Oh the Joys of Raising Boys... and a Girl: I'm in love!

I have so much to write! I will begin at the beginning and tell it all. Last Friday I went to my doctors appointment and was still only 2 cm dilated but my cervix was ready, so it was set up to induce Benjamin on Tuesday morning. Most of the reason for doing this 3 days before his due date was because I really wanted my doctor to deliver him. She had been through everything with this pregnancy and I just really felt most comfortable with her. I really wanted to go into labor on my own so that was my prayer over the weekend. Tuesday morning arrived and I woke up angry with God that I had not gone into labor that night, just because I wanted the process to start naturally when it was supposed to, but I was still okay with being induced. Well I got up at 4:55 to call the hospital and make sure I was still able to come in and they wanted me there between 6 and 6:30 am. I got there and my nurse Amber (who was amazing) started hooking me up to everything and got me hooked up to the monitors etc.. and come to find out I was already in labor and didn't know it! My contractions (that I couldn't feel) were between 2 and 5 min. apart. I had to do some apologizing since I was mad at God for thinking I was not in labor on my own. They decided to go ahead and hook me up to the pitocen just to speed labor up so I was never even induced. The doctor came in and said it looked like I was having this baby anyway so it all worked out well. She checked me and I was 3 1/2 cm. so she decided to go ahead and break the water at 8:42 am. She wrote out a prescription for my epidural and said whenever I felt like getting it I could. I finally got it when I was about 4 cm just because I figured there was no reason to be in discomfort. The epidural went well and let me tell you I LOVE EPIDURALS! It was wonderful. I was able to rest and didn't feel a single contraction until I got to 8 cm. They had to come and re-adjust my dose because the contractions were very uncomfortable and starting to cause pain. Once it kicked in my doctor came in and said we needed 30 minutes and I could start pushing. I used a total of 4 out of 42 ml or whatever measurement they use on the IV bags of pitocin, so I basically didn't use any of it. The doctor came back in and she started working with me on practicing a few pushes and then we were off and Benjamin was on his way! I ended up pushing for 2 hours and Benjamin's head just wouldn't go under my pelvic bone so my doctor assumed he was stuck and she said we needed to use the vacuum or I would have to have a C-section if that didn't work because I was getting too exhausted and his head just wouldn't move. Come to find out he was face up and that is why he was stuck. It took quite a bit with the vacuum and finally his head came out and he arrived at 6:00 on the dot with a full set of lungs! It was so amazing! Also my doctor stayed with me the entire time and she and my nurse and Brad worked through each push with me. My doctor was so calming and wonderful and I can't say enough about her! After Benjamin arrived she looked at me and said "the good news is that we didn't have to do a c-section but I am sorry to tell you that you tore pretty bad." I ended up with a class 4 tear and for those of you who have no clue what that means, it means I tore all the way through! she said I just got so swollen from pushing for so long that when he came there was no stopping it from tearing. It took 1 1/2 hours to stitch me up. Brad was amazing through everything! He stayed right there with me, never passed out (which was huge for him) and he has been on cloud nine and is such a proud daddy! We brought him home today and it is so unbelievabe! We are so in love with him!! well I want to post pictures.. we only have a thousand of them already... Oh... because they used the vacuum on him his little cone head looks extra funny, but it has already gone down a lot. Here he is.....

First time holding him and instantly in love