Here is me about a week and a half before he was born.
Here are some pics right after he was born.
Here are some pics of when Brant and Cloe came to visit their new brother at the hospital.
Here is the story of how he came into the world. Last Tuesday I had my last doctor's appointment. They told me I was dialted to a 1.5 and could have my water broken the next day if I wanted to. Because I had a c-section last time and we were going for a normal delivery this time (called a VBAC) there are some extra guidelines as far as what can be done to induce labor. Danny's mom flew in at 11pm Tuesday night and at 2:30 AM on Wed. morning I started having contractions. At about 5 AM we went into the hospital. I still wasn't dialated more than a 1.5 so at 8 AM they broke my water. Because they wanted to make sure my contactions wouldn't die down once I got an epidural they wanted me to wait until I was dialted to a 4 before giving me one. This didn't happen until about 1 PM. So I labored "naturally" from 2:30 AM to 1 PM. It wasn't too bad until the last hour or two when I thought that the next contraction would probably make me vomit everywhere and make me pass out.
Once I got my epidural things were great, but still very slow. My labor and contraction length finally met the criteria where they could give me some pitocin. By 8 or 9 PM I was dialated to a 5. The next 3 hours passed and I dialated the rest of the way. They let me contract for one more hour to let the baby descend more on his own. Or at least that is what they told me - part of me thinks it was because my doctor was delivering 4 other babies that night and they were trying to schedule things out. Whatever the reasoning it worked becuase I only had to push through 4 contractions and he was out! 8 lbs. 5 oz. 20.5 inches long. He is perfect! We came home Friday night and all is going well - at least with the baby. We are trying to help the kids (mostly Cloe) adjust still.
