It's a... BABY!

Details: Colin John Farrer O'Donnell was born on Friday the 14th of January at 6:50 am weighing 7 pounds 3 ounces and measuring 20 inches.

Ok, the Birth Story. Do not read on if you don't want the details. I'll post pictures in a separate blog for y'all.
At my 40-week checkup, my doctor says that I'm still not even dilated to fingertip and my options are to wait it out, get induced on Wednesday night (40 weeks, 6 days) for a Thursday birth, or wait until Sunday (41 weeks, 2 days) to go get induced (assuming I didn't hit labor before that). We had up until the hospital called Wednesday night to make the decision - they need to make sure there's room at the inn (eg, there aren't too many "spontaneous labors"). Anne and I talked about it a lot and weighed what we knew of the pros and cons of inducing vs waiting, etc... and ultimately decided to speed this kid's arrival up: or so we thought.
Wednesday night we got to the hospital and checked in, and they put this drug on your cervix to soften it, with the idea of it opening enough to be able to bring on contractions and allow them to break the bag of fluids if necessary. Thursday morning we get checked and there is NO CHANGE. none. at all. well, it can happen, they say. The day nurse says she doesn't even like that method and prefers this other drug anyway. So the doctor (Dr. Honey Onstad, hereby referred to as Honey), whom we LOVE, says that we can try the other drug, which works in 4 hours versus 12. Woo hoo! 4 hours later, they check... and there is NO CHANGE. At this point, Honey offers 1)go home and come back on Sunday to try again; 2) start the pitocin anyway; 3) C-section. Anne is like "let's wait on the major surgery," and I'm like "I'm not doing this whole thing again in 3 days..." so we start the pitocin. And end the pitocin. An entire fluid bag later and 2 overrides that made the machine pump me FULL of the stuff, there is absolutely no change. *sigh*
Now it is about 10 pm on Thursday night. Honey offers the same options as before except for 2) try double-dosing the second cervical drug once more. We decide to forgo the major surgery one more time, and take the drug-y option. Honey comes in at 2am and there is STILL NO CHANGE. At this point, she decides that this is medically impossible and I suggest she write a case study on me. We take the drug once more (desperate hope...), with the understanding that if there is still no change in the morning, we have to C-section or home, because she is fresh out of other options! :)
The nurse checks me at 5:30 am and (no surprise), I still have a cervix of steel. She calls up Honey, who had headed home for some shut-eye, and then comes back into the room 10 minutes later and says "ready for the C-section?" Whoa! I'm still mostly asleep! I have to decide right now?! Yes. Ok... Umm... give me 2 minutes. Anne and I discuss and say "let's do it."
By 6, I'm being prepped. By 6:30 I'm in the operating room. So begins the scariest 10 minutes ever. They're putting tubes in my nose, leg cast things on my calves, and then the real fun: the spinal block. Don't get me wrong - it was way cool. The needle prick, and then they say lay down and your legs are already dead! The catheter, which totally freaked me out until I realized I could drink unlimited amounts of water and not have to get up...
By 6:45 they are playing in my guts. The anesthesiologist tells Anne that she can stand up to watch Colin being born, and so she does. I feel the pulling and the tugging, and then the lady says "umm... maybe sit back down. I'll tell you when it's time." Then I hear Honey: "REALLY?? This kid refuses to be born!!!" or something of the sort (the exact language was drown out by anne's repeating "Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God" over and over... the tone changed from plea to thanksgiving when he finally came out (I find out later that they had to use the vacuum, which popped off because he was clinging on for dear life. Poor buddy.)
He came out, they showed him to me, and sent him to the warmer to get cleaned off and tagged. I sent Anne with the camera. Eventually, Anne brought him over to me and we got our first pictures, and then he was off to recovery for his vitamin K, etc. I sent Anne with the camera. :) Then began the longest 20 minutes ever. My darn uterus needed some help with the contracting, so they pushed some pitocin and something else *shrug* and sewed, and suctioned, and sewed. I got a kick out of hearing them listing off the instruments at each layer of closure to make sure nothing got left in there. Eventually my patience ran out and I asked the nurse if they were almost done so I could go see my wife and baby, and she said they had one more layer. *sigh*
Yay! Finally wheeled into the recovery room! I can't feel my incision, so I'm feeling great, and there's the baby and Anne!!! After I got settled, she handed him to me and he rooted, so I decided to see if he'd feed. WHAM! Talk about a boob man! he latched like a champ immediately, and fed for 10 minutes on each side. Seriously? hehehe.
Anne got to push Colin in his bassinet up to the postpartum room while the nurse pushed me. :)

Ugh. That took forever! Postpartum blog to follow. Time to pay attention to the little one!