Welcome Peter James

I really don't know where to start. I can't be more happy or feel more blessed. I had a fantastic labor and delivery and know that the road to recovery is going to be very short. And Peter is finally here and is such a nice baby. And I am no longer pregnant. I seriously am on cloud nine.

The story goes like this (be aware, I can't tell a story without telling a million unnecessary details):

I had a my doctor's appointment Thursday morning, 9:10 am. I went and my midwife checked me and I was at 4-5 cm dilated, 80% effaced, and he was at a -2 station. So basically I was close, but needed something to jump-start the labor since I wasn't having any contractions or anything. I asked her to strip my membranes which she did but in the process she accidentally broke my water as well (she was really upset with herself--it was the first time she had ever done that!). In all honesty I was relieved to know I was going to have him that day for sure. Adrian was luckily in the waiting room so we quickly ran home and got things packed, cleaned, and sent Clark to a friend's house.

At noon we went back to the hospital. At this point I had still been having NO contractions. Nothing. And I was a little worried. For 4 hours at the hospital we tried to get things going--we walked and tried a few other methods but still nothing happened. The last thing I wanted was to have nothing happen all day and then have to have a bunch of medical interventions to get him out. Finally at about 4:30 my midwife came in to check on my progress. Turns out there are 2 linings to the "bag of water" and she had only punctured the outer lining. So we decided to have her break the inner bag (talk about a weird sensation!) and then she left to go to church and said "call me when something is happening".

Turns out that was exactly what was needed. My contractions began almost right away and were pretty sharp right off the bat. They were still a few minutes apart so Adrian ran to get something to eat. At 5:45 I was uncomfortable enough to ask the nurse to fill the tub so I could labor in it. They needed to monitor the baby for a certain period of time so we decided I'd do the monitoring and then get in the tub. While I was hooked up the nurse asked what my pain was on a scale of 1-10 and when I said about 8ish she mentioned that the contractions were coming every 1.5-2 minutes and she thought it might be good to check me in case she needed to get ahold of the midwife. I was at a 8, almost 9 so she left the room to call the midwife. I had 2 contractions while she was gone and felt the incredible urge to push. It's amazing how when you need to push--there isn't anything you can do to stop it. I yelled at Age to get the nurse and as I was pushing the nurse and other people rushed in to get everything ready. Needless to say, my midwife didn't make it and it was lucky that there was an OB on the floor--(she wasn't on call, she had just delivered another girl a few minutes previous and was leaving as the nurse grabbed her!). I pushed 10-15 minutes and then life was marvellous. He was born at 6:31 and I held him and bawled my eyes out because I had been waiting so long to meet him and so happy he was here. I would have done that a million more times just for that moment.

an hour after birth

So, from when contractions began to when he came was just under 2 hours. If that's how all my labors could go from here on out I wouldn't mind having a dozen more children. I tore a little and got a few stitches but I don't feel like I was hit by a train (like I did after I had Clark) because my labor was so incredibly short. I am shocked at how great I feel, physically. I did forget how much I dislike after-pains and the "latch-on" the first week or so of breastfeeding but all of it is so worth it.

Peter eats like a champ and (so far) is very mellow. I feel like he looks nothing like Clark did when he was born and everything like Adrian (which is ironic since I thought Clark looked like Adrian as well). Peter for sure has Adrian's nose and he even has little jutting eyebrows like Adrian has. Unfortunately for him, though, he has inherited the Cozza double chin. He has a little more hair than Clark did and it is definitely not red at this point...but we'll see if it stays that way.

There is no doubt this kid belongs to Adrian--doesn't this look so much like him?

Our first family picture

The boys