Most of you are on facebook but I wanted to post his birth story and a few pics for those who are not.

Short version - Ryder Mitchell arrived Thursday, August 19th at 8:47 AM. He weighed in at 6 lbs 10 oz and was 20 inches long.

Long version -
I had a doctor appt on Tuesday and was still around 2 to 2 1/2 cm dilated and she said thinned just a bit. She did a quick sweep of my membranes. I really felt nothing from it and just had a little bit of bloody discharge. I took a long walk Tuesday night and went to bed still nothing. Wednesday I started in with lots of bloody discharge took another walk Wed morning then another one Wed evening. Wed was also mine and John's 9 year anniversary so we dtd and within 30 minutes of that I started in with contractions. They were very sporadic at first started around 8:45 pm and were like anywhere from 10-15 minutes apart so I was not getting real excited or anything. Around 10:30 I decided I would try to get some sleep. At this point they started coming 8-10 minutes. After nearly an hour of trying to get to sleep I decided to get up so I would not continually bother John. At this point he still did not even know I was having contractions as I wanted him to sleep and I was not in really bad pain. Around 12:45 am they started coming every 4-6 minutes and were lasting 50-70 seconds in length at this point is when I finally started thinking it might be it. I dealt with contractions for another 2 hrs before finally going to wake John and telling him I was going to call the doctor and was pretty sure this was it. My OB told me to come on in once I was ready so we finished packing the hospital bag and got care over here for the other kiddos who were obviously all asleep. It is a 45 minute drive to the hospital we ended up getting there at just after 4 am. I got checked and was 5-6 cm and completely effaced so they said we were staying. I was shocked as I have never been so far dilated when going in before. By 5:30 am I was 7-8 cm and got my epidural, but then I kind of stalled a bit. My contractions got sporadic and my epidural had me the most numb I had ever been before. I had to ask them to turn it down. My OB came in and broke my water at 7:20 am and I was still 7-8 cm but once they broke my water they moved me to my side since his head was still a bit high and by 8:20 am I was complete and ready to go. They called my OB who had to make her way back to the hospital. She got there around 8:35 am and Ryder entered the world at 8:47 am he came out sunny side up which I am thinking is why it took me a little bit longer to push him out than Keegan.