timandmeg.net

• The Pregnancy Blog
• Patrick Milestones
• Patrick James’s Birthday

Tim and I woke up early and with nervous belly aches the morning of Patrick’s Birthday. October 9th, 2007, it was Induction Day. We had been counting down the days since the stick confirmed our suspicions with two bright pink lines, Baby Shannon #2 was on his way.

We checked into St. Alexius Hospital at 7:30 am that morning. Unlike with Michael’s induction, this went quick. They had me in my hospital gown, hooked my up to IV (which took five painful attempts and two nurses), taken my blood and broken my water by 8:30 am. Things were moving along well. My parents brought by Michael around 10 am which was a much welcomed distraction from watching the baby heart beat/contraction monitor. Michael entertained us until they started the pitocin, then it was time to get down to business.

By 1:30 pm I was fully dilated and almost thinned out. Time to start the pushing. Tim probably has a more accurate memory of what happened from then until the birth of Patrick James, but from my point of view, time was moving in slow motion. The nurse, who was great, (but I think she was still pretty new at L&D) had me pushing before I was completely thinned out which was like taking three steps backward with every push. All the nurse kept telling me was that the baby was almost here, he just had to “turn the corner.” I will not even begin to explain how confused I was by the whole “turning the corner” thing. My doctor, Jan Bury, came in and gave the nurse quite the reprimanding look when she checked my progress. She immediately told me to roll to my side and that I was not allowed to push again until I was fully effaced (thinned out). Less than 30 seconds after turning to my side, I was thinned and ready to push. The nurse told me to hold tight, and went to go get Jan. Jan came in, got into the baby catching position and three to four pushes later, Patrick James was born!

• Patrick James Shannon ~ What’s in a name?

Patrick is hard to explain. I hate to say there is no reason behind it, because there is, just not a reason that is easy to describe. Tim and I both love the name Patrick. Patrick is not from a relative, a favorite character in a story, an idol we both look up to, or any other reason other than we just love the name.

James on the other hand, comes from both sides of our family tree. Tim’s father’s name is James and Tim’s brother Jon’s (second eldest Shannon boy) middle name is James. On my side of the family, my Grandpa’s (my Father’s Father) name is James and also my Dad’s middle name is James. Besides all the family connections to the name, I love when initials make a good nickname and really, what is cuter than a little PJ?!?!