Matthew Has Arrived!!!

It's hard to believe it's been 6 weeks.

It's hard to believe that we ever lived without this beautiful child.

April 8th, 2010.

Matthew joined us.

His delivery was as easy as his first 6 weeks have been.

Quick, painless, mellow and an amazing gift.

I spent most of the evening of April 7th having pretty consistent contractions.

They were essentially painless.

By morning, we sent Michael off to school and I decided we better head to the hospital.

The nurses (who were amazing and fantastic and a gift to the medical community) were sure that I was going to be sent home because there was no way for a woman to be in labor and be feeling this great. And trust me, I thought the same. I was laughing, cracking jokes, facebooking and doing all things un-labor-like.

But Matthew had decided that he was going to make his arrival. Once the nurses admitted me, we made the necessary calls to friends and family and I continued to labor with barely any pain.

Honestly, I asked for the epidural with no pain.

Here is a lovely video of me in the middle of a contraction. I had not gotten my epidural yet... it was just seriously that easy. You can see in front of me, my delicious ice chips. Oh, I was starving. I would have begged to stop at Taco Bell on the way to the hospital but I had no intention of accidentally pooping on the table. I'm not even sure if that's an urban myth or not... but I can assure you that I was not taking the risk!

The epidural was another story. Thanks to an ever-worsening case of scoliosis, it was no small feat to get an epidural tube into my spine. In fact, it took 3 effing tries! They had to bring in the Chief of Anesthesiology to get it right. This pissed me off because I was A: insisting on pain medication when I actually had no pain, B: creating pain that was unnecessary and C: worried I was going to get charged for 3 epidurals. I mean, a bandaid probably costs $58 in the hospital, who knows what 3 epidurals would cost. I did kind of feel like I was in an episode of Grey's Anatomy though and just pretended that the Chief had great hair and an awesome post-it note wife named Meredith Grey.

I digress. After an unexpected case in which I "Brady'ed" which essentially means I passed out on the table... wait... I'm not actually sure what it means... heading to google now...

Okay... I was probably better off not knowing all that information. In a nutshell, my heart rate dropped to less than 60 beats per minute.

But then... after 3 pushes, he was here. And I was again overcome by the love one can feel for their child. And I was overwhelmed by his cuteness and his perfectly shaped head.

I was overwhelmed by the way Kevin looked, looking at his baby. And I couldn't wait for Michael to arrive and meet his amazing, incredible little brother!

When Michael came, I felt complete. I had my family with me and every ache, pain, unhappy moment I had experienced in the last 9 months, instantly disappeared.

Needless to say... Matthew is a perfect angel. He has maintained his mellow demeanor since his arrival and he is honestly almost unreal.

I am blessed and complete and completely happy.

I am also thankful that the last nine months are over.

I am a lucky, lucky girl!!!