Michael Joseph

After many requests for more pictures...here ya go. Mom and baby are home from the hospital and we are all adjusting and doing well.

We went into the hospital Tuesday night to "start" the induction...and after contracting all night with minimal sleep I reached a 4 by 8am. Dr. broke my water a little later and I reached a 10 before 11am. This is Mommy shortly after the epidural kicked in (he did a perfect job by the way). The epidural is really the only reason I'm smiling at this point...and the thought of getting baby out.

After an hour and a half of pushing (now I truly understand why they call it labor)...out comes our new baby boy!! Dr. and nurses were all saying (before he came out), if they were to guess the gender, it would be a boy since he was being so stubborn coming out. Baby was posterior (face up) and didn't want to come out. They worked a miracle with the forceps and baby came out, much to my relief, healthy. And yes, I was in tears...relief that baby was here, the power in the room, and the sweet relief knowing that the pushing was over. Seriously, it's really hard work!

Adam and Grandma came to the hospital to meet baby. Adam was rather apprehensive and didn't want much to do with the baby the first visit, but it got much better after that. Tonight, he even gave him a good night kiss after prayers.

A picture just for Brian's mom with eyes open. After taking a while to name our little boy, we decided on Michael Joseph. He has Jaundice and so we're working on that with the doctor, but other than that he is very healthy. He's doing well nursing and I have hopes that we'll continue to be successful.

A big thank you to all of you for your thoughts and prayers on our behalf. We feel so very blessed. We are grateful that all went well with the delivery and even more grateful that things are continuing to go well.