Cole Arthur Redden has arrived!

On Sunday May 20th at about 1:00 pm Hillary began having contractions. They started out quite mild and we were not sure that labor had begun. As time progressed, however, they became stronger and were more consistent than anything she had experienced before. We began to get the final things ready for the trip to the hospital and her water broke at about 4:30. We then made our way to the hospital and found that things were progressing quite nicely. Hillary was fully effaced and at about 4cm. After about 3 hours of contractions, we found at the Hillary was not dilating any more. They put her on Petocin which helped to speed things up a bit and it also made the contractions more intense. Hillary was a real trooper and lasted till about 11:00 before requesting an epidural. She was having rather severe back labor, but the epidural helped to relieve much of the pain. At that point she was at about 6.5 cm. Much to our amazement things progressed very quickly and she was fully dilated in a very short time. She began pushing a little before 1:00 in the morning and Cole was delivered on May 21st at 1:36 am. He was 6 lbs 8 oz and 19 1/2 inches. He has been a very healthy baby throughout and Hillary is also recovering very well. It has been a true joy to finally have him in out lives and to see his face. There is just something about seeing him face to face that makes it all that more real and meaningful. I have included a few pictures of him so you can experience that as well. We will be sure to post more once we all come home and get settled in. Thank you for all of your prayers. We know that life and health are not guaranteed in this world so we are thankful to the Lord for his grace to us and to Cole.