Welcome Christian Elijah!! (with pics galore -- and labor details below)

You know it takes guts to post this one! :)The tied up cord

Kate's lookin' a bit nervous here...

One of the few times his eyes have actually been open

So being induced was the greatest thing ever! The nurse asked me about my pain number (they make you constantly tell them what you rate your pain as -- 10 being the worst possible pain you can think of). I told her my pain was 0 (since I wasn't in labor), and she asked what I wanted it to be before I had an epidural. I immediately replied, "0." Everyone started laughing, but I was totally serious. They said no one had ever said that before. What?? This doesn't make any sense to me at all. Why would I want to be in pain if there is no reason to be? I already knew I wanted an epidural, so why wait until the pain became unbearable? Just for fun??

Anyway, I got the epidural right away. The epidural worked perfectly -- I could still move my legs and feel the contractions. I even felt the baby squish out, which was pretty cool. The worst that happened was I felt a little woozy and nauseated during labor. It wasn't bad. For me the most painful part was when the nurse put the IV in my hand. She messed up, and my blood went SPURTING everywhere. In seconds my hand was covered and so were the sheets. I glanced down at it, and that's when I really started feeling faint for the first time. Yech.

Andrew was great the whole time, getting me ice chips and jello on command. And now he's the proud daddy of #2! We bought The Office (season 4) for this birth. For Kate's birth we bought Seinfeld (Season 9). We only got to finish one complete Office episode, though! Dang! :) We watched it tons after delivery, though. I forgot to mention that we were a few minutes late leaving the house for the hospital, and when Andrew went to go start the car it wouldn't start! We thought that might be a bad omen of the inducement not working or something, but we jumped it and just went on our way -- and we were only 15 minutes late.

Pitocin started at 8am and by 10:30am I was dilated to a 9. The nurse was shocked that it went so fast. She had me start pushing a little before 11am. I pushed a couple times, and then she told me to STOP PUSHING. She called the doctor right away. He showed up five minutes later, had me push a couple more times and POP -- hello Christian Elijah! Out by 11:07 am and just in time for lunch!

His heart rate dipped near the end of labor, and they put an oxygen mask on me to help him. Well, when he came out his umbilical cord was tied in a knot! Strangely, the exact same thing had happened to Andrew when he was born.

It made me feel grateful that we had him induced (even though initially I had mixed feelings about it) -- you never know what might have happened if we had waited. Also very glad that he slid out as fast as he did; the doctor said that if it had taken much longer, it would have gotten "scary."

He weighed in at 8 lbs 13 oz! 21.5 inches long -- a BIG boy. I tore a bit -- 15 stitches worth. I am feeling it! The labor part was great, but the recovery (with both Kate and Christian) has been the worst part (not counting pregnancy itself).

Christian loves to sleep -- which is great -- but we're still working on the eating part. As you can see from the pics, he's got brown hair -- the same shade (and length) that Kate's was as a baby. His eyes seem lighter than Kate's were, though, and will maybe be blue? Not sure. He's got long eyelashes and long fingernails that we're having a hard time tearing off. That's why he's got socks on his hands in the pics.

Kate seemed a little nervous meeting him for the first time, but thinks he's cute and likes to watch him and pet his soft head. Me, too! She is always talking about him growing up, and I know she's excited to have someone to play with -- just wish it didn't take so long!

Anyway, sitting like I am right now is not the most comfortable thing in the world, so I am off. :) Let me just say we love our little kiddies and are so grateful that Christian arrived safe and sound!! Can't wait to see who he turns out to be.