The first chapter

I thought I would include a story of Greyson's birth, so beware of the gory details.

Chris and I had a pretty busy day, cleaning the house, buying last minute baby items and just doing the basic Saturday running around, when at 6:45pm on Saturday April 19th our whole world changed. My water broke.

36 weeks earlier on a Monday afternoon in sunny San Diego , after what seemed like weeks of cramps but no visit from that lovely monthly friend of mine, I started to get worried. I thought to myself what do you do when you can't figure out what's going on... GOOGLE IT......and I did. All the symptoms were there and all roads pointed to the "B" word. BABY!!!! Stay calm I thought to myself this is impossible, it has to be a fluke. I jumped in my car and drove to Albertson's and bought a pregnancy test. After staring at it for what seemed liked hours, i called chris and half way screaming half way crying I told him the news. He raced home for work and we freak out together.

Fast forward through nine months of driving cross country back to VA, living with Chris's parents (thank you!), finding new jobs, and planning for a natural birth, we had arrived at the moment we were waiting for the birth of our son.

We were sitting in the bedroom talking when I looked at Chris and told him, either I just peed my pants or my water broke. The excitement began! I called the midwives and Erin called us back, I told her my water just broke and everything was clear, which is good, and she told us to sit tight, try to get some sleep and thing probably wouldn't get going until the next morning. I hung up the phone and BAM!! things "got started"...contractions 2 mins apart 60 seconds long..full blown active labor. I thought to myself wait what about all the little contractions?? Where are they, no practice, no warm-up?? Three hours later, I called Erin back, and said look I think this is going a little faster than we thought it would and she told us to head on in to the midwifery center. Chris made all the phone calls, you know the typical "We on the way to the hospital!!" calls and we made the longest drive to Norfolk I've ever taken. I would like to take this time to tell the great area of hampton roads that they really should use some of the tax money to fix 64 west......it is entirely to bumpy!

we arrived about 11pm and got checked into our room. I love the midwifery center. Our room consists of a queen size bed, so chris and I could sleep together, instead of him on that stupid hospital chair/bed thing, a 4 person hot tub so I could labor in the water, a private bathroom, rocking chair, tv, and lots of space for family and walking around. Erin checked me when we arrived and I was almost 4 cm. I figured a cm an hour that's pretty right on target, which made me feel good. She asked me where I wanted to labor, the shower, the bed, chair or walk around. I picked the shower on the birthing ball(big exercise ball) and it was a relief. After about an hour of screaming/moaning through the contractions, I knew I need to find my center and work through the pain or this was going to be horrible. i thought of all the women who have babies in the woods and never speak a word, and if they could do it I could do it. I found my center. I was able to quite myself down and breathe through all the pain. I spent a couple of hours in the shower and when I got out I was 6 cm. Almost there I thought. At this point the whole gang had arrived, my mom and carlos from the outer banks, Gail and Jim, Brittany and Brock, and Tony and Kendall, the guys all deiced to stay out of the room, but my mom, brit, and gail made their way in and out keeping everyone updated on the progress. Chris was being awesome, just staying by my side, holding the throw up bucket, and just being his normal loving self. I made my way to the rocking chair and continued my quite moaning, when Erin said it was time to check me again, 9cm!! So close. I moved into the hot tub and as soon as i got in I had the urge to push. I remember looking at Erin and yelling "I need to push!!!!" Got out of the tub and I was 10cm and it was 4am. Everyone was so sleepy but it was showtime, time to push. Three hours later it was still time to push!! I went from the bed to the birth stool, back to the bed, back the the birth stool, on my left side, on my right side, on my back and finally at 7:08am nameless baby boy walsh was born. Instant tears filled the room. He was perfect. Calm, wide eyed and beautiful. I just remember thinking he really is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen and I love him so much I never wanted to put him down. Everyone filled the room and there was nothing but happiness and love. Chris and I were in shock of it all, he was finally in our arms. 9 lbs 1.5oz and 21.5 inches long and a head full of black hair! He looked just like me, it was crazy.

After all the excitement calmed down and the family headed home, chris and I laid in bed with our baby boy and this was the start of our family and we couldn't be happier. Greyson makes us complete and he is so loved by all his family, we couldn't be luckier.