Gypsy Living: Harry's here!

The last week before mom got here, I finished Downton Abbey, tied things up with work, and tried not to do too much for fear of going into labor too soon! Here are the last belly pics I took at 39 weeks:

Mom fortunately arrived before Harry, and we had just a few days to enjoy some sightseeing before he made his appearance. On her first day, we wandered around Marlyebone, and I showed her some cute shops and the grocery store on the High St. We had an awesome Indian meal that evening and mom started to feel the effects of jet lag. She still managed to stay up later than I did though!

The next day we headed out for some touristy things - we took the tube to Westminster and watched the changing of The Queen's Life Guard, then headed to Westminster Abbey.

mom's first selfie? - St. James Park

flowers in Westminster Abbey gardens

The next day we took river cruise to the Tower of London and spent the day there taking in all the history. I'd done it recently with Daria, but I was surprsied at how much I'd missed or forgotten already on the audio tour.

on the river boat

I just can't get those good selfie angles,
but at least I got the Tower Bridge in the background

My doctor had an unexpected work trip to NYC, so we decided to induce labor a few days early so that he could deliver Harry. It was a few days earlier than my due date since the hospital was booked on my due date, so our touristing was cut a little short. It seemed better to have my doctor deliver him though and I didn't want to go too late since we have all of our summer travel scheduled around my due date. So on Saturday May 7th, we checked into the hospital for the induction. Once I was settled, mom headed back to the apt and when she arrived the next morning there was still nothing happening, even after 2 doses of prostaglandin gel. I got one more dose that afternoon and we spent most of the day wandering around Regents Park enjoying a beautiful sunny day among the flowers. That evening the doctor came by again and aside from regular uterine tightenings, I was still not dilated at all and they couldn't proceed with anything. So, they discharged me home to return Tuesday morning, if not before...

And as soon as we started the 15 min walk home something started to feel different. The whole walk I was wondering if we should turn around and go back to the hospital, but I thought it was maybe just the walking and once we got home things would settle down. Well, as soon as we got into the apartment I called the maternity suite and let them know I was coming back! My uterine contractions had turned into more painful contractions, and were coming every minute and getting stronger each time. I was locking the front door and my water broke. We made it downstairs and the uber car I'd called was still 5 min away, so we hailed a taxi instead and were enroute to the Portland, fortunately only a few minutes away. It was too late for an epidural and an hour later Harry was born! Unfortunately my placenta didn't detach, and I headed into the operating theater for a manual removal, but I was just so happy to be done with labor it really didn't matter too much to me. The bottom half of my body was numb from the spinal block through the night, but when I woke up I was up and about and spending time with Harry.