Baby Stoker finally makes his appearance!

It started at 2am on Monday morning, the day after my due date. Contractions were coming about 5 mins apart. I had some false contractions before but nothing like the ones I was experiencing this time. They were so painful, bringing me to tears and after about two hours, Brian woke up and convinced me it was time to go to the hospital. I had a fear that they would just send me home and I didn't want to get my hopes up too high. I had an induction scheduled for the coming Saturday and thought he might not come before then. We arrived at the hospital around 4 am and I was only 1 1/2cm dilated so they had me up and walking around for an hour to see if that would help me progress. They checked me again and I was at a 2-3cm and that's when they admitted me and Brian made the phone calls to my Mom, Dad and Grandma. I had no idea I would be in labor for as long as I was. I spent some time walking around and with each contraction I would have to stop and hold on to the rails or Brian and breath through it and he would massage my back once in awhile. I was able to spend several hours in the Jacuzzi tub with Brian in the room, feeding me frozen popsilces. After 12 hours, I decided it was time to get the epidural. After getting the epidural I had to lay in bed the rest of the time. I could no longer feel the pain of a contraction, only the sensation of tightness. Several hours after getting the epidural and them breaking my water, I was progressing slowly, so they gave me Pitocin to help make the contractions stronger and more frequent. I was stuck at 4 1/2 cm for a long time. During this time, the baby's heart rate was high, as well as mine and I began to run a fever. I was laying in bed all through out the night, trying to stay calm but my left hip was in so much pain I couldn't get much rest. My midwife came in to check on me and was thinking about a c-section as an option if I didn't start to progress. I did not want that to happen, after crying and getting upset, I told myself I had to think good thoughts. So after several hours, I was checked again at was at 9 1/2 cm! I was not feeling any urge to push so they slowed down my epidural and after a little while I was ready to push and fully dilated. I was terrified and I could feel my contractions getting stronger but I knew the end was near and that is what kept me going. After an hour of pushing and the worst physical pain I have EVER felt in my life, our sweet little baby boy was in my arms. And after seeing him, the pain all vanished. Brian was amazing through out the whole process and I managed to not yell at him while giving birth. During labor I kept thinking, how can anyone ever do this more than one time? Well...after looking at my baby's sweet face, I understand why. And now when someone asks me, do you have any children? I can smile a HUGE smile and say, why yes I do, and he is AMAZING :)

After 30 hours of labor, Vaughn Luis Stoker is finally here!!!!
9/20 @ 7:45 am


Our little family :)

Maternity pictures

I love the idea of capturing this special time of our lives, but didn't have money to spend on a photo shoot. So I had Brian take the pics of me and then I had my cousin Rosa take the ones of us together. I was very happy with the way they turned out!







34 weeks

35 weeks

36 weeks



38 weeks

Happy Birthday Emily!

We celebrated my cousin Emily's 7th birthday with family /friends, lots of yummy mexican food, cake, presents and a bounce house :)

Baby bump

32 weeks

34 weeks



37 weeks

Baby shower at work

Last month my coworkers threw me a baby shower. I received some much needed packages of diapers, many cute clothes and a beautiful handmade quilt. We had a lot of fun clebrating and had some yummy breakfast food :)