May 2nd - Sam's arrival!!!  I woke up with contractions at 4am that were 5 minutes apart.  We thought this could be the day, so I went to my scheduled doctor appointment.  They told me I was 4cm.  My water broke when I got up to leave the appointment, so they sent me off to the hospital.  We had a great nurse and student who let us look in a microscope and showed us how they know for sure if your water breaks.  Looks like a fern for anyone who was wondering.  They started me on pitocin around 11 or so and it seemed like things were going quite fast.  They asked if I would want an epidural and I said I was ok for the time being.  The nurse told me it would be harder to get it after 7cm, but I figured this was going to take a while so I would hold off.  About 10 minutes later the pain was MUCH worse and I was having flashbacks of pushing for 4 hours and decided to get the epidural.  By the time I got it, I was 7cm.  After 20 minutes of waiting for it to kick in, I realized it was not working at all on my right side (my left side felt great).  They came back and readjusted it and gave me another dose and said to wait another 20 minutes.  A few contractions later I felt him pushing his way out without any help from me.  Turns out I made it to 10cm already was ready to push.  Only problem was the doctor was not there.  They gave me one last dose of medicine and had me lay on my back which finally fixed the problem and took the pain away!  Hooray at last!!!  We had to wait about 45 minutes for the doctor to stroll in and finally get things going.  He was born with the cord wrapped around his neck 3 times but thankfully the doctor was quick to cut it off....as scary as that was to watch.  As soon as she cut it, Sam grabbed the scissors and had quite the grip.  The doctor struggled a bit, but managed to get them away from him without anyone getting hurt!  He was born at 4:57pm at 8lbs 7oz and 20.5 inches long.  Only 2oz heavier than Claire and looked identical to her when she was born (only with much less of a cone head)  :)  This labor & delivery was much faster and easier for sure.  Mike was a great help and tried to tell me I could do it without pain medicine.  I guess he was right though because I ended up feeling all of it with half of my body.  Still glad I was not in pain for the delivery part though because I was able to enjoy it.  Just happy that he is here and is healthy and a very good baby.  Happy Birthday Samuel!