Our son has finally arrived!!!!

Maximiliano Sergio Villanueva was born on December 4th at 5:52 am weighing 7.65 pounds and was 19.5 inches. He is the most adorable lil guy with perfect features and we couldn't be happier parents.
Yesterday we had our doctors appointment at noon and she helped move things along by breaking through my scar tissue. I was bleeding and cramping a little so we went home, but not before we schedule the induction for December 8th, Steve's birthday. When we got home I was extremely tired and still bleeding for a few hours. My sister and I went and bought groceries for that evening so she could cook for us. As I was waiting for her to come over I was in bed watching Bride Wars when all of a sudden I heard this funny sound come from my vagina. It felt like a vaginal air bubble and sounded like a loud pop. I thought it was really strange and went to the bathroom to pee. That is when I noticed my undies were a bit wet. I changed into a new pair which got soaked within minutes. That is when I knew my water had just broken and it was go time. I yelled for Steve telling him I thought it was my water, and he didn't believe me and told me to start counting my contractions, which i did. They were eight minutes apart so I called my doctor who told me to shower, pack up and head into the city. We were scrambling all over the place trying to get our bags packed, the dogs taken care of and my water leakage under control. Luckily my sister was there to help us and so the three of us got into the car and headed to the hospital.


Once we got to the hospital I was admitted and hooked up to monitors. My contractions were 5 minutes apart and getting much stronger. I was shaking and started to feel awful. They told me I could get an epidural anytime I wanted. So once the contractions were three minutes apart I decided I had had enough of the pain and asked for the pain meds. The epidural hurt less than the IV they had put into my wrist earlier (it bled like crazy). All it felt like was a ton of pressure being applied to my back. Once I was hooked up it took about 15 minutes for it to really kick in. Fully working they gave me a catheter which really bothered me so they increased my epi dosage twice. My drugs were working so well that I couldn't feel anything by the time pushing came around. I was 3 centimeters dilated when I was admitted at 9pm, and by 1am I was still only 3 centimeters. By 2:30am i was only 4 cm dilated which surprised the doctors given my intense contractions. They said Max was face up which he shouldn't' be and so they made me switch from side to side every hour. At 4am they checked me again, and to our surprise I went from 4cm to 9cm in no time. We were almost at the finish line! We slept for that final hour and at 5am the doctor came in to see if I had progressed, and boy had I. I was 10 cm and his head was already starting to want to come out and so the pushing game began.
Because my drug dosage had been increased twice during the night I couldn't really feel my contractions or the pushing. So there I was, both legs in the air, elbows elevated and my chin pushed forward trying to push out our son. I was getting frustrated because I was pushing more in my face then in my butt (it feels like I should be squeezing out a poop). So they put a mirror in front of me, and wow, what an incredible experience that was. I could now see that every time i pushed his head would slowly start coming out. In the end that's all I needed, 50 minutes of pushing and out came our son. The final push was incredible, feeling the pressure ease when his entire body came out of mine was a feeling I'll never forget. I couldn't really see him for the first 20 minutes because I had torn and so they were sowing me up while the pediatrician was cleaning Max's lungs since he had gone to the bathroom in my stomach (there was meconium in my fluids when my water broke). Overall the entire experience was wonderful and as far as laboring goes, it was as good as it could get.

The healing on the other hand is far worse, which i guess they try to avoid telling you. Given the tear and the bruising the recovery process has been the most difficult to deal with. The breast feeding is no walk in the park either and my nipples are chapped and swollen and i dread the feedings. I guess practice makes perfect. Our son just got snipped this morning and the poor guy is sleeping right now. Being a parent is the most wonderful experience I've ever felt. I feel such pride and joy for him, and they were right...the love you feel for your child is unlike anything you've ever experienced.