Though he wasn't due until June 19, Calvin decided on June 9, the first day of the full moon cycle, that he was tired of waiting. That's okay, so were we! Everything started at 2am on Friday morning when Cortney's water broke. Actually, she wasn't entirely certain that's what had happened, but after a failed dash to the bathroom her contractions became somewhat regular, so we started timing them. At 9am, still uncertain whether we had broken water or incontinence with strong contractions (yes, looking back now this sounds silly), Jon called in to work to take the day off "just in case" and Cortney decided to go on with her daily 2 mile neighborhood walk, this time joined by Jon, who timed the contractions, and Kristin (since that had been planned the night before), who recorded the data. We walked for almost 3 hours, after which Cortney showered and trimmed the pets' nails while Jon mowed the lawn and vacuumed (got to be prepared, right?). Around 2:30pm, still uncertain about that incontinence issue, we decided to take no chances, especially since it was Friday, and we headed over to Labor and Delivery Triage at St. Joe's. Good thing.

On the way to the hospital the contractions became more powerful and more regular (now coming every 5-7 minutes, not every 5-15) and when we told the triage nurses that we thought we would be sent home, they laughed at us (in a good natured way). It was clearly not incontinence, but broken water, and we had been laboring courageously for around 14 hours now. We were admitted. When we arrived at our Delivery Room at 4:45, Cortney had been laboring for nearly 15 hours had progressed to only 3cm (only 1cm farther than the 2cm she had been in her Dr.s appointment on Tuesday), and we were both exhausted. Nothing seemed manageable under those conditions and it looked like a long road ahead, so we opted for the epidural. Great choice. We both got some rest, and the relaxation really moved things along - we made 10cm in the next 4.5 hours! Around 9:40 the nurses were astounded to find Cortney ready to push, but they guessed that it would be another couple of hours before we would meet our son. We showed them! At 10:10 they found themselves rushing to ready the room for this rapidly approaching infant, and, finally:

38.5 weeks of waiting

+ 20 hours of labor

+ 20 minutes of pushing

= 6lbs 13oz and 19inches of Calvin Curtis Ophoff, born at 10:11pm on Friday, June 9.