My labor and delivery!

The last day being pregnant. 

My amazing son was born on March 22 at 12.48 am! He weighed 8 pounds 1 ounce and was 21 inches. The last few weeks of my pregnancy were challenging. I was tired, uncomfortable and just ready to be done! I worked until 4 days before I delivered and those last few weeks of work were very tiring. It was hard physically to work with my patients and hard mentally to stay focused.

We had planned an induction around 39 weeks as my OB thought this was the ideal time to deliver and to put less stress on my body. After a back and forth with my Enbrel (tapering at 34 weeks only to start it again), I stopped Enbrel completely at 37 weeks. My joints and uveitis remained quiet and I restarted Enbrel two weeks postpartum. I felt good about having about 5 weeks without Enbrel in order to boost my immunity and my baby's.

Meeting my son for the first time. 

On the morning of March 21st I drove myself into the hospital (as to not get carsick!) to have a baby! Since I was induced, I didn't have that crazy in labor car ride and it seemed just like every other day. They started the induction around 11.00 am and by 5.00 pm my water broke and I was 4 cm dilated. At this point, I chose an epidural and around 11.30 that night, it was time to start pushing! At 12.48 am, my little boy was born! Everything throughout my induction and delivery went well with no complications.

We were fortunate to have lots of help throughout the first few weeks so we could just focus on our son. We didn't even have to grocery shop for the first 3 weeks! I functioned much better then I thought I would on 2-3 hours of sleep a night and my husband and I took shifts for napping. By my 6 week postpartum appointments, I felt like I was getting the hang of this whole motherhood thing!

Amazingly my joints and Uveitis have been completely stable. My glaucoma eye pressure has also been great. I have had so little pain that I have been able to walk 3 miles at least 2 times per week, which is something I have never been able to do. Honestly, my arthritis is the last thing on my mind! Here's hoping that this calm continues to last. He is now 2 months old and growing fast! I will continue to update about "parentingwithJRA" or "motheringwithJRA" on my main blog at www.allgrownupwithjra.com.

Stay tuned!