OK, slightly longer update for those interested:
We showed up at the hospital at 6am (by appointment) to do the version. They did an ultrasound and determined that the baby was head down, which my wife had suspected might be the case since she was feeling a bit more pressure "down low". So the doctor recommended starting Pitocin to induce labor to prevent him from turning back into a sideways or breech position. Our due date was the 22nd anyway, so that seemed pretty reasonable.
I had heard that inducing was tough because everything starts so fast, but that was not at all the case for us. The next 4-5 hours were frankly just boring. My wife had very mild contractions and we all just sat around killing time (my mother-in-law was present too). After a while, they broke my wife's water to speed things along, and even that did just about nothing. Her contractions got a little bit stronger, but no progress was really being made.
Around 3pm the nurse suggested stopping the pitocin, letting it clear my wife's system, then restarting. I was pretty skeptical that rebooting my wife like a stubborn laptop would do anything, but thankfully I was wrong. The contractions got much stronger (and more painful) and it was pretty clear that progress was being made.
My wife got checked by the nurse and had progressed to 4cm dilated by around 5-6pm. Around this point, she started asking about drug options and ended up just taking some Fentanyl and heading down the 'semi-natural' path. So she used the birthing ball (I helped a little), tried different positions, etc and about 6:30-7pm she started feeling the "urge to push".
The nurse checked her at that point and she was at 7cm and moving along quickly so they paged the doctor in from home and started setting up the room for the arrival of a newborn (getting out the little scale, setting up the big light the doctor uses, grabbing all kinds of pads and cloths...). This was when it really hit me that it was actually "going to happen", after 12 hours where I had mostly just sat around doing next to nothing.
It didn't take long from there -- when the doctor showed up she had my wife sort of push the rest of the cervix away and that push caused the baby to crown. Two pushes later and he was born. Actual pushing labor lasted probably 6 minutes, compared to about 45 with our first child. My wife never did get the epidural, which she's convinced help speed things along. I think she's right -- the ability to move around and try different positions and techniques probably helped to speed up the process. When you get the epidural you feel better, but it seems you can't really move at all (she had one with our first child).
On a side note, I'm always so proud that my wife is
My Wife, and she's an amazing woman in general. She's a college professor in a male-dominated field (Civil Engineering), she's the hardest-working person I know, but still so cheerful and a wonderful mother to our eldest son. But there's nothing quite like watching this person you love going through childbirth, which I can't even imagine the pain of, to just crank up all those feelings of pride and love all over again.
Anyway, there you have it. We're home now, though it turns out our son has jaundice. It's a pretty common condition in newborns (they turn a yellowish shade -- it has to do with their livers not being mature enough at birth), and in Max's case it was enough that we had to get a "biliblanket" (it shines UV light on him to break down the bilirubins, which are what's turning him yellow) and keep him in it for a while. So he's "baking" right now, but it should clear up pretty soon once his liver matures and starts doing it's thing.
Here's a picture of my wife checking in on our little baby at the nursery, and another of our older son (he'll be 3 next month) holding him in his lap. He loves him so far and all is well at home on the sibling rivalry front. We're just trying to make sure he gets enough attention and all that, and doesn't feel left out just because the baby's there. Letting him open the billion or so Christmas presents that he has tomorrow should help with that.