A little bit of catch up .....

Yes... I know the only thing you guys are coming to our page to see is pictures of Ari - HOLD ON - there is some much needed catching up to be done. So here it goes. Ari was due on November 30th, and although at every Dr.'s visit I was assured I would see his tiny little face BEFORE my due date- days came and went. Not that things weren't going on- I spent the better part of November dilated to a 3 and 85% effaced.....
We tried EVERYTHING - a legendary pizza, spicy foods, walking, a pressure point massage,we walked around the mall at midnight the day after Thanksgiving, we walked around Temple Square EVERYTHING.... and still no baby Ari.

Here I am at Temple Square (I refused to buy a maternity winter jacket since I was only going to be pregnant for the first part of winter- so yes I just look fat - but at 9 months you just don't care anymore)

But alas, I have a very kind Dr. and she said that IF Ari did not come by my due date she would gladly induce - if that is what I wanted. And sure part of me wanted that "Hollywood" delivery where I woke up in the middle of the night drenched because my water broke - so Ryan and I could rush of to the hospital - I had no problem scheduling an induction. So the date was set- December 1st at 7am I was to report to the hospital and get induced.
That being said Ryan and I started to enjoy the idea of knowing exactly how it was going to happen- we planned for someone to take care of Berkelee, and felt we had "time" to get everything done that we needed to before baby.
November 30th came and I got up and went to work as expected- just like every day before (well except I took home all my stuff at the end of my shift and I really did not care at all - all day - about doing anything)
Ryan and I had a nice night of relaxing and enjoying each other planned before the big day - so we left for dinner at Tres Hombres to start our date. As we were waiting to be seated, I felt a little funny. Could it be - a contraction- hmmm... Now this had happened before, ALOT and every time I would get excited and tell Ryan - they would stop. I had no reason to believe this time would be any different so I just kept it my little secret. We ate dinner, and talked, uninterrupted (something I hear we will not do again for some time now that we have entered the world of parenthood) all the while I was having mildish contractions. I kept looking at my phone to check how far apart they were- but felt for sure they would stop since they were not consistent. I was waiting for the four minutes apart rule. Ryan wanted to go out shopping or walking around but I said maybe we should just go home - so after a quick stop at Blockbuster to rent Evan Almighty, we came home and the contractions were still coming.
At this point I realised that this might actually be it and I better confide in my other half. So I told Ryan that I was having contractions and had been since 8pm and that I didn't tell him cause I was sure it was not the real thing. So we started keeping track and writing down every time I had a contraction. Ryan gave me a blessing and I took a quick shower before we headed off to the hospital, thinking for sure they were going to send us home and tell us to come back tomorrow.
When we got the the hospital - the nurses all knew who I was- since they work 12 hour shifts they had already worked on my paperwork for the following morning (when I was scheduled to be induced)
Every time someone asked my name, they would say - aren't you supposed to come tomorrow? It was kind of funny. So they checked me out and called my Dr. and sure enough - we were staying the night. When we got there I was still a 3 and at 4:30am I couldn't sleep anymore due to the contractions coming about every 5 minutes and getting strong - so I got my epidural - my Dr also had them start me on pitocin anyway to see if it would speed up my labor. At 10am they checked me again and I was at a 10 - it was time to push. After an hour of pushing little Ari Burton Williams was here. I can't believe it still - it really was a picture perfect delivery (thank goodness for epidurals)
I guess Little Man Ari wasn't going to have anyone tell him when to come....