He's Here!

And he has a name!

Announcing... Jacob Matthew!
born on Feb 22 at 3:15 pm, weighing 9 lbs even, measuring 19.5 inches long

Here is the short version of the birth story:

I was absolutely right on Thursday morning; when I went in to my doctor's appointment at 10:30, I reported the contractions and a bit more bloody show, so the doctor checked me. She said I was 4 1/2 - 5 cm dilated, so I could go check in to the hospital! Whew! SIL was home with the boys and Chris and Troyer were with me, so we went right over. I got checked in and put in a room, then waited to meet the doctor who would be delivering. Of course it was a doctor I'd never met, but oh well. He ended up being very nice. He checked me and said he could break my water any time, but I said I wanted my epidural first, so we'd have to wait for that. It took a while for the blood work to get to the lab and the anesthesiologist to get to my room. I guess there were a few other moms in labor at the same time. Finally at about 1:30 the doctor came back and said I was almost a 6, and he'd break my water during the next contraction. I think about 2 or 2:30 they started some pitocin because the contractions were still not closer than 10 min apart, and at 3 the nurse came in and checked me. I was over 9 with just a lip left. She told me to try a push to see what would happen. The epidural was way too strong and I couldn't feel anything, and I had no urge to push, so I tried but couldn't tell what it was doing. She bugged her eyes out and said Stop! LOL She called the doctor back in and they had to tell me when I was getting a contraction so I could push. It only took 3 pushes and out he came. He was born at 3:15. He cried a lot, but as soon as they let me hold him he quieted down again.

I was supposed to have about 2 hours to recover and then get transferred to my regular room, but since the epidural was so strong, it took much longer for me to be able to get on my feet again. I hated that; I wish it wouldn't have been so strong. I think it caused some trouble for me as well, because since I couldn't feel when I pushed, I think I pulled quite a few muscles in my abdomen. They are still really sore. Finally I got in my room about 6:30. They brought the baby to me pretty quickly, which was nice.

We didn't get the name picked until Saturday morning, right before we got checked out. We went in circles back and forth, and finally settled on Jacob Matthew. A nice normal name, no hillbillies, LOL. When we got home the boys were very excited, and all took turns holding him. SIL Shawna stayed a while so she could see him and hold him, then headed back home. I'm so grateful to her for coming over and helping out with the boys so Chris could be with me. The boys had a lot of fun with her too. :-)

I'm really tired, since Jacob seems to like sleeping during the day, and coming more alert at night, plus he was colicky already last night, poor baby. But Wow, he is awesome. I'm so glad he's here!

I have a bunch of pictures on my camera, but no time so far to get them uploaded to post. Hopefully soon!