Introducing Sammy!!

Our little family grew this week! Samuel Ryan Van Hoose

(Sammy) was born Monday, May 3, 2010 at 4:28 p.m. He weighed in at a hefty 9 lbs. 10 oz., length 21 inches. He is a very chill baby and we are so happy to have him in our family!

At 3:30 in the morning I woke up to my water breaking - yea!

What a weird experience! It didn't break until I was already in labor with Lucy.

Contractions started about 4 and we headed to the hospital, getting there by 5. Last week at my appointment, I was already dilated to a 4+ so I was told the labor would go rather quickly. Well, it didn't. I was at a 5. Then, many hours later I was at a 5 1/2. A few hours later I was at a 6. It was all good though - my nurses were amazing.

They read my birth preference sheet and honored it. In fact, my main nurse, Heidi even fought for me. When my labor wasn't progressing, the doctor suggested petocin but I wanted to do this as naturally as possible and she fought for me every step of the way.

Spencer was an amazing coach. He helped coach me through contractions and helped get me relaxed. It was nice not being hooked up to anything - I was able to walk the halls and use the birthing ball without tubes hanging out of me. In the end, I ended up getting the epidural.

I made it to 3 pm and by then the contractions were hard, but the kicker was the back labor.

Every contraction caused my back to feel like it was on fire. My mom would rub my back and give counter pressure while Spencer and Heidi helped coach me but in the end it just hurt too bad. The epidural was wonderful - I was told I looked like a different person completely.

An hour later I started pushing and after 20 minutes, Sammy was here! I kept saying during the pregnancy that I had no idea what I was having but I think I actually thought I was having a girl (Spencer did too) because when he announced it was a boy I was surprised.

We got to bond with him right away and Spencer cut the cord. We got to spend the next two days recovering and getting to know our little boy. In fact, we spent the whole first day trying to decide on his name!

We had a different one picked out at one point but decided it just didn't fit right. Finally, we decided on Samuel Ryan - our little Sammy Boy. A few friends and family came to visit - Lucy got to meet her little brother. She was more interested in all the buttons on my bed than she was in Sammy! Now she loves him.

Sammy was probably a good name for us to pick because she can say it just fine and she does - over and over again. It's cute to see her with him now. She'll be a great big sister! We are so glad to have this sweet little one as a part of our family!

We took these photos, but there was a company that took some professional ones of him in the hospital. The photos will be online until the 18th if you are interested in checking them out - they are super cute! Just go here: http://www.bellababyphotography.com/login and type in the password 0503samuelvanhoose to check them out!