"Gannon"ball comin'!

When I woke up at 3:30 am on Friday, July 29 to use the bathroom (2nd time since I'd been asleep that night), I had no idea my second child would be laying on my chest an hour and 37 minutes later, in the back of an ambulance, 2 blocks from my house.

Contractions started sporadically at 3:45 and at 4:00, my water broke. At that point, we put the "Let's go to the hospital plan" into action. Unfortunately, the plan we had in mind was not going to happen.

Paul kept reassuring me that he could get me to Prentice Hospital. However, as I screamed in pain and felt the urge to push, I convinced him to call an ambulance. The on-call doctor who was in a pleasant slumber at 4:25 agreed.

At that point, the contractions were coming every two minutes. The EMTs arrived at 4:45 and decided to get me into the ambulance instead of delivering the baby in the bedroom. As I was loaded into the ambulance, my parents pulled up to stay with Isla. Paul had talked to them three times and a few minutes prior confirmed that they were really close.

We pulled away with lights and sirens a-blazin' headed for Swedish Covenant Hospital, the closest hospital to our house. The EMT told me to tell him if I needed to push...and I did. With the ambulance parked at approximately 5000 N. Kimball, I pushed 4 times in a two minute span and out came a baby boy!

Paul cut the cord, the baby was placed on my chest and we continued on to the hospital.

Here he is in the warmer soon after "arriving" in Labor & Delivery.

The happy Mommy gets reacquainted with her son and asks him "What was the rush?"

This Bears hat has seen a lot, but nothing will top this morning!

Family photo less than 2 hours after the ambulance ride.

The first bath is always the hardest.

Aah, much better now.

One of my favorite moments of the day. The Kapellas name lives on.

TOGA! TOGA! TOGA! After waiting 11 hours in L&D for a post-partum room to open, without even laboring or delivering, Paul got creative. I'm a good sport.

Finally a moment of calm after all of the chaos. Welcome to the world, Gannon Michael.

We can't wait to the thank the two EMTs who delivered Gannon. Jonathan and Tasso were simply amazing. They were calm, confident and certainly capable of delivering a baby in a less than ideal manner.

The following six posts are a quick recap of our first week as a family of four.