He is here!

We welcomed our beautiful son into the world on September 17th, 2012 at 2:15 pm.  I am realizing how time consuming newborn babies are, because he is 2 1/2 weeks old and I am just now updating this blog on his birth.  We could not have asked for a smoother labor and delivery.  The Lord was continually present and answered every prayer along the way.  He was 9 lbs 2 oz and 20 inches long.  We are so thankful for this big, healthy baby boy!

Since I had reached my due date with no baby and because I had been dilated for 3 weeks, our doctor decided to schedule a time to induce.  We are so thankful that we did this because the morning of our appointment it took almost 2 hours to get to the hospital due to a traffic jam. Getting there on time had been a concern of ours, so the Lord completely answered that prayer.  

Here is one last belly shot...I was HUGE!

The whole day flew by before Nate or I even knew what happened.  I was only in labor for about 4 hours with 30 minutes of pushing.  We had downloaded movies and TV shows and were all ready to settle down for a long day of waiting, but he came so fast, we didn't have time to watch any of them.

Once my contractions started, they noticed that his heart rate dropped with each contraction.  They couldn't figure out why and told us that if it didn't get better in 30 minutes they would have to do an emergency C-section.  We started to pray and sent out a few text messages for people to pray.  Within minutes his heart rate picked back up and we were able to have a natural delivery.  It was evident that the Lord was with us every step of the way.

 First photos with mom!

When he was born, the doctor immediately laid him on my chest.  They then handed the scissors to Nate and ordered him to cut the cord.  Which is funny, because I don't think Nate was completely prepared for this task, but he handled it like a pro.  I got to hold him for a few minutes and then they handed him to Nate so that they could finish working on me.  When they handed him to Nate, our doctor, who is small, crazy, Asian lady, started yelling that the baby needed to have skin-to-skin.  The next thing we know, the doctor is ripping off Nate's shirt while he is trying to juggle holding this tiny baby.  It was pretty funny to watch.  Eli and Dad got to have some skin-to-skin time for about 20 minutes.  Nate can calm him down as easily as I can and we wonder if it has something to do with this initial bonding that they got to share.

First photos with Dad!

We enjoyed our stay in the hospital for the next 3 days and 3 nights.  We got great care and they even treated us to a candle lit dinner.  It didn't actually have a candle, but it came with a bottle of wine, steak, and salmon.  We also had a lot of visitors, physically and virtually.

 

First family photo!

All dressed and ready to go home!