Nicholas is here!

March 10, 2009
We have been waiting for a long time...

I'd had a knee injury (torn ACL) since the beginning of my pregnancy and it was a very difficult nine months, aside from the five months of morning sickness, twelve hour shifts at the hospital and trying not to vomit on my patients. By the end I was walking very slowly and my knee brace wasn't doing much to prevent my knee pain. I'm grateful for pregnancy hormones that loosen my ligaments and joints for labor and delivery when it's time to push, but not when I have to walk on an unstable knee. Needless to say I was very tired of gimping around and very tired of being pregnant!

At 20 weeks we had a huge scare when I started bleeding and contracting. Five days in the hospital and six weeks of strict bedrest (feet at the level of my heart, sitting to shower, no getting up except to the bathroom) solved the problem. Luckily the baby was never affected. At every ultrasound he looked great to the doctors. His due date was March 15th and I knew he would be two weeks late just like Kimberly, Joshua and Spencer were. I also knew I wasn't strong enough to go two weeks overdue. At my OB appointment on March 9th I begged to be induced. My water was measuring at high levels and I knew Nicholas was no where close to joining us here in the real world. My doctor did an ultrasound complete with measurements of his bones and concluded he would be 8 pounds, 9 ounces.
He was wrong, very wrong!

Dr. Ostoya induced me the next day and Nicholas Michael Smart was born March 10th, 2009. He tipped the scales at 9 pounds 10 ounces! No wonder I was soooo huge! Patrick, Kimberly and Sarah were at the delivery.