Voila!

For those of you who want the tale of the fast and furious delivery ... Read on. Those who would rather skip the whole thing -- like my doctor -- then the important details are 6lb 10oz (3 kilos) and 18in (45cm) long. Born at 9:06am on Mar 10.

We entered the hospital at 7:50am that same morning. I had labored thru the night and told myself if the contractions started hurting, I'd go to the hospital. I had the best night's sleep I've had in a long time and about 6am I decided I was indeed in labor and we went to the hospital.

Disappointment quickly ensued after I arrived and the nurse declared I was dilated 1cm. What? That doesn't seem right. She left for 20min while my contractions registered on the machine at less than 2min apart. They got worse and the nurse came, checked, and declared no changes in dilation.

"This isn't making any sense!" I thought. "All this pain for nothing?" So she sent Dave downstairs to fill out paperwork and left me alone in my pain. I asked at this point if I could get an epidural, and she said yes, she'd go call the aenestesiologist. While she was away, I can't say I labored alone in silence, just alone. When she returned a few minutes later she checked again and declared, "Oh my, you are 7cm, we have no time for an epidural." Dreaded words! Not what I wanted to hear. And where was Dave? (He'd only been gone 10min.)

Whoosh. Water breaking. Nurse can feel baby's head and I'm 9cm. "You need to push," she says. I am terrified to try with no medicine. She insists that ain't gonna happen and then tells me pushing won't hurt as bad. "Yeah, right," I'm thinking, "I still have to get his head out."

Dave then walks into a room filled with commotion wondering what he missed. When I start pushing I realize the nurse was right about it hurting less. Ring of fire - here I come. About 6 pushes later, we have a new baby boy! It's over. What just happened? And where is the doctor?? She strolls in 5min later. Yeah, I guess second babies do deliver faster. Glad that's over. Glad he's here. All is well.