He's Here!

At 2:35pm Tuesday, February 12th we became a family of four. I couldn't really ask for a better labor and delivery which was only 6 1/2 total hours and ended with only 10 minutes of pushing to bring him down and then one 5 second push to bring his whole self into the world. I thought my 40 minutes of pushing with Norah was short, but it was seriously incredibly fast this time. 
It's of course and adjustment going from one child to two but we're enjoying having our little guy around and we're so glad he is finally here. Norah loves him and is walking around telling everyone, "I got baby!" She hasn't caught on yet that poking him in the eye isn't the best way to get to know him though :) 

For those who like to read detailed birth stories:  If you'd rather not read step by step details I'd probably stop here ;) My water was broken by 7:55am and I was 3cm. I immediately started having regular contractions about 3 minutes apart that were increasing in intensity. At 9am I got a low dose of pitocin to keep my contractions from tapering off. Not long after that my contractions got much more difficult to manage and seeing as I knew ahead of time that I wanted the epidural I went ahead and asked for it. 
The nurse encouraged nubane first since I had a good experience with it the last time and simply because I wanted something immediate I agreed. Just as she had the vile of nubane in his hand ready to inject it into my heplock her phone rang and it was the anesthesiologist saying he was watching my contraction monitor remotely (I was the only one in the hospital in labor so I had plenty of attention lol) and since he knew I wanted the epi he said I was in a good position to go ahead and get one. I was thankful for that because my past experience showed that once I got the epi I dilated much more quickly and up to that point I had went an hour-ish with no progression, I was still at a 3. I then declined getting the nubane as I knew he'd be there soon and would rather not be loopy if I was getting the epi soon anyways. He was incredibly slow and it took him 45 minutes to get the epidural in and the meds started and if you have been in labor before I'm sure you know that 45 minutes is a long time to sit up straight and still is difficult while contracting. Finally just after 11am my epidural was placed and the meds were doing their job. 
Right after getting the epidural I was checked again and was at 5-6cm. We chilled out for a little bit and I watched an episode of Full House (there isn't much on in the middle of the day on a Tuesday) and rested a bit. Around 1 I started feeling some pressure with each contraction. At 1:20 I felt a little bit of nausea, which is assume was me being in transition. I let them know and at 1:30 they checked me again because the pressure was getting more pronounced (my epidural was perfect in the fact that I felt no pain, but I could feel the pressure sensation) and I was at a 9 1/2 fully effaced. We decided we'd wait until I felt more pressure to check me again, so at 2pm I was checked again and I was still at 9 1/2. A few minutes later we decided to roll me on my side to help finish dilation and almost immediately I knew that he was ready. So I started pushing from 2:15-2:25 which was probably about 4-5 contractions until they all started yelling for me to stop immediately because he was suddenly deciding it was time to come NOW and the doctor wasn't there yet. They called her and told her to run. It took her 10 minutes which was probably the most difficult part of the whole thing - he was ready to be born and wasn't waiting for anyone. The doctor finally got there at 2:34 and with the next contraction I pushed for about 5 seconds before he was completely born at 2:35. I got to hold him right away and they didn't take him to be weighed or anything until after we were ready for that step. His scores were 8 & 9 (do any babies actually get a 10 on the scale, ever?!) He weighed 8lbs 3oz 19 3/4 inches long. 
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