Connor is Born!!!

Well, where to start...Sara started having contractions on Sunday night / Monday morning (5/22~23) around midnight.  Her contractions were about 10 minutes apart and not super painful, but different than the Brackston Hicks contractions she had been having for the past 6-8 weeks.  Sara woke me up around 4:30 and we started timing contractions, assuming at some point that they would begin to get closer together and we'd be heading to the hospital.  Finally, around 9:30 Monday night the contractions had gotten to about 7 minutes apart, and we decided to head to the hospital to just see what was going on.  They checked us in, did an exam, checked the baby, and kept an eye on us for a few hours.  At that point they said that Sara was probably in early labor, but that it could be quite a while before the baby was born and we might be more comfortable at home.  We headed home...and stayed there until around Wednesday at 5:30am, when the contractions finally started getting to about 4 minutes apart and were causing Sara some extreme discomfort.  When we arrived at the hospital they did another exam and let us know that we wouldn't be leaving without a baby.  The next few hours were a bit of a blur: Sara got an epidural to help with the pain, doctor broke Sara's water, beanster's (he was still beanster until he joined us out in the world) heart rate dropped and tried to scare everyone, but at 10:03am Connor Scott Means was born.  They cleaned him up real quick, weighed him (7lb 4oz), measured him (19.5in) and then handed him back over to mom.  Sara and baby were great together, and we got to spend the next hour and a half or so just the three of us before Connor got his first bath, met Nana and Papa Means, Grandma and Grandpa Patton and showed us all his amazing set of lungs.  We are so happy and cannot believe how lucky we are to have this new little guy in our lives.  His birth was an incredible experience and nothing could have prepared either of us for it until the moment was on us.  It was great to feel the love and support of so many friends and family, and at this point, our new adventure had begun.