Amazing Love

On Monday afternoon, June 15th I naturally went into labor. I was to be induced on Tuesday morning, but Ben and I prayed and hoped that I would go into labor naturally so that the chances of me having a C-section would be reduced. Thankfully, God answered our prayers. The contractions started while Ben and I were at O'Reilly Auto Parts ordering something for Ben's Jeep. Something felt different about these contractions, so I told Ben I thought something was brewing. By 8 o'clock that evening there was no doubt in my mind that this was real labor, so Ben and I took one final walk together with Siler, ordered pizza, and then we waited. By eleven that evening the contractions were about 5 to 6 minutes apart, lasting one minute long, and they were becoming more and more painful. We called the hospital, and they asked us to wait until they were 3-4 minutes apart. We arrived at the hospital at one in the morning on Tuesday the 16th and I was already 7 cm dilated. The nurse told me I needed to get the epidural then if I wanted one, so by 2 o'clock I was doped up and happy. The nurse checked again and I was 8cm dilated, but I didn't progress anymore until later that morning because my water did not break on its own and we had to wait on the doctor to arrive at 6:30am. I was perfectly fine with waiting since I wasn't in pain anymore, but around 4 or 5am I started to feel contractions again. Within an hour the contractions were as painful as the ones before I ever had the epidural, and they were 1-2 minutes apart. The doctor arrived and told me that my dosage had worn off, or it just wasn't effective with me anymore, and that I could either wait on the anesthesiologist to arrive and give me a new dosage, or I could "tough it out" and it would all be over very quickly since she had broken my water and I was quickly progressing past 8cm. I decided to go for it, and at 9:44am I delivered Conner after pushing for about twenty minutes. Seeing and holding Conner made every pain and inconvenience of pregnancy completely worth the effort. He was (and is) so precious to me and Ben. We both cried, held him, took pictures, and then gave each other a high five at "how well we did". haha. Actually, we both know that God did everything and it's His miracle - not ours. We love this little guy more than we ever imagined. It's so awesome to see Ben melt when Conner "smiles" at us. Conner is such a good baby. He is not fussy, and his little face is so perfect to us. I'll post pictures when I can. If you have facebook I have several pics on there that my sis and mom posted and tagged me in.