IT'S A BOY!!!!

Hello friends of Brandon and Kendra. (Brandon here). Well, it's been a long journey for Kendra, especially not knowing the gender of our baby, but this morning at 12:01AM she got to hold her son for the first time in 9+ long months! Logan Kenneth Burling - 9 lbs 13.6 oz - 21 1/4 inches long. I didn't think that it was possible to love someone when you first saw them, but boy was I ever wrong. Here's how it happend:

Kendra and I were watching TV on Monday night at about 10:30PM or so, and I was starting to nod off. I told her that I was going to go to sleep on the recliner and that I'd see her in the morning. We were expected to visit Angel (her midwife, who is now one of my favorite people in this world) the next morning at around 11:45AM to discuss a possible induction. Well, no need. At about 11:20PM her water had broken, and we both immediately rushed to the hospital... well, not immediatley. At first, it was like one of those Father of the Bride Part II moments where I said "Let's go," but had NO IDEA where to begin. All Kendra cared about at that moment was making it to the bathroom and not leaking on the living room floor. It was classic. We got to Pekin Hospital at around 11:45PM, and she was officially admitted at 11:58PM. They wanted her to sleep as much as she could, but all the anxiety in her was just not going to allow that to happen. I got about an hour's worth before waking up to be by her side for the next 24 hours. She was doing very well. She was increasing the size of her cervix and thinning out about every half hour to hour. They gave her pitocin to speed things up at about 1:00PM on Tuesday, and with the speeding of the delivery came contraction pain like she had not experienced. As a husband, one of the worst things that you can witness is seeing your wife in that much pain.... But I stayed strong for her sake. I didn't think that I would be able to, though. She asked for an epidural (which, by the way she is a BIG fan of) at about 4:00PM. It worked, but it wasn't as effective as what it should have been because it was not inserted as properly as it should have been. The medicine was in her, though, and she continued to have contractions and labor for about the next 3 hours. She was still in a lot of pain though, by 7:00PM. She asked for another epidural, and this time it was successful! She began pushing at around 8:30-9:00PM and this lasted until around 10:00PM. Again, now with her mom by her side as well, she was in a lot of pain, and the labor was going nowhere. They gave her some medicine to allow her to rest at 10:15PM and we were going to begin pushing again at 10:30PM. Everyone of us had in the back of our minds that this was going to be a cesarian birth because of the potential size of the baby at this point, and to be honest I believed that it was best for her. Even though we were supposed to begin at 10:30PM, she was so well rested that we agreed to give her another 15 minutes. I don't know what happened in those 30 minutes of rest, but Kendra woke up "on a mission." She stared Angel and Dr. Fisher right in the eye and said, "I'm going to deliver this baby." From day one, she wanted a vaginal delivery, and because of all the strength that she gained in that 30 minutes, she got her wish. I was so proud of her! It makes me cry right now just thinking about what she went through and how awesome the outcome was. I love her now more than I ever have.

When Angel told us that "It's a boy" we both just smiled at each other. Kendra had some work to be done still, but I got to hold my son. It was so amazing how he just knew by looking at me that I was his dad. He has Kendra's brown eyes. He's a miracle. I now know what George Strait was saying in his song I Saw God Today. Kendra has that natural mother's instinct, already. She's really tired right now, but she and Logan are doing great. We'll talk more later, but just wanted to let you know that we love you all, and appreciate all the support that you have given us.