Announcing the arrival of Boston Cole Cloutier!

We are so excited Boston has arrived! I was really hoping he would arrive today because this was the last day my doctor was on call until next Wednesday! I had a regular appointment this morning and went in hoping my doctor would strip my membranes. I was quite bummed when she said she woudn't do it until 39 weeks (which is only two days away!). It didn't help that they were having an unusually busy day in labor & delivery. So, I went home and told Brock I was heading to Bald Hill and was going to force myself into labor:) He thought this was a terrible idea, seeing how I was already 5 cm and this was my 3rd baby:) I'm sure I was being a little irrational, but hey I was feeling desperate! Plus I was scheduled to work today and I really wasn't feeling up to that! It was almost 11 at this point, so Brock took Alex and went to pick up Madison at kindergarten. I had a few strong contractions while he was gone which has happened multiple times during the past week. I headed out the door to walk down the street to try to keep the contractions going. Brock got home at about 11:15 while I was walking outside our house talking on the phone with my friend Katie. I thought I felt a little gush of fluid and figured I must have just peed myself a little. I started walking towards the house and quickly got off the phone. Fluid kept gushing out, but for some reason I wasn't convinced my water was breaking! My water never broke with the girls and I figured I could never get that lucky! I'm surprised it didn't click sooner, it's not like I'd ever peed myself that much! I rushed into the bathroom by which time my shorts were completely drenched. I made poor Brock check to see if he thought it was pee or amniotic fluid. There was no way I was going to go to the hospital and have them tell me I wasn't ruptured! Fluid kept intermittently gushing over the next few minutes and finally I resigned myself to the fact that this was really happening! We quickly called Brock's parents and dropped the girls off with them and headed straight to the hospital. I had this fear of having a car or home birth so I wanted to get there quick. We got there around 11:45 and I had to wait out at the nurses station for them to finish cleaning a room since it was so busy! As I was standing there I could feel fluid running down my legs, it was pretty crazy. Finally I got in my room and they got everything going. I got an epidural around 1:00 which was fabulous for the first hour (totally worth it). I was 10cm at 2:00 and started getting super painful! Jasmine arrived from Portland around this time (she barely made it). I started pushing around 2:05 or 2:10 and he was out by 2:15! It was intense at the end, but much more pleasant than my birth experience with Alex.

Boston is such a cute little guy, pretty mellow thus far... He's been breastfeeding great, which is such a relief! He weighed in at 8 lbs even, a full pound heavier than Alex! He's 21" long, 2" longer than his sisters! Madison and Alex were so excited to see him and hold him! You never know how the siblings are going to react, but they both seemed pretty proud which was good. Anyways, that's all for now. Here's a few pics, there's more on facebook~