INTRODUCING.....

My little monkey Rivers McKean Shepherd!!!!

These photos don't do him justice for how cute he really is! Here he is a week old on Halloween, as a little monkey.

Here Rivers is with his Daddy trying to karate chop him.

and here he is with his Mommy being just too cute!

And here he is just seconds after birth, weighing in at 7lbs 8oz, and 20.5 inches long. Since birth he has lost his .5 inches and a few ounces, which is completely normal.

Here he is with his Grandma Hulse, who waited all night at the hospital for him to be born (I'll go into those details later).

And with Grandpa Hulse, who had to go to the E.R. for an infection in his leg while waiting in the hospital all night for him to be born.

And this is one of mommy's favorite pictures of Rivers with his Grandma and Grandpa Shepherd. I have so many cuter and better pictures on my phone, but I haven't quite figured out how to upload them from my new phone.

So here is Rivers birth story:

On October 23, at about 4:30 in the morning I started having contractions, but silly me I thought it was just gas. Well, about 3 minutes into that I had the thought that maybe I was having contractions, so I laid there in bed counting how long they were (it was 4:30 in the morning and I couldn't really remember what the doc said about timing contractions). Well after about an hour of that I decided to wake Scott up and ask him what the doctor said, since the were getting stronger and more painful. Well we laid in bed for about another hour timing the contractions, with Scott asking me if we should go to the hospital. I had a terrible fear of this not being labor and still being pregnant and having to go in to work that night that I waited. Well we head to the hospital, and check in to Labor and delivery, and they hook me up to the monitors. I was in labor!! They monitor for a while, but my contractions aren't getting stronger, and I'm still only dilated to a one (which I'd been at for over 2 weeks at the point) but my blood pressure is higher than they liked. Well they unhook me and send me home with a loratab and instructions to rest and come back if labor pains get worse, or my water breaks.
So I called into work, which I had been scheduled in positions that I could leave if I went into labor. So I sat at home all day, while Scott slept because he was planning on working that night. Well I was still in labor with nothing happening. So I took a nap. Scott's boss told him to stay home with me, which Scott decided meant watch football all day, well around 5 o'clock, during my contraction filled nap, my water broke!! That was the weirdest thing I've ever felt!! So, I changed and headed back to the hospital. They hook me up again, and I ask for an epidural. That's right, why be in pain if you don't have to be, this was advice I got from my dad. after that labor was a breeze.

I started to progress (finally) after the epidural. Finally the nurse comes in and informs me that I'm going to start pushing at 2 am. Well, this is where the story turns for me, I push and push and push, and little Rivers is stuck. Taking after his father and grandfather, he has a rather large head, and it was stuck on my pelvic bone. After about 3 hours of pushing my doctor tells me that she's only going to let me do this for another 15 minutes and if I can't get him unstuck on my own, I'm going to have to have a C-section. Now I was very stern that I did NOT want a C-section. So somehow, despite being completely exhausted and having been awake for 24 hours now, I found some strength and pushed harder. I got him unstuck in two parts, and finally push his huge head out!! Rivers was born with the biggest alien conehead I have ever seen!! Which tilted slightly to the left, because when my water broke he was on the left side of the uterus causing him to come out on the left side instead of straight up and down. But he was perfect!! Completely healthy and right on time. Being born at 5:39 on October 24, 2010. Right on time! By the time we left the hospital his head was perfectly normal, and he just got cuter and cuter.

I love my little man, who really has been so text book his entire existence. I still can't believe he's a week old now. Everyday all I think is I'm never going to get this time back in either of our lives.

Scott is the best daddy ever, taking care of me and Rivers in every way and I am so grateful for the sacrifices he makes for our family. I am so blessed. I am so loved, and so is my little man. I feel the Saviors love every time I look and this amazing little blessing that I was given. What more could anyone want?