Welcome Blake!

Our family just minutes before Blake got here... Kate had spent the night before at my parents' house so we could get up and out of the house early. We got to the hospital a little after 6:00 and walked right on into our delivery room. When Dr. Adcock got there to check me, he said if I had gone to his office, he would not have sent me home because I was already 5 cm dilated. I thought, "why didn't I go to his office all week long?" but oh well, we made it to Friday! He broke my water and started Pitocin a little before 7:00 and he told me that when I started feeling contractions, I needed to call for the epidural if I wanted one... of course I wanted one! Around 7:30, my nurse said I was 8 cm and so I called for the epidural. The anesthesiologist put in the epidural in the middle of a bad contraction, so it really didn't even phase me since the contraction hurt so badly. And- if you are already in pain, why not do a few things at once?! Anyway, I got the epidural aound 8 and then the family came to visit and we had a great time. I started to feel a good deal of pressure, so I mentioned it to my nurse around 9:15, and when she checked me, I was complete and ready to push. They paged Dr. Adcock and I started to push just to see where we were, but Blake was so ready that they made me stop pushing until the doctor made it from surgery. He came running in, I pushed a few times, and Blake was here at 9:31! It all happened so fast that I could hardly take it in! What a quick morning!

We have this exact same picture when Kate was born. Dr. Adcock and his family have become really good friends of ours, and it is such a blessing to know that he loves our kids!

Blake resting on the warmer bed after delivery. Since the delivery was so quick, he did not quite get a good squeeze on his lungs on the way out, so he retained a little fluid in his lungs, so we had to watch him pretty closely.

He weighed 7 pounds and 12 ounces, and he was 20 1/2 inches long. Kate was 7 pounds and 1 ounce, so he was only a little bigger than her. We noticed right away that they have different noses and different mouths, but they do still look similar in many ways. We will just have to see who he looks like!

How do you like that pouty face? His cry was such a wonderful sound! After several hours of him still grunting (the whiny noise that let me know there was fluid on his lungs), I mentioned it to my nurse that it wasn't going away. She called our pediatrician, who wanted a neonatologist to look at him. Luckily, I work for the neonatologists here, so I knew we could get to the bottom of this and do what was best for Blake without going to extremes. He checked in on us and decided that Blake was probably fine and we would just give him some time to clear it up on his own. We held him skin-to-skin all night long, and it went away by this morning!

Here we are this morning doing some more skin-to-skin time. He calms down so much when he is right up next to you! He got circumcised this morning and that wore him out! He has been so sleepy all day today, so we have loved all of the snuggle time.

In case you were wondering what Kate has been doing through all of this... she has been pushing her baby doll around in her new stroller. She has done great with all of the new-ness. She has gotten a little whiny when the attention is not on her, but she has been very sweet to Blake. She kisses him when we ask her to, and when he cries, she fake cries too. I don't think she realizes that he will be going home with us just yet, but it will be an adjustment for sure. For now, she is loving time with her grandparents. We should be able to leave first thing in the morning, so I will be home and able to relax a little more soon. We will keep the pictures coming! Thank you for your prayers- God has really blessed us more than we could have ever imagined!