January 16, 2014 : Mason Thomas Sanders

January 16, 2014, Mason Thomas Sanders decided to join our family- 10 days early, but still weighing in at 7lbs 9oz and 19 3/4 inches. 

Tuesday, January 14- Mac and I went for a long walk after dinner (we jokingly said "Let's walk as far as you can make it and maybe it will make the baby come on out early") so we did- we walked a while with the dogs & headed home to watch a movie (Despicable Me 2 - yesss). As soon as we got in bed I began having contractions- they came every 10-15 minutes and were just bad enough that I couldn't sleep all night- I was a zombie all day Wednesday and making it worse the contractions continued. I brushed it off as false labor as I suffered through each one. Wednesday afternoon I began timing them and found they were now 6-8 minutes apart. By Wednesday night they were 4 minutes apart and we decided we may need to head to the hospital. We honestly thought they were going to check me out and send us home- We almost didn't pack a bag or bring anything with us- Luckily, I decided to pack all our stuff just in case! Once we got to the hospital and checked out we were very surprised to learn I was 4cm dilated & would be having a baby by morning! The nurses, very seriously, commented on how they were expecting it to be a very busy night since it was a full moon. I always thought that was just a joke, but apparently any labor and delivery nurse will tell you otherwise! 

We got in our room & all settled in by 11:30pm and slept on and off until about 7:30am when I was then at a 10 and ready to start getting that baby out. We pushed through about 6 contractions (28 minutes worth) before Mason officially joined us at 7:59am! Labor was so smooth and easy- I am so grateful to have the greatest doctor and nurses we could have asked for. That whole morning felt like a blur- We went from thinking we had 10 days left to all of a sudden holding that sweet baby in our arms. We couldn't have asked for a better delivery - 

We are so so so thankful and blessed to have had a great delivery with a healthy momma & baby! What a blessing to have a perfectly healthy baby boy! We are so in love with him!