So, I have a minute. Wow. I cannot tell you how happy I am right now. I think it is absolutely amazing what women are able to do in giving birth to babies. Amazing.

So here it is! I went to the hospital to be induced (talk about COMPLETELY nervous). I got there at about 8:30 and they started the pitocin (spelling?) at about 9:00. By 11:00 I was feeling slight pain, but nothing really different from what I had been feeling, but I was really excited because when they checked me, I was 3cm before I was induced. That means I had dilated 2 cm in 2 days. I was really happy about that. I was getting nervous because I really wasn't feeling the intense pain I felt with Samuel (weird right?) I thought maybe the medicine wasn't working and that maybe the baby wasn't ready. But sure enough, by 12,started feeling pretty crappy!! But I was doing well, and I was really trying NOT to use any kind of drugs. By 3pm it got REALLY intense. I took Susie's advice and tried to exercise ball. It worked for a little while, but then I just felt like I couldn't take the pain anymore. So by 4, I was begging for the epidural. The nurse I had was really great and was really trying to encourage me to NOT take the drugs. But at that point, I got checked and I was only 4-5cm and I had been there for a while. So I did ultimately decide to get the epidural. I SWORE the nurse was sabatoging me because the anesthesiologist didn't come in until 5:15...ahhhh..That was the longest hour of my life. I felt myself getting scared everytime I felt a contraction coming on because I wasn't sure I could make it through them!

When the anesthesiologist came in, I just turned to him and said "I don't need to sign anything, just give me the epidural AND NOW." He kinda said Ok then....just scribble your name here? IN A VERY aggrivated way, I did it. The epidural was started and I felt nothing on one side. Turns out he didn't put it in even enough so he had to kind of "jiggle" it around in there. After a half hour it still wasn't working the way it should have and he had pumped SO much medicine into me to try to get it work, I felt NOTHING on my right side. I finally got comfortable enough to sleep. I woke up about 2 1/2 hour later worried that I was missing a leg! I couldn't feel anything. I was really getting upset because I was thinking to myself, why did I do this? What if I can't feel pushing and cannot get him out? When the doctor came in at about 7:40 she checked me and said I was only 6cm dilated. Argh... COME ON! She for some reason guessed that I'd have the baby at 8:30. What? No way. Well sure enough, at about 8:10 I felt some pressure and asked her to check me and sure enough! I was 10cm dilated and ready to push!! Oh my goodness! They got all ready and at that point I started to get so excited I just started crying. I couldn't wait to see my baby!! I couldn't feel pushing, but the doctor told me to not arch my back to push but to push it into the bed and make pretend I was doing a crunch. Well that worked well. I ended up getting him pushed out in 10 minutes!! It was so exciting.

When he was out everyone kept saying "wow, that's a big baby". haha! I looked at him and thought that he looked small, but I hadn't seen a new baby in a while so maybe he was big. Well, they put him on the scale and told us to guess the weight. So I guessed 8lb 6oz. They said "Nope, 8lb 15oz 8grams.. WHATTTTTTTTTT! Oh my gosh!!

So there it is. He is definitely different than Samuel, he is so far a lot more picky about the way he wants to be held, about eating, and definitely has his days and nights mixed up. But that is definitely ok with me.

As far as my recovery. It is night and day from my recovery with Samuel. Right after I had Zachary, I felt awake, alert and really good. I did unfortunately tear a little bit which is what I was most afraid of. That is what made my recovery with Samuel so miserable. This time though, I feel amazing. I was able to get up and walk around pretty much immediately (well, after I got feeling back in my leg!). I have had minimal pain. I woudln't even call it pain, more discomfort. I feel amazing and I am doing really good so far. Oh ya, and as soon as Zachary was born, they told me to try nursing and wouldn't you know. He is his father's son and his brother's brother. Nursed for a half hour no problem latching on at all. It was like he was born to start nursing immediately. haha!!

So there it is. I am thoroughly enjoying my new baby boy and I LOVE being the mommy to two boys :-)