We've got a baby!

As Lori so kindly posted, Daniel Jackson arrived last night, April 26th, at 8:13 pm.



(more pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/jooniper/BabyDaniel)
The basics:
-7 pounds, 11 ounces and 19 inches long
-Technically a premie because he was born before the 28th
-9 on his APGAR
-His name is Daniel Jackson. Daniel, because it's a good name:) (though perhaps a little common), and Jackson is a family name on the Kunz side (from his Grandma Laura Kunz's maiden name and also Kenny's father's middle name). I'd imagine he'll be a Danny, but not a Dan.
-He was born after 6 hours of "active" labor, after 13 hours in the hospital, and after almost exactly 2 months of prodromal labor.
-I went all natural, aside from some local anastethic for stitches.
-We've gotten a good hour of breastfeeding in, but the silly kid is very content to do nothing but sleep
-He's got a crazy cone-head from the delivery (should round out in just a couple days) and no birthmarks that we can tell
-He has very sparse blondeish hair and beautiful blue eyes (all 3 times I've seen them open)

So, the whole story (very long, including some perhaps gross details):
As I posted in my last post, we went to the hospital Friday and found out I was 7.5 cm dilated. We made history by being discharged while being that far dilated. I was REALLY hoping that this weekend would be it.
Friday night nothing seemed to be happening. About 5 in the morning on Saturday both Kenny and I woke up and I was bleeding pretty bad (and it looked like it might be mixed with amniotic fluid), so I went and chilled in the empty bathtub while Kenny made some breakfast (pillsbury cinnamon rolls) and got all our final preparations out of the way. We then headed to the hospital around 7 am. I was finally having regular contractions I could feel (though they still didn't really hurt per se) and was dilated to an 8, so they admitted me. They couldn't get a good test on whether or not I was leaking Amniotic Fluid.
I had a GREAT nurse. While she herself was all for medical interventions and such, she fought hard for me to get the natural experience I wanted. My doctor had wanted me on an IV and monitors the whole time which would have kept me in bed on my back, but I wanted to be able to move around and do whatever helped me get through the pain. Apparently the nurse told my Doctor (who's still fairly young, and nice enough) that "such-and-such a doctor let's their natural patients do this all the time" and convinced her it wouldn't be the end of the world if I didn't have an IV and they only monitored the baby intermittently.
We asked them how many women went natural and they said "um, just you:)" We hard some screams of bloody murder from the room next door and I'll admit, I was surprised to learn that that woman had had an epidural and was still screaming like that. Yikes.

Just after they admitted me and got me my own room(which happened to be the same room I had in fFebruary), contractions stopped altogether for a while. It was pretty disappointing. They weren't gonna let me go home at 8 cm dilated and with a (perhaps) broken water, but I didn't want pitocin or anything like that to get labor going, though I wasn't dead set against it either, since I was already at 8 centimeters and had so little to go. At about noon, the doctor went ahead and broke (or finished breaking) my water to get things moving. It took a couple of hours, but by 2 pm I was having some crazy contractions.

We watched Newsies and I sang along through my contractions while bouncing on the birthing ball and eating Popsicles. That makes it sound much funner than it was:). Around 5 the contractions got to be really strong and I'd grab and squeeze/rub Kenny's hand as hard as I could. He was great. The baby was turned to the side a bit so we tried various positions and stuff to make him turn- all of which seemed to make the contractions more intense. At 6 I started pushing. It took two nurses and the doctor- the nurses held my legs up for me which really helped. To the point I freaked out any time a contraction came and they weren't both right there.
Pushing was REALLY intense. I don't know why I thought it would go faster. It was frustrating because I couldn't really tell what progress was being made. They set up a mirror so I could see, but it wasn't like I pictured- I couldn't see too much because for most of it, it's still all pretty internal. I could just see myself get more frightfully torn up and messy down there... in the future I think I'll opt for no mirror:)
Still, the pain wasn't unbearable. Really, the worst part was the relentless of it. To any woman who's labored for longer than 8 hours, KUDOS to you. I can't fathom having to keep at it for longer than I did. It wasn't the painfulness, it was the lack of an escape, even a temporary one. Because the baby was turned sidewise, there was always some pretty intense pressure in my back. I never did get too loud but I'm sure I made all sorts of funny sounds.
Towards the end the doctor said "we're going to go ahead and make this opening a little bigger for the baby" and I said "um, what?" I told the doctor I'd rather not have an episiotomy, so she backed off. Sure enough, I have a third degree tear going backwards that's going to take some serious healing. Still, I feel content having torn rather than having been cut- now I can always know that what happened was exactly what needed to happen. The tear didn't hurt too bad at the time and I never had huge problems with the "ring of fire" so many women describe- most of the pain I felt was just the pressure of having a baby right there.

Kenny was AMAZING. HE was in charge of ice cubes for me:) and did a great job. He did need to leave the room once for some fresh air and grape juice right at the end, but that's better than an uncomfortable (or worse, unconscious) Kenny. He was there for the delivery and teared up a bit. It was so sweet.
When Daniel finally came out, they immediately placed him on my chest and we snuggled. He was big and healthy and snuggly. He rested right on my breast and apparently inhaled a bit much of it and his little feet and hands turned purple (the reason he didn't score a 10 on his APGAR). He got to rest with me for a long time while the doctor stitched me up.
I've never known an exhaustion to be so deep. I shook like mad for the whole following 12 hours or so. But I've never been so happy or proud, either. He's my beautiful little boy and I wouldn't change a thing.
He's spent probably 75% of his time with us and the other 25% in the nursery being checked for various things. We'll probably be at the hospital until tomorrow at this time. Thanks everyone so much for the prayers and well-wishes!