Introducing... Titan Eli Prikazsky!

Titan Eli Prikazsky arrived at 2:40pm on September 26, 2011 weighing 8 pounds 1 ounce and 21.9 inches long! The whole labor and delivery process was truly a miracle! Titan's due date was actually October 2, 2011. But at 38 weeks I was already dilated 3 cm so the doctors thought he could come any day. However, I didn't believe them. I had a scheduled induction for Friday September 30th which I was sure would happen. So when I went into labor on Monday September 26, 2011 at 7am I was very surprised!

I was induced with my first son so I had never really experienced "going into labor" on my own. I woke up at 7 am and felt what could be contractions but not really sure. I called labor & deliver at Fort Belvoir to tell them what I was experiencing. They suspected I was in early labor. They said to wait to come in until my contractions were 5 minutes apart for 2 hours. Well... my contractions started out at 5 minutes apart! There was no 10 or 15 minutes apart... no build up! Also, for those of you who don't know, Fort Belvoir hospital is 45 minutes north of us... NORTH... on a Monday morning at 8am driving on 95 North (towards DC) in rush hour traffic! On a good day it would take about 40-45 minutes. On a bad day with 1 or maybe even 2 car accidents somewhere along the way it could take 2 hours. So we had to decide... do we try to make it to Fort Belvoir or do we just go to the Stafford Hospital. Well we decided to attempt to go to Fort Belvoir.

We first had to get a hold of our dear friend Michela so that she could come over and watch Matias. (I say dear friend because she knows I love her, but that morning I was not loving her... you will see why) We tried calling Michela multiple times. We could not get a hold of her! (added stress) After trying for about 15 minutes we just decided we were going to have to drive over to Michela's house (I in Peter's truck and Peter and Matias in my SUV). Remember, I am having contractions 3 minutes apart at this time. I prayed the entire way there (which is only 5 minutes) that she would be home. Otherwise, Matias was going with us to the hospital! Praise the Lord, Michela was home. She had just forgotten to charge her phone and it was dead!!! REALLY! Anyway, it all worked out and Matias had a great time with Michela and her dog, Roxy while we were in the hospital for 2 days.  Ok, so Peter dropped off Matias with Michela and got in the truck with me and we began the crazy drive up to Fort Belvoir. The whole way I kept thinking... "We aren't going to make it! We aren't going to make it!". I don't know how... well actually I do, only by God's divine intervention we made it to Fort Belvoir hospital in 30 minutes during rush hour traffic on a Monday morning. It was TRULY a miracle! By the time I got there I was 6 cm and ready for an epidural! They quickly rushed me through and I soon had my epidural. I had to have antibiotics due to the Group B strep and they wanted the antibiotics to be in my system for 4 hours before I had Titan.... so we waited. Which was fine because I had my epidural and was feeling good! Finally at 2:20 they broke my water and after about 8 minutes of pushing Titan arrived at 2:40pm!  

God had answered all of my prayers! I had prayed I would go into labor on my own, that we would make it to Fort Belvoir, that Matias would be good when we left him and that I would have a quick & healthy delivery! And I have to say recovery from a 7 hour labor compared to recovery from a 36 hour labor is so much better! The recovery has been amazing! I am feeling great and enjoying every minute with my boys!  

Matias loves his little brother and has adjusted very well! He loves giving him kisses and started saying the word "baby" the day we brought Titan home! Praise the Lord for so many blessings and so many answered prayers!