True Love

As I sit down at the computer for the first time since last Wednesday, tears of joy and happiness stream down my face. I look down to see my sweet boy staring up at me with his gorgeous eyes and big pursed lips. I collect my thoughts and try to put my emotions to words.

Last Wednesday, Steve and I dreamt about the changes and wonderful things that the following day would bring - we had no idea about the love that was about to enter our lives.

You can't truly imagine what parenthood is like until it happens to you and last Thursday evening all of those imaginations became reality and it was the greatest feeling I've ever had in my life.

Here's the story of our sweet son's arrival...
7am Thursday morning we checked in to Overlake Hospital in Bellevue for my scheduled induction (41 weeks - a week past due). Soon after arrival, I was hooked up to the heart rate monitor and contraction monitor and given an internal pill to get my contractions going. By noon, I had dilated to 2cm and was then given Pitocin to speed up the process. Around 3pm I was given an epidural for the contractions and only dilated to 4cm. Immediately after the epidural was administered our boy's heart rate dropped drastically and caused for a bit of commotion and urgency in our room. Suddenly, the Anesthesiologist, my doctor and five nurses were in our room contorting me into various positions in an attempt to stabilize his heart rate. About five minutes later his heart rate was back to normal and things were good. This scared both of us, but we knew we had to stay calm for our boy. At 7pm my doctor came back in to my room to check my progress and not much was going on. I was on track for contraction, but had only dilated to 4cm and did not seem to be progress and every time I laid directly on my back his heart rate would drop, slightly. My options were to continue as we were and see how the contractions would continue or go in for a c-section. Steve and I were concerned that a vaginal birth would cause too much stress on our boy because of the slowing heart rate so we opted for the c-section. Both of our families were already at the hospital, waiting on pins and needles for the news of the arrival of their sweet grandson and nephew.

At 8:21pm on Thursday, April 28, our lives were changed, for the better, forever and Raleigh John Rinabarger made his grand entrance at a whopping 7lbs 1oz and 19.5 inches long. This first photo is the very first look we got of our handsome boy and I've never seen anything more perfect in my life. The love that filled our hearts at that split second is indescribable. Of my 31 years of life, I can say with all of my heart that the moment I laid my eyes on my son was the greatest moment of my life.

Mr. Raleigh is now requesting that we head off to bed (at least for the next few hours), so I must sign off, but I'll post more photos very soon. A million and one thank yous for all of the love and support we've received from our friends and family.  Raleigh is a lucky little man to have all of the amazing people that we have in our life now in his life.