It's a ..................

Hi everyone. I made it back from the hospital tonight, just to pick up a few items and grab a shower. Today was an amazing day! Michelle was induced yesterday (April 19, 2006) about 6:00pm. Contractions had started and once she was 6cm she couldn't stand the pain and called for an epidural. Unfortunately the first one they did, didn't work and Michelle was given a second one. That one worked like a charm she said. The scares part about the whole night was shortly after the epidural, the baby's heartrate dropped to about 50 Beats per minute. Too low. The Dr. considered the baby in distress and decided she would need a C-Section. At this point I was shocked and scared. Then some luck hit us. The heartrate started to slowly climb. The Dr. said, "Wait! Let's give it another minute, it looks like the rate is climbing." At this point I was just praying and kept saying to myself, "Come on, you can do it, climb, I know your strong!" Then it hit....the amazement as the BPM went back up to 140 and the Dr. declared, "We're going to deliver this baby normally!" I think at that moment I shed a bit of a tear....as I knew the time was near. At 11:30pm, the nurse said, "Looks like it's time, we're going to start pushing now." The next step was to determine if it would be before midnight or after. The pushing commenced and exactly 36 minutes after (and with a little suction help), the baby was born. It was absolutely the most amazing sight I have ever witnessed, as the Dr. declared, "You have a baby BOY, congratulations!" I am not a hospital person and I thought for sure I would pass out. I witnessed every minute of the natural birth with a huge smile on my face and tears in my eyes. Wow! It's so amazing that it's so hard to descibe if you haven't already had a child.

Anyway, mom and baby are healthy and in great condition!

Well, I gotta go back to the hospital for the night. We should be back home sometime Friday afternoon as they've already told us we would be discharged on Friday. I'll post a new message when we arrive home with our new pride and joy.

Here are the details and some pictures:

Sex: Boy
Name: Brenden "David" Schaefer
Birtdate: April 20, 2006
Time: 12:06am
Weight: 6lbs 13oz
Height: 53cm

(Click on pictures to make them full-size)