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He is here! After my amniocentesis on Tuesday to check for lung maturity I went in for an induction on Wednesday morning at 6AM. We arrived and got settled in our room. I was hooked up to the monitor to check his heartrate and monitor for contractions, this was a feat in itself, he would not stay on the monitor! I received my IV and a bag of fluids so that when the time for my epidural that would be out of the way. At about 7:30 My doctor came in to see me. I still had not been checked at this point. She had a surgery she was assisting on and would come back after that to check me and break my water. After she left we started the pitocin, this was about 8:00 AM. From the very first contraction they were STRONG. So much so that after probably 45 minutes they turned the pitocin down. At about 9:30 my doctor was back to break my water. I had a serious flow of water. So much my OB got her underwear wet! It was really kinda funny. I gave her a pair of my mesh undies from my hospital kit so she could change. After my water was broken she put in a fetal scalp monitor and an internal contraction monitor. I asked for my epidural at this point. I was in pain. My contractions were about 80 out of 100 on their monitor and coming every 2-4 minutes and had been this whole time. After I got the epidural they turned the pitocin back up. The timeline gets a little blury here. For some reason after I got the epidural I was able to relax and therefore nap a little bit. I was pretty tired from the lack of sleep the night before and the excitement of getting to meet the newest addition to our family. At some point Deacon's heartrate began to decel during contractions. My doctor came to check on us, at about noon, and assured me that this was normal during a contraction. As long as it came back up after all was well. I think I was about 6 cm at this point. The decels started happening outside of contractions and my nurse turned the pitocin off and paged my doctor. Dr. Barnes decided that we needed to put some fluid back 'in' to take pressure off the cord during labor so that he would stop decelerating. So she started and amnio infusion. While the nurse was getting all of this going Dr. Barnes had me start pushing during contractions while she tried to stretch me out (when she started I was about 8 cm). She was able to get me completely dilated in a few contractions. She suspected that once I was complete he would be delivered quickly, but the still did the amnio infusion anyway. My epidural was so good that I could not even feel pressure when I was complete, this would turn out to be a good thing! After the amnio was in she said push, I did, she said stop! She was not gowned, my bed was not in delivery position, etc. So, the did their thing to prepare for a birth. Once doctor gave me the go to push a total of 5 pushes (and 2 contractions) at 2:44 PM. He weighed in at 7 pounds 15 ounces and was 19 inches long. He has a head full of dark hair and is awfully cute! He ended up having to have his stomach suctioned after birth. He came so quickly the fluid did not get a chance to get squeezed out. And I think due to this nursing was not great the first 24 hours. But once all that fluid was gone he took off like a champ nursing. My milk finally came in yesterday and today we have nursed exclusively. Here are a few pictures: