Benjamin Hughes Hall

After 18 hours of labor, Benjamin Hughes entered the world on August 14, 2009. Everything went so well... such an answer to prayer! I started feeling contractions on Thursday morning. They were short and nothing worth paying too much attention to until about 10 pm. I think that's when labor actually started. I took a benadryl and tried to sleep, but the contractions were just too painful at that point. Still too short to do anything much about, but enough to keep me awake!

I was really frustrated by Friday morning, thinking that things weren't progressing and not really knowing what to do. My doctor said to come into the office and get checked. To my surprise, I was already dilated to 5 cm and my water broke in the office! They took me straight over to the hospital.

The nurses told me, most women would hate me if they could see my at 5 cm. I was still laughing, whereas most are screaming in pain. We got all checked in, and Derek and I just hung out for the next few hours. I sat on the birthing ball and he would rub my back anytime a contraction would come. By 7 centimeters, I was definitely starting to feel a lot more uncomfortable. I had an IV combination of Stadol and Phenergan. That totally knocked me out within about 5 minutes.

I slept pretty soundly from 7 to about 9 centimeters. I feel like that is only possible because I prayed for the decision to get an epidural to be an easy one. By the time I woke up good, it was already time to push. No sense in getting the epidural at that point! I will say that pushing a baby out is the hardest thing I have ever physically done. But, it was an amazing experience.

Derek got to announce that he is a boy! We were both surprised at a boy... for some reason we really thought girl. I have to say, though, that I couldn't be happier. Of course we had a boy. Somehow it just seems right.

I had no idea how amazing it is to have a child. I just have such an overwhelming love for him. His little cry absolutely breaks my heart... I just want to cry with him! Though so far he hasn't cried much. He's been very sleepy today, but I have a feeling that won't last long.

So here we sit. Benjamin is sleeping soundly in my lap while I type this. I can hardly take my eyes off him! Derek and I feel so blessed by this gift from God. I know I'm hormonal, but I could just sit and cry buckets of tears of gratitude for this life that has been entrusted to us. Our prayer is that we would be able to give him a vision of the glory of God and that he would point others to Christ.

Here's a few pictures...