Welcome to the world Becker!

He finally made it!  Just a bit late but perfect as can be.  It was such a magical day for us, I wanted to write down the events so I could remember.  Here is how it all happened...

Labor for me was another fast and furious experience, just like I had with Rynnie. My induction was scheduled for Thursday the 16th (would be 6 days overdue) but on Wednesday morning contractions started at 8 AM. They hurt like hell and so I thought I'd start timing them to see what was going on. At my appointment the day before, I was four cm dilated and 80% effaced. Sure enough, the contractions were coming exactly three minutes apart, and lasting anywhere between 30 and 45 seconds. When my Mom saw me working though one, she said, "Get in the shower, you're in labor!". I called Kev at work and said "This is the call you've been waiting for!". Since my labor with Ryn was four hours long, he wanted me to get to the hospital right away, but of course I needed my shower first. While my parents and Ryn drove me to Kev's hotel so we could go to the hospital, Rynnie was copying my weird breathing I was doing through the contractions and that was cute.

Kev and I finally got to the hospital at 10:30 and the triage RN checked my cervix. She said, "Do you want to know how far you are or do you want to just keep chugging away at it?". I said, "No, I want to know!" and she laughed and told us I was at eight cm. I thought she was joking. At this point, contractions were still 2-3 min apart and a minute long and I had control of them, so when she asked what I wanted to do for pain control, something inside of me just took over and I thought to myself, "I can do this. I will do this.". Going natural was always sort of in the back of my head, though I am a go with the flow kind of person, and it seemed like the best decision was to just do it without the epidural.  I was never pressured to do anything I didn't want to do by the hospital staff, and they encouaged me to walk around, though resting in the bed seemed the best to me.

Next, the contractions intensified and were mostly in my back. Having Kevin push extremely hard into my lower back helped relieve the pain, and I developed this weird breathing kind of like making a "kahhhh" sound. Who knows where that came from. Every time a contraction ended, I felt totally calm and normal. I chatted with my nurses. My OB came in at about noon and I was at 9+ cm. She asked if I wanted her to break my water to speed things up and I said yes. After 15 minutes, he was still not decending so she determined he must have been sunnyside up (hence the horrible back labor) and had me lay on my side. At this point, I began shaking like crazy and that contraction was the worst part of my entire experience. It hurt so bad, I seriously thought I was going to die. Turns out this was when he flipped back over to normal position and began decending lower. I started crying because I was really really scared for what was to come. My OB is an amazing, calm woman and she assured me that what I was feeling was totally normal, and that most women actually think the pushing is the easier part. I trusted her and began pushing him out. After about four or so contractions, I could feel his head way low and she said, "Okay, this last contraction will be it, you can do it!". I curled my body around him as she said, held my breath and pushed for what felt like forever. I yelled "PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!!" as he was being born, because I just wanted her to grab him out of me for the pain to be over with. That "ring of fire" is absolutely no joke. It was instantaneous relief once he was out and they let me hold him for as long as I wanted before taking him away. 

Becker Jerry (Becks) was born at 1:07 pm, at 9 lbs and 21 inches. He was totally healthy, Apgars of 9 and 9, though he had a huge bruise on his face and benign eye hemmorhages due to the fast nature of the labor (they will go away in a few weeks). He is an excellent latcher and we are home getting used to a family of four. Ryn has adjusted okay so far, just a few incidents of jealousy that completely broke my heart. But mostly she is indifferent and even tried giving him a "high five" and when his arms were tucked in a swaddle, she smacked him on the head instead.

We are slowly getting the hang of having two kids, though this last week would have been impossible without the help of my parents.  They entertained Rynnie, distracted Rynnie and gave her so much love she never had time to be upset.  I think the key for us will be to keep her as active as we can; keep her on her normal schedule.  We don't do well just lounging around the house, so until Beck's immune system is stronger (in a few weeks) we will have to make do with lots of Elmo and walks.  Anyways, now for the part you really care about, the pics and videos.

Pic 1: Arrived at hospital and all settled in.

 Pic 2: This is what it looks like when your uterus is not contracting.

Pic 3: Teammates.

Pic 4: Becks meets Mom.

Pic 5: Hey guys!  Where's the milk?

Pic 6: Bruised face.

Pic 7: First diaper change.

Pic 8: Hello son.

Pic 9: Hello son.

Pic 10: Family of four.

Pic 11: First of many kisses for brother.

Pic 12: Home from the hospital.

Video 1: Lots of Rynnie kisses.

Video 2: Testing out Beck's carseat.

Video 3: Check out this strength!