'My first cry...it was a joyful noise'--Bono

He's finally here!! Van Jeffery Mendenhall decided not to come on his due date, but its ok, he made it here on April 16, 2009 and we love him so much its crazy!

Despite my attempts and deep desire to do this whole thing natural, I ended up having an emergancy c-section. Apparently you have to get the epidural with that...I did labor for quite a long time (7 hours or so) before they doc decided it wasn't safe for Van anymore. I wasn't dialating fast enough and his heart rate kept dropping with each contraction. PS contractions hurt like hell. Then, of course, I let them give me the epidrual so that Van was healthy and ok. He came out crying at 5:32pm on the 16th and weighed 7.6 lbs and was 20 inches long. He is just perfect! It was so hard to wait to hold him!! But they wouldn't let me sit up FOREVER!! The moment the nurse handed Van to Matt was priceless...Matt's face was full of every strong emotion I think anyone is capable of showing (ie fear, excitement, love, fear...fear...fear). Van cried for a bit, then Matt asked, 'So should we name you Van?' and Van stopped crying, and looked right up at his dad and just kept looking around and he didn't cry again until later that night.

This is me with him later that night. I always thought going on a drug trip would be kinda fun, but I can't say I wanted to do it during my labor. Oh well. It seemed to take a long time to feel normal again, but I truly didn't care much once I held this little angel. Matt did such a great job of stepping right up, since I couldn't walk/stand for a while, he got a crash course in diaper changing and soothing a newborn. I'm so grateful for his patience and love with everything. He's an amazing dad already. Sleep deprived, sure, but a great dad nonetheless. What an adventure we've started on!

Here's how small Van is in his daddy's hands! I love this picture so much! I know he's going to grow so quick so I want to document all his smallness while I can!

Here's a picture of the first day at home. What an exhausting first night...Van decided to wake up every 30 minutes until 6am. It took me that long to realise he was still hungry after I fed him! Ugh, so once I connected that I gave him some formula and he slept wonderfully. Now that my milk's come in, the boy sleeps like a hibernating bear cub. He pretty much sleeps through the night-at least gives me 5 hours of consecutive sleep, for which I am extremely grateful. Parenthood is not for the faint, I'll tell ya that for free. So far, I love it. I just hope Van stays patient with a mom who doesn't know what she's doing! More pics to come...