Andrew Chase Fraser has arrived!

"Look! Baby Chase! Sleepin! So cute!"

Mommy and Chase!

My three boys, watching Star Wars!

Hey y'all! I thought since Chase is now a week old, I should probably post his birth story! Things have been pretty crazy, and I have been tired, so that's my excuse!

I guess you could say it all started on Wednesday. I had my weekly appointment with Dr. Clinch. When he checked me for any dilation, he says "Wow. You're a good 4 centimeters! I will be shocked if you make it to your appointment next week!" Whoa! What?! So, I picked up Will from my friends and we went to the store to get some meat I needed to make some crock pot meals to freeze. We went to the store and came home to cook dinner...when I decided I was too tired to make what I had planned and we had frozen fish instead. That night I was having some pretty intense contractions, but nothing consistent enough to head to the hospital. Thursday I took it easy, with even more contractions. I was starting to cut some chicken up when Andy came home. I looked at him and said "I think this baby is going to come, but maybe we should go get some spicy Indian food to ensure he comes sooner rather then later..." Of course, at the mention of Indian food, Andy was all over it! We went to a place near our house and I got some spicy tandoori chicken wings. They were SPICY! When we got home, we put Will to bed and Andy decided to go to bed and get some shut eye. Just in case. I stayed up watching some Law & Order and timing some contractions. They were pretty random like they had been the few days before hand, so I headed to bed. I wasn't sleeping well at all. Andy woke up and we were just hanging out while the contractions were going on. Suddenly, I had some pretty intense ones and they started getting closer together. We got our bags packed, called our friend who were going to keep Will for us and headed to the hospital! When we got there, Andy dropped me off and went to park while I checked in. I walked into admitting and they said "How can we help you?" And I said, as calm as can be, "Well, I am pretty sure I am in labor." I could see it written on their faces "Psh, yeah right chick. We'll be sending you home for sure!" They sent me to triage and the nurse came in to check on me. When she checked me, she says "Ohhh! Wow, you're dilated to a good 6...I'll call Dr. Clinch and let him know you're here!"

They took us back to labor and delivery. At this point, I had been pretty open to whatever came my way. I was still feeling pretty awesome, so I denied any pain meds for the time being. We decided to watch some free movies they had on the tv. My contractions were getting more and more intense. I just remember while they were going on I would think "UGH! This is SO painful, WHY am I doing this?" Then the contraction would end and the endorphins would kick in and I would think "Ah, that wasn't so bad. I can do this."

Around 6:30 am, Dr Clinch showed up to break my water. I was also dilated to about a 7. He looked at me and said "Ok, girl, are we doing this natural or what?" I said "...well, yeah. I can do this!" So, that was that. It was too late from then on out! My contractions got more and more intense. I was having to focus more and more on breathing. This lasted for a few hours. I was getting more and more uncomfortable. Around 10 am I started to get the urge to push. My nurse call my Doctor. He had gone to the office to see some other patients. I was able to wait for him to come, and when he came in, he was all business. I have never seen someone work so fast. "Ok! It's time. Wait for the contraction, PUSH!" I did three sets of three pushes and BAM! Chase was in the world! I kept saying "I can't do this! I can't do it!" My doctor finally said "Stop saying that. You're doing it right now!" Oh...uh, right. I ended up with a pretty bad tear because he came so quickly and he had a 14 cm head.

It was not fun at first, but here we are, one week later and I feel great! Besides the discomfort that comes from nursing (which has been a whole different battle on it's own) I have been taking some walks and trying not to sit in the same spot on the sofa all day long. But, that's hard when you're always nursing :P We've been trying to get some sleep and make sure Will doesn't feel left out of things. He loves to see "Baby Chase" sleeping and to help me change his diaper. He's been a great big brother and we're so blessed to have such wonderful boys to come to our family! We love them so much and couldn't be happier...(except if we could get a little extra shut eye!)