Welcome red king

As anyone who reads this blog must know, Ruary Dale Schimelpfenig is here. He arrived yesterday (Monday), November 24 at 10:56 am after a long, difficult morning. After getting to 10 cm at about 8 am, I started to push (aided by my intrepid husband and sister), which is safely the most painful thing I have ever experienced in my entire life. However, despite my efforts I had a baby lodged in my pelvis who refused to move any further due to the size of his noggin. My awesome doctor and husband and I made the difficult executive decision to move forward with a cesarean section, something I had wanted to avoid at all costs but was necessary to insure the safe delivery of our son. So at about 10 am, I headed into surgery and Rick got dressed in some cute scrubs. Details aside, I was extremely nervous and exhausted, and I burst into tears upon seeing that Loris, a friend of the family, would hang out during the procedure (a familiar face meant everything to me, and it helped give me the boost I needed to get through the nervous/anesthesia vomiting and adrenaline shakes that were wracking my body).
When everyone saw the size of this kid, they all concurred that pushing him out the southerly way would not have been possible. He weighed in at 9 pounds, 11 ounces (the picture above proves that I am not lying), and he measures 21 1/2 inches long with a giant head (I forgot the diameter). One doctor joked to the doctor who delivered him, "I didn't know you were delivering three-month-old babies." Wow.
He is beautiful. He is a good baby, and he adores his attentive father very much (they have seriously bonded, which melts my heart when I see them together). I am trying to recover from surgery and master this breastfeeding thing at the same time, which is the hardest thing I have ever done. Meltdowns are frequent, and I wish some magical lactation fairy would show up and make it all better but I just know that we have some work to do. It's all worth it, because this little boy is just as sweet as he could be and I fall in love with him whenever he is in my arms. I also fall in love with my husband all over again when I watch how wonderful he is with his new son... I couldn't be doing this without him.

I hope to see everyone soon... you have to meet this kid, if only to witness his very large hands and feet (he has long toes that are perfect for picking things up off the floor, just like his mother). Love you all!