Stang&Co: Welcoming Our Little Party Crasher!

Our Sunday, August 3rd started out like any normal day. Mike was up and in a great mood because the weather was PERFECT and he was out for an early round of golf, and I was up and hanging out on the couch at 6:30am because baby still didn't want to let me sleep. Within minutes of Mike leaving, a nice little series of events had me questioning if my water had broken. Regardless, something was up and I called Mike, just to make sure he didn't silence his phone and throw it to the bottom of his golf bag. I had him on 'standby'. After calling labor and delivery, I was told to come in to get checked out. UGH. That was all I could think, mostly because my baby shower was a mere six or so hours away and I had been looking forward to it all week. I called Mike and told him nurses orders, we had to go in. He was just about to tee off on the first hole, I felt terrible for ruining his day of golf! I started packing some things, of course Mike told me 'why are you stressing about packing so much, worst case scenario I can just come back if you have to stay, but I have a gut feeling we will get sent home right away'.
Fast forward to the hospital, I am still feeling totally normal, no pain, no difficulties, just hoping I get out of there in time to get ready for my baby shower. Nurse number 1 (all of our nurses were fantastic, by the way) went to do a check on baby's progress, at which point my water REALLY broke. It happens in such a small number of births (all my of wonderful 'pregnancy' apps have told me 10-15%) that I was literally in shock, because the second it happened I knew that baby was coming. The nurse looked at me and said 'well, you aren't leaving until you've had your baby!' Enter the tears; scared because I was just over 36 weeks, anxious because the coming week was when I had planned to do EVERYTHING to prep for baby/deliver, and mad because darn it, I was really excited for my baby shower!
For those of you who know me well, you will also know that I wanted a very private delivery. Even our parents and siblings (much to my sister's dismay) were not going to be called until it was with a birth announcement. I wanted those first hours for me and my new little family. Of course, going into labor on the day when your entire extended family was set to come to a party in honor of your pending baby throws that plan out the window. I called my mom after getting admitted, and opened up the conversation with 'so, do you think we could have the shower next Sunday instead of today?' I explained to my very confused mom that I was in labor, and baby was definitely coming. She was convinced I was messing with her, I had to repeatedly say that this was no joke. She was so shocked that she didn't even scream (her usual reaction to things like this). From there the word was passed onto everyone, and my 'top secret' delivery became the public knowledge of our entire extended family. Oh well, lesson number one of parenthood: babies do things on their time, their schedule, and how they want!
After a few hours, an epidural, and 45 minutes of pushing (I was actually told to just do 'little' pushes because baby was so eager to come out the doctor hadn't yet arrived) we welcomed our sweet baby Jackson into the world.

Our little man came out screaming, and despite being 4 weeks early he had zero complications and is just a little rockstar. We love him so much, I could just sit and stare at him all day.
My mom did, by the way, move my shower to the next weekend. It was such a great day, and we had a very special guest that decided he wanted to come. He is so cute, I let him crash the all girl party :-)