He's Here!

Benjamin "Harrison" is finally here.  August 7th, 12:35 p.m. 8 pounds 3 ounces (biggest Richards baby), 21 1/4 inches long, and a head full of black hair.

I woke up about 1:30 a.m. with strong inconsistent contractions on Tuesday morning.  After a couple hours of timing the contractions, I was finally able to go back to sleep.  At 6:00 a.m. I woke up and the contractions were still rather strong and were steadily six minutes apart.  I woke Daddy up and I took a shower, by the time I got out of the shower, the contractions stopped.  Daddy went back to sleep, but  I went downstairs and made me some toast and turned on the Olympics.  A few minutes before 8 am I woke Ben up for work and I fell back asleep.  At 8:33 a.m. I was awoken by a strong contraction, I stood up to see if it would stop and I heard a pop, my water broke.  I called Ben into the room and told him my water broke, not sure I have seen him move so quickly after that.
We called the doctor's office, Mimi and Gigi and we were off to the hospital.  They were walking me to a triage room and the nurse asked what number baby this was.  I told her #4, she did a u-turn and said we would not be stopping by the triage and took me straight to a delivery room.  My contractions were less than 2 minutes apart at this point, but I was only dilated to a 5.  After being checked, the contractions really kicked in.  They were by far the worst contractions I had with any of the other babies and it felt like there was no recovery between them.  The nurse who was giving me my I.V. was so sweet, she was coaching me on breathing, I asked her if she was a yoga person, b/c she sounded just like me when I coach restorative breathing to my seniors.  Needless to say all the coaching in the world could not help me relax with the strength and timing of the contractions and I opted for an epidural (I was still a 5 at this point).  The anesthesiologist was amazing, I think I proposed to him.  The epidural worked immediately.  And as soon as I was able to relax I was dilated to a 9.  I honestly do not know how women make it without an epidural, I tried, but they're super women or something.
The next time the nurse checked me I was a 10 and ready to push.  We had it set up for Mom and Dad to drop the kids off with one of my senior friends, Kathi, who has been watching the kiddos for all of my doctor appointments.  At that point they came straight to the hospital and Mom made it just in time, so did the doctor.  I only pushed for a few minutes and our sweet boy was here.  He was so angry, which they say is a good thing.  He had a head full of black hair, and a great set of lungs.  He stole my heart instantly.  Daddy got to cut the chord and they placed him on my tummy.
The kids and PawPaw were in the waiting room and they were able to come see him.  The girls were all smiles, especially Boo.  R2 was not sure what to think of him.  After they left, I was able to nurse him and he did a great job.  They took him to the nursery and he checked out beautifully.  I was able to eat some hospital chicken tenders and gravy and get a little recovery.  We had to stay in the hospital for 48 hours and was able to have some other special visitors.  My cousin, Anna and Abby, friend, Natalie, and Gigi and PopPop also came to visit.
More pics will come soon, having computer issues.