Welcome to the world, Cole!!

Thursday night, about 12 hours before my scheduled induction, I started having (more) regular contractions. There have been a couple times over the last few weeks that I had contractions regular enough to make me think I was in the very early stages of labor, only to have them stop after a few hours. So I was reluctant and unsure of what to expect, but kept track of what my body was doing anyway. After several hours of the same, we decided to head to the hospital, because we knew we had to be there before 7am the next day anyway. We were there and all checked in by about 1:30am. I was dilated to 2cm and contractions were about 7 minutes apart and still mild. I labored through the night while trying to sleep a little here and there. Over the next 4 hours there wasn't much change, so they started me on the pitocin right at 7am. By 9am, contractions were 2-3 minutes apart, I was dilated to 3cm and it was at that time that my doctor broke my water. By 10am I was at 4cm and contractions were already very painful and less than 2 minutes apart. I had just had an epidural, but it was doing some funny things, so my anesthesiologist had been in and out several times between 10:00 and 11:00 to help do what he could to get it adjusted to help me through the pain. I was checked again just before 11:30 and was at 6cm, then about 10 minutes later I told the nurse she should check me again, that I needed to push. Yes, I went from 6cm to 10cm in less than 10 minutes! They called my doctor who took about 10 minutes to get there longest, most painful and intense 10 minutes of my life! I pushed through 2 contractions, and he came! I remember feeling so eager to get him out so we could finally know if he was a boy or a girl. It was so exciting and emotional to hear them yell, "It's a little boy!" Eric knew he was a boy, and I think deep down I knew he was too, but it was a relief to finally hear it and know for sure! He definitely kept us waiting, but he was completely worth the wait!

There he is! First picture outside of the womb!

Meeting my new baby boy.

Precious baby. He looks like Ella just after birth.

Happy parents!

Carter and Ella meet Cole for the first time about 20 minutes after he was born.

Gotta make a silly face. Look how alert Cole is!

First pictures as a family of 5

Excited girl!

Meeting Nana

Each of the kids got to hold him for the first time right away.

With Grandma

Grandpa and all the boys

Heading into the nursery for his first bath

Not loving it...

Checking him out through the window.

Cole in the background

Beautiful boy

He's so happy to have a brother

and so is she!

Very interested in diaper changes... this is the first one they got to watch.

Happy Birthday Cole!

Sweet sleeping boy

Getting ready to go home!

3 deep in the backseat.... going home!!

Ella taking pictures of Cole right when we got home, such a little Mommy already!!

Stormie meets Cole :)

Enjoying loving on their brother

And a few pictures just lounging around on Sunday.....

Sweet brothers

Love this!! He will just lay there with him and look at him and talk to him, so sweet!

And a few of my favorite picture that Cindy & John took....

So that's it for us at the hospital and just getting home. We've taken a lot of pictures in the week that we've been home while trying to get back to normal life. I hope to be able to go through those and post them soon.