Brycen Matthew is here!

Well, I have been asap for a couple of days. Good reason though, our baby boy is here!

Thursday, I was supposed to have my doctors appointment at 2pm. As I was in the bathroom getting ready, my water broke! So I call the doctor and they said to go on and head up to Labor & Delivery to get checked out.

But not before we could get pictures, of course!

I get to L&D around 2:30pm and sure enough my water had broken. (On a side note...I really now believe that it had broke the night before. See my previous post! :)) They check me and I am 4cm dilated. I wasn't having any contractions, so it was pretty much just like Thompson's labor. Water broke and no contractions...

At about 4ish they get me into a room and get me all hooked up. They started my IV and finally around 5:30, they started me on pitocin. At 6:45 I received my epidural.

I still wasn't in a rythmatic contraction pattern, so they kept raising the pitocin dosage. They checked me again at around 7 and I was still at a 4. And at 9 I was still at a 4. I was pretty disappointed, but knew that as soon as my labor became "active", then it would really start. I started to finally get into a pattern and they checked me again at 10:30 and I was finally at a 5! YAY! Progress! But, with all of the pitocin and my body starting to do its thing, I was having contractions that were only about 2 minutes apart. Brycen wasn't recovering too well from all of them so I had to be put on an oxygen mask. Definitely made me nervous, but I knew that they were watching him. At midnight they checked me again and I was 6! I figured that if I kept progressing, then hopefully by 3 or so I would soon have my baby boy.

Boy was I wrong!

At about 12:30am I started feeling some pressure. Like last time, I thought the epidural was wearing off. The pressure was coming during my contractions, but by 12:45 it was constant throughout. Robert was so great. He just stood beside me reminding me that I needed to breathe. We got the nurse and she came in and checked me and sure enough I was 10cm dilated and at a +2 station. It was go time. She ran and got the doctor and the other people and at 1am we started to push.

Brycen Matthew Riedel was born at 1:08am. He weighed in at 6lbs 8ozs and was 20.2 inches long. He wasn't our 8+ lbs baby we were expecting, but he is absolutely perfect!

Daddy is proud to hold his baby boy

Momma got her turn

The next day Thompson came to meet his baby brother. This was probably the most proudest moment of my life. I will never forget the feeling of seeing both of my sons together.

We are so in love with this little boy. He has the prettiest face and the skinniest little legs! We couldn't ask for anything more.

We are so stunned by the resemblence of Thompson and Brycen. Here are some pictures of Thompson (on the left) and Brycen (on the right).

We made it home yesterday evening and we are doing great! Brycen is such a content baby. I was nervous (still am) that he was going to be the complete opposite of Thompson, who was the best baby!

Another great thing, you know how I have been in homework mode for the past few days? Well I finished my LAST class Thursday at noon. An hour and half later, my water broke! Is this child not the best?! He knew that his momma was on a deadline. So sweet! I take my final on Tuesday and as long as I pass, then I GRADUATE!!! Life could not be any better!

Today is a great day! My mom is on her way to spend 2 weeks with us! Robert and Thompson left this morning to go pick her up from the airport and they should be home any minute! I can't wait!!