An update & a few more pictures

I'm feeling a bit more rested, now, & the nurse just arrived to take Grant to the nursery, so I thought I'd add just a few more pictures to the blog. I also promised a bit more of an update, so here goes... as I had mentioned before, I was to be induced yesterday morning at 6 a.m. I had really hoped to have labor start on its own in the middle of the night, but no such luck. When we got to the hospital, Arlie checked me & declared that I was 3-4 centimeters & went ahead & broke my water, hoping that labor would start on its own - which it did, but not without lots of walking the halls to get things going strong. By 8 a.m., contractions were still not very strong & Arlie told me that I was smiling too much. ;-) Thankfully, though, things really picked up not long afterward, & I ended up spending most of the rest of my labor in the whirlpool tub. (It's amazing how much the hot water helps to deal with the pain!) I surprised myself & ended up allowing them to give me a little Nubaine through the IV (I had an epidural last time b/c I didn't want to be loopy from the meds). I was surprised that just having that to take the edge off the contractions, made a big difference in my ability to cope - & I was also able to catch a few winks between contractions. Finally, they made me get out of the tub when I was about 8-9 cm because I was involuntarily starting to bear down through the contractions. Things progressed rather quickly from there, even though it seemed to me to take forever. I only had to push for about 20 minutes (compared to 2 hours with Ryleigh) before I was finally holding my sweet little boy. Everyone kept commenting about how roly-poly he is. His little thighs are so fat & his back has so many rolls & folds of skin, that it looks like a little bull dog's! ;-) He has brownish red fuzz on his head & doesn't really look like Ryleigh at all, in my opinion. He also has broad shoulders & big hands &, in our very biased opinion, he is simply beautiful! He's eating like a champ, even though he is starting to go through the sleepy phase. Ryleigh couldn't be more proud of her baby brother. She is just thrilled to death with him, & kept saying "My baby," over and over. Some of her other comments were "awww, cute!" "gentle," "I wanna hold him," "sweet baby," & "baby want binky" (every time he cried - I think she's picked this up from watching Cayden). Well... I guess I better wrap this up. Today is sure to be a busy day with lots of people here to see Grant & I should probably try to get a little more sleep before things start happening. Thanks for all of your many comments of congratulations!

Ryleigh & Grant meeting for the very first time.

Ryleigh, Grant & Nana