If you know me in real life (hiiiii) or follow me on Instagram, you probably know that Zach and I welcomed our sweet baby Whit (short for Whittaker) back in September. And holy moly that boy has stolen our hearts. We never could have imagined the love we have for him or the joy he brings us. He is the happiest, sweetest, calmest baby. I know you think yours is, but you would be wrong. It’s mine. Just kidding. A little.

So, let me tell you how Whit made his grand entrance. Don’t worry, no gory details…

Since Whit was due on September 11 (uh huh), I figured that as long as I felt fine and wasn’t on bed rest or anything like that, I would work up until my due date. This child must be stubborn (no idea where he gets that from…) because homeboy was nice and comfortable and I continued working until Friday, September 9. At that point, I planned to be induced on the following Tuesday unless Whit decided to come sooner. So, I figured if he didn’t come over the weekend, I would at least have a few days to tidy up around the house, relax and double triple quadruple check my hospital bag.

That Friday night we had dinner with some of our best friends at one of my favorite restaurants in town (if you’re ever in Montgomery, make the trip to El Rey and grab yourself a Nice Margarita, then come hug my neck because I’m now your new best friend). I got up Saturday and had a headache. So, I took Tylenol (seriously, it’s 2017 – how can pregnant women not take something stronger OTC?), and laid down for a bit. Woke up and still had a headache, only now it was a full blown migraine. I waited the allotted amount of time and took Tylenol again. Did all of the tricks I know for migraines, tried eating (again), etc. I couldn’t keep down food, so at this point (around 4:00 in the afternoon) I finally listened to my mom’s advice (will I ever learn that she’s right nearly 100% of the time?) and called my kick-ass doctor.

My doctor told me to come on in to the hospital just so we could rule out any blood pressure issues. So, we hopped in the car (brought our hospital bags with us just in case) and drove to the hospital (which is about 15 minutes from our house). Side note: Zach is a fast driver, but I’m not sure we have ever driven that fast down the interstate. Since we arrived at the hospital after 5:00 p.m., we had to go in the ER entrance. Guys, if I have one piece of advice, hold that baby in and don’t go into labor after 5:00 p.m. and before they open the real entrance the next morning. The ER is a really weird place on weekends and after hours. After we were called back to L&D, they took my blood pressure several times and hit me with the news: My blood pressure was totally fine, and this may just be how my body starts labor. COOL MAN. God has a crazy sense of humor.

At that point, they gave me some meds for my migraine and gave me two options: they could discharge me and we could wait until my planned date (Tuesday) to be induced. Or they could keep me overnight and just induce me in the morning. THE MORNING. PLEASE. As exhausted as I was already, I couldn’t imagine trekking back to the house and essentially doing this all over again if my migraine didn’t subside. So, we called my mom (who lives in Atlanta) and let her know the plan. She had a bag packed already, got in the car and headed our way.

The next morning around 6:00, they gave me my epidural and started the pitocin shortly after. I had a great epidural – totally numb, but could still move my legs a bit. So at that point, I was about 2 1/2 cm dilated. They went in to break my water, but had trouble because Whit’s head was in the way (which makes sense now because DANG boy had a big noggin’). It took them five tries to break it, but once they did I dilated another cm and we waited. And waited. AND WAITED. I could not get past 3 1/2 cm. So, they let me labor until about 9:15 that night and at that point checked me one more time (if I could get to 4 cm then I would be in active labor and they would just let me continue laboring). No change. So, we all suited up for a c-section!

Let me take a moment to fill you in on my mentality going in to all of this: I had no birth plan, per se. I wanted to try for a vaginal birth with meds, but I had zero expectations other than to deliver a healthy baby safely while also keeping myself healthy and safe. And guess what? That’s exactly what I got.

Once it was determined that I would need a c-section, everything moved so fast. It was really a blur. They got me ready, Zach got ready, rolled me into the OR, prepped me, called Zach in and at 9:46 p.m. our beautiful, healthy, screaming baby boy entered the world weighing 8 lbs. 13 oz. and 19 in. long. And the first thing my doctor said was, “Oh, Kelley! No wonder he wasn’t coming out…his head was not going to fit!” Ha!

Sorry, the following picture is a little gross with all the goo on Whit, but this was the moment I got to see him for the first time. I don’t think I’ve ever cried tears of joy like that before.

So, that’s the basics of how our sweet boy made his grand entrance. We ended up having to come back to the hospital the day after we were discharged because Whit had jaundice, but luckily it was a very short stay and he was a little trooper.

Whit has brought so much joy to our lives. You hear this quite a bit with new parents, but I really can’t remember what it was like before he was born. Although, I do remember carrying less bags and stuff with me at all times.