walking, being excited, and trying not to get my feet run over by the wheel chair Diane was being toted in.
So, we get wheeled in to the room of action. It’s set up like a hotel room, but everything happens there. The cool part is that the baby stays in the room with you the whole time you are there. It’s all set up for a couple days stay with a new addition.
The contractions worsened even more as the baby’s heartbeat monitor and Diane’s contraction monitor were put in place. I watched the graphs scroll by the screen and could tell when contractions started, peaked, and ended. I could even see the monitors of all the other patients in the Birth Center simultaneously. So, of course I was looking for Becky and Todd’s. We could tell from it that she was having some pretty heavy contractions.
After about 3 hours of increasingly more annoying contractions, the OB came in to “pop the bag of waters,” that is, force her water to break, in order to speed the delivery process along. Diane was assured that in so doing her contractions would be more painful, but she would push sooner. I relate it to being in a rollercoaster climbing the big initial hill (tick tick tick tick) knowing that you’re about to crest it and take the ride of your life. Well, the doc was right. About the 2nd contraction after the water was broken, Diane was in so much pain, she demanded an epidural. So, the RN walks in around this time, and Diane says to her, “I can’t handle this, I want an epidural!” I can’t say as I’ve ever heard her be so impolite to a stranger before :). The RN casually says, “Are you sure? You are doing such a good job. How about we give you some pain killer drugs and see how you’re doing then.” (Well, the pain killer drugs can only be intravenously taken every hour.) Diane said ok (on the down swing of a contraction by-the-way. Well this happened another time past this one, and Diane again agreed to no epidural. Little did we know Diane was earning a name for herself at the Birth Center for doing a natural birth when most women go for the totally numbing, nipples to toes, epidural.
Approximately 3 p.m. at 9.5 cm dilated and 99% effaced, Diane is told she can start pushing. Coincidentally, her aunt BB had just arrived on a rush from Portland and made it just in time. So, in a rhythm of 4 sets of 10 second pushes per contraction, we were going down range to have the baby by 3:30p.m. (at least that’s what the RN would have liked.)
Mason was born at 4:30 p.m. (on the nose). Remember Todd and Becky? They had little baby Mari (Mar-ee) at 9 p.m that same day :).
This was the most awesome experience, and I have captured everything possible to preserve my son’s special day. This is just another commemoration of God’s blessing to Diane and I — Mason.
By thursday, Mason will be 2 weeks old. Already he has been to Cold Stone for ice cream, slept through church, gone grocery shopping, crowd surfed ( 
being passed around a lot), cruised Pike Place Market, and taken a trip to Issaquah for lunch. He has been a busy boy. However, even though it may seem we wear him out doing all of these things, he actually sleeps through it all and wakes up 3-4 times at night to let us know he’s hungry and needs attention. Sleep is for wussies anyway right?
So, Diane went to the doctor for her routine baby checkup last Thursday. Before she left the room, the doctor said, “So, I’ll see you next week for your next appointment right?” When a doctor asks you a question like that, it means they know something you don’t. Diane says, “Yeeaah… why? Do you think I’ll be in before my appointment?” The doctor then said it was very likely since she is 2cm dilated and has a family history of giving birth a month early.