We're at the hospital now and we can't wait to meet our little one. Mom's doing great after they placed the epidural. Excited to join the Dad crew with you all. :)
Congratulations and welcome to the club! They are awesome and it will go a lot quicker than you expect.
The whole world is going to offer you advice, a lot of it is insane stuff but there are some gems out there to listen for. All I can say is click your grill tongs a couple times before you decide who's advice to follow, and think about the father you want to be before acting on it. You're going to do a great job!
My wife wanted to do the birth natural. Eventually a doctor came in to do a real talk about why she didn't want an epidural and convinced her to get one. So when you say "doing great after they placed the epidural" I totally understand.
She was able to get some sleep throughout some contractions which was nice. But we both thought it was pretty much over and the epidural would take care of everything...
But the last push was pretty rough. Needed an episiotomy, and then my son pretty much came flying out.