Hail James!

Wow! What a day! Master James Patrick Lee graced the world with his arrival on April 16, 2010! James weighs 8 lbs and is 19 1/2 inches long. He has quite a bit of dark hair on his head which made Steve a bit curious. Ha! After about 12 hours of labor and 14 minutes of pushing, James made his debut. He did great and Steve and I are already so proud of him.

The day started for me at about 1a when I was awoken by a painful contraction. I was able to go back to sleep but woke up about once an hour with pain. By 4a, I was so annoyed that I went on the couch to relax (I was annoyed because about a week ago, I had some contractions that turned out to be a big tease). Anyway, the contractions were not regular but were VERY painful and kept increasing in intensity. I went to wake my mom up at about 5a to tell her that I thought I needed to go to the hospital or the doctor to see if I was in real labor or not. We all got up and started getting ready and thats when things got intense. My contractions started coming regularly and were so painful, they would make me nauseous. I knew that I was either in labor or dying of something very serious.

The drive to the hospital was pretty painful though I was so glad traffic was light (thank you God!). As soon as I got to the hospital, they took me to triage, told me I was 4 cm dilated and 100% effaced and admitted me. In about an hour, I was 6 cm and they were hooking me up to my epidural. I could write a whole other post on the epidural and how it saved my life but I will digress.

Things were progressing pretty quickly and my nurse kept praising me for the quick progress. Steve, my mom, Katie, Mrs. Julie, and me had a great time talking and laughing while waiting for the time to push. My dad (Pops) wasn't able to make it and he was REALLY missed. He would have added lots of fun to the long day.

Finally, at about 7p, I was ready to go. Another nurse came in and I started pushing. After the third contraction of pushing, she called the doctor in and I knew it was go time. A few more pushes and out came James! Amazing!!

I cried like a baby when they plopped this beautiful baby on my belly. He was screaming and was just perfect. I was flooded with emotion and couldn't believe that I was lucky enough to have been blessed with something so awesome.

He has been doing great and we are enjoying every second with him! Thank you to everyone that sent us warm wishes!

We will be sure to take more pictures today since we will be rested and i will be able to wear real clothes again (instead of this bariatric hospital gown).