Introducing Tyler Christopher Beck

Tyler Christopher made his grand entrance on July 2nd at 5:03 AM. He weighed 7 lbs, 0 ounces and measured at 20 1/2 inches long.

After breezing past the June 27 due date, the doctor scheduled my induction for Friday, July 2 - with plans to "check-in" Thursday night to get things moving with dilation before starting Pitocin Friday morning. I was already experiencing mild contractions upon arrival, so the doctor ordered Pitocin beginning around 9:45 PM expecting we'd be on track to deliver some time Friday afternoon/evening.

The Pitocin really kicked in and contractions were getting stronger, but not consistent enough to warrant the epidural. At around 1:30 AM, the nurse offered something to "take the edge off." As soon as she walked into the room with the meds, my water broke and it was epidural time. Lucky for me, this was also when my mom arrived.

I got the epidural around 1:45 AM, at which point I was 6 cm dilated. About 90 minutes later, I was 8 cm. By 3:30 AM, I as 10 cm and we started pushing. My doctor was in shock when she got the wake-up call...she really wasn't expecting to see me until later in the day. Apparently Tyler and I had other plans.

Words cannot express the love we felt for our beautiful baby boy at that moment. Here are some photos of those first few moments...