A baby story

I'll keep the details to a minimum but I thought I would let you know a bit about the labor. First of all, I realize my experience may have been a bit easier than most and I am grateful for it. I also realize that my next ones may not be so smooth but here is how it went.
I checked into the hospital Tuesday just before noon.
I was given a softener to encourage the baby to come. Nothing happened.
A few hours later a different nurse gave me the softener again and she was a bit more aggressive with it.
This time within 5 minutes of the application I began having full on contractions.
One on top of another.
Each contraction lasted 1-2 minutes and I would get about 10-20 seconds between each. They were intense.
After an hour of this I insisted someone find the anesthesiologist. He came in, and after just EIGHT tries the epidural was in. Now under normal circumstances his eight tries would have really frustrated me but with the amount of pain I was experiencing, it could have taken him 1,000 tries and I would have felt eternally indebted to him. The result of his eight tries was the best epidural known to man. I had nearly complete control of my legs, but I couldn't feel any pain. It was amazing. At that point I was about a 3 so they gave me a yoga ball to hold and within 2 hours I was at a 10 and ready to push. About 6 (give or take a couple) pushes later my little man was here and forever changed my world.

I love James so much; which I realize is kind of a given but he is the best thing to happen to me and Sam. We stare at him all day, entertained by the smallest noise, or the littlest facial expression. He's such a good baby and he has the cutest face a mom could want.