He's here!!!

On Sunday, July 11, 2010 he finally arrived.  William "Liam" Thomas Kratz was born at 2:24pm weighing 8 pounds,  4 ounces/20.5 inches long and looking just like his daddy (pretty much the only features he got from me are his nose and dimples).  It is so incredible to see what God has been working on in my womb for the past 9 months.  I am biased, but I am pretty sure that he is perfect.

We are soooooo thankful for a healthy baby and a complication free labor/delivery.

As you probably read in my previous posts, I was overdue by a week.  I finally came to the conclusion that nothing I did would coerce him out (medicine ball, sex, pineapples, pedicures, walking, "curb" walking, walking, walking, walking--NOTHING did the trick), so we decided to take up the Dr. on his offer to induce.

I was hesitant, because I wanted to stick to my birth wishes as much as possible and with pitocin comes stronger contractions (leading to a higher likelihood of getting an epidural) and about a 50% greater chance of having a cesarean.  Fortunately, I was able to avoid both.   Dr. Cueto (a.k.a the best OBGYN EVER!) broke my water around 8am, gave me pitocin to speed things up at 9:30am and I delivered right before 2:30pm the same day.   Much faster than I thought it would take.  For all of those wondering--YES, it was extremely painful, but YES, you totally forget about the pain the moment your beautiful, slimy, screaming baby is laid on your chest.

He came into this world with quite the fan club--thanks to all of the family and friends that came to support, help, meet our little man and celebrate his birthday--birthday cake, presents and all!

It was without a doubt the most beautiful day of my life so far.  Here is a sample of the joy we experienced.