his own entrance

I was supposed to be induced on December 3rd, but it was pushed back until December 4th. We were hoping my body would kick and I would go into labor on my own. At my appt on the 2nd, I was dilated to a 3, so the dr thought it was possible that labor could kick in. I cramped all day long on the 2nd and I was tears in multiple times b/c I could not tell the difference from the cramping and contractions. That afternoon LE and I were playing Old Maid on my bed and at 4:00 I told Ben he needed to get off work and take over b/c I was miserable. At 5:15, we sat down to dinner and I was again in tears. Ben asked if I wanted to nap or take a walk in hopes to kick into labor or even relieve some of the pain (walking actually helped me more than lying down when it came to the pain). We took our stop watch and started around the neighborhood. My contractions were 4 min and 45 seconds apart, but were only 30 seconds long. Doctor wanted me in at 5 minutes apart and 1 minute long. By the time we finished our bike ride/walk they were 4 minutes apart and 45 seconds long. I called our friend Natalie, who had offered to let the girls stay the night when I was going to be induced and asked if we could still take her up on the offer. She was there within minutes and Mimi and PawPaw were on their way. By the time I got to the hospital at 7:30, the contractions were 3 min. 30 seconds and I was dilated to 6-7, so at that point I accepted I was in labor.
Against my better judgement, I decided to get an epidural. Something kept telling me not to get one, but honestly I was so afraid of labor taking hours and hours, I got one. At first, it was great, I did not feel a single contractions, but then my water broke and the pain was awful. My lower half was tingly numb, but yet I could feel all of the pain of contractions. The anesthesiologist tried to give me another one, but I was too far into the process it had not kicked in before he delivered. When my water broke we discovered he had already had a BM, so they ordered NICU nurses to be there, as a precautionary. Less than 6 hours and 5 pushes our sweet boy was here. At first, he did not cry and they instantly went to work on him to get the meconium from his lungs. It took a few minutes before I could see him, and I needed some extra attention from the delivering doctor. But, when I did it was love at first sight. He is so amazing, he reminds of LE when she was first born.
I will try my hardest post as often as I can, but as you can imagine our world has instantly changed.