Baby Joshua is here!

Joshua Brandon Despain made his arrival Monday, March 15th at 7:56pm. He weighed 7 lbs 11 oz and measured 19 inches long.


So my contractions started Sunday evening and got steadily closer together and more painful through the night. We went to the doctor Monday morning at 9 right when they opened. Here I am in this picture that morning, 41 weeks pregnant and ready to go to the doctor. At this point my contractions were about 3 minutes apart. The doctor said I was 100% effaced, dialated to a 3-4, and the baby was at a zero station. He said I was definitely in labor and should go to the hospital.

We got to the hospital around 10am and I got hooked up to an IV so I could get the pain medication ASAP. I requested the epidural ASAP also and got that a little after 11. The doctor checked me again around noon and said I was dialated to a 4-5 and making good progress.

Well around 3 that afternoon my epidural started to stop working on my left side. The anesthesiologist tried to fix it and it worked for a little while but then the whole epidural stopped working completely. Unfortunately that happened during the "transition" phase of labor which is pretty much the worst part. I thought I was going to die. They gave me a new epidural but I had to sit through a good hour and a half of really excruciating contractions before the new epidural started working. I just cried and wondered if I'd survive. The new epidural was magical though and I was so grateful for it. At 6pm I was fully dialated so the nurse came in and helped me push for about an hour, then the doctor came to deliver Josh who came at 7:56pm!


The next day and a half at the hospital were a daze. I felt so tired, so beat up, so overwhelmed, but also so happy and so grateful that Josh was healthy and that everything was going well. I loved my nurses so much for taking such good care of me and helping make the experience so amazing. Josh passed all his tests with flying colors and hardly cried with all the pricks, shots, etc.

And I have to say how amazing Brandon has been throughout this whole experience. He said the exact right things and let me squeeze his hand to smithereens during the horrible contractions. He praised my efforts and kept my spirits high. He is beyond helpful and has been so supportive throughout this learning process. He is such a loving father to Josh and I am so grateful for him.

Here we are getting ready to leave the hospital. We left Wednesday afternoon.





We love Joshy so much. He really has been such a good baby. It's definitely overwhelming and life-changing and it's been very tiring learning how to be a parent but of course it's so worth it. We love this kid so much and are so grateful for him.

Here he is ready to go to his first doctor's appointment when he was just a few days old:

-Amy