The Pyle Family: Introducing Luke Alan Pyle!

We welcomed Luke Alan to our family on Saturday, March 13th at 7:29 p.m. He weighed 8 pounds, 7 ounces and was 21 inches long. He has blue eyes and blonde hair and is absolutely gorgeous and perfect in every way! Here are a few pictures from his birthday and the complete story!

Our family waited in the waiting room at the hospital, anxiously anticipating the arrival of Baby Pyle. Everyone drove down from Michigan when we got admitted to the hospital around 5:45 a.m. Needless to say, they were waiting for much longer than any of us expected.

My water broke at 4:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. After calling the doctor, we knew that the day had finally arrived when we would get to meet our little bundle of joy. We were so incredibly excited that the time had come and we wouldn't have to wait any longer or do the induction we had scheduled for later in the week. After taking a shower and eating some breakfast, we headed to the hospital. My contractions started at about 15-20 minutes apart and were not that intense. By the time we left the house, they were about 7 minutes apart. When we got to the hospital, we went to triage (which I must say is the most annoying part of the whole experience!). They ask you about a gazillion questions about your health history, make you sign a hundred forms (almost as bad as a mortgage!), all of which you have no idea what you're signing because you're trying to breath through contractions, all the while poking you once (or twice, in my case!) to get an I.V. in! Nate said my signature on those forms was the messiest he's ever seen it! At this point, my contractions were getting closer and closer together and much more intense. My cervix was dilated to about 4 cm when I came in. When we got to our room, my contractions were already about 2-3 minutes apart and not 10 minutes later, they were about 1 1/2 minutes apart, lasting a minute each. Wow!! That was the most intense pain I've ever been in. With no downtime between to recooperate and the intensity being so strong, I was ready for my epidural!

After my epidural, I was in a complete state of euphoria!! Anyone who does it without one is crazy! Nate and I were able to watch a whole movie, I dozed in and out of sleep, and hadn't been so relaxed in 9 months! I was having contractions and not even feeling them (I only knew this by looking at the strip on the monitor). By this point, I was dilated to 6 cm and it progressed very rapidly from there. By 11:00, I was completely dilated and effaced. We thought we were in for an easy ride and would be meeting our baby by early afternoon. No such luck!

The doctor wanted me to "labor down" to help Luke move down further so I didn't have to push for as long. We changed positions (as much as you can with an epidural) and sat up to use gravity. I began pushing at about 3:00. We probably pushed a total of 2 and 1/2 hours, with some breaks and position changes in between. Unfortunately, Luke just wasn't wanting to move. At about 6:30, after 14 hours of labor, the doctor decided that a c-section would be the best route. I was devasted and a little scared, but knew that I was that much closer to meeting our new love. An hour later, Luke arrived via c-section! Here's a photo of the first time mommy met him.

It was certainly an exhausting day, but we got through it. Nate was a champ and didn't leave my side the whole time, not even to eat breakfast, lunch or dinner!

Luke is a big boy!! Not at all what my doctor was anticipating (he had been estimating average to small!). Good thing we didn't have to wait for that induction, or he would have been close to 9 pounds! In addition to being large and having a 14" head, he had his hand up over his head and was grasping on to the umbilical cord for dear life, tethered to the uterus wall. What a stinker! The doctors said that there was probably no way I could have pushed him out naturally! Here he is being weighed for the first time. He had quite the cone head.