Lucas Kauffman Agre

He is here and he is amazing!

We checked in to the hospital and started the cervidil at around 9 o'clock on Monday night. Once they put that in, Ashley had to lay still on her back for 2 hours so we watched Major League. She started having some contraction once the cervidil kicked in, but nothing major until at 1:15am on Tuesday I heard, "Either I just wet the bed or my water just broke." Yep, definitely the water breaking. Once the water broke, she had to be on the monitors the rest of the time to make sure baby was ok. That made the hourly bathroom breaks an event. Contractions started getting a lot stronger at this point as well.

At around 3:45 she received a dose of pain medication to take the edge off. She got some of this medication three times throughout the morning. She claims it didn't do much for the pain, but it sure made for some entertainment for me. She got pretty loopy, deciding to name her towel Zack Greinke, changing the baby's name to Huck and naming the drugs Will after William Shakespeare. Bob, Dena, Allison and Joyce all got to experience a little taste of this while they visited during the morning.

For about a month, Ashley had only been dilated to a fingertip and for most of the morning we didn't think it was ever going to progress. But when the nurse checked at 10:25am, she was dilated to 6. At this point we started thinking, oh wow, this is going to happen soon. Things were starting to move along. Ashley did a great job through all of the contractions lasting through 10 hours of labor, but at 11:00am decided she was ready for the epidural. The pain quickly went away and things continued to progress.

At 12:00pm she was dilated to 8 and at 12:10pm she had progressed to 9. She nurse told me I should make sure everyone was in the waiting room because this was going to happen soon. She turned of the pitocin (the drug that induces the contractions) assuming that Ashley's body would take over. It didn't. Contractions slowed down and so did the progress. At 1:05pm the pitocin was restarted. At 2:05pm she was completely dilated. At 2:10 she attempted to push a couple of times, but the nurse decided that we should wait and let the baby drop a little bit more.

Ashley started coming down with a fever around this time. They used Tylenol and an antibiotic to try to break it. They also put "ice packs" (ice in giant maxi pads) under her arms and ice cold wash cloths on her head.

At 4:55 we tried pushing again. She pushed for about an hour with a little bit of progress, but once the baby got to a certain point, it wasn't going to go any further. At 6:25pm the doctor came in to assess and we decided on a C-Section. It was time to get the baby out.

Ashley was taken in to get prepped as I got all dressed in the funny looking jump suit and hair net. At 7:08pm Lucas Kauffman Agre was born. He weighed in at 8 pounds 13 ounces and 20.25 inches long. I went out to the waiting room to make the announcement. All four grandparents were there along with Aunt Allison and Aunt Julie. Our friends Molly and Breanna were there as well. They were all very excited. Lots of smiles and hugs.

Everybody got their chance to come back and see Ashley and hold Luke. Benny and Kristin made it as well. Ash didn't feel too great after the C-Section, but is doing wonderful now. Luke is healthy and perfect and beautiful. He is feeding well and loves to be held by his Mommy and Daddy.