And the story goes something like this....

As Mitch happens to be sleeping well, I will take some time to let you know the details of his birthday.

It began on Sunday. We actually had contractions! Weird, huh? Especially coming from the girl who thought she would never have to endure them. Well - the good news for me is that the ones I was feeling were really NOTHING compared to what I have heard they can be like. Beginning at 9am I started having them. Consistently. I called the baby hotline and they said I needed to come in to be checked...just in case. This did not go with our plans. Jeremy and I are very scheduled people. We hoped they would just check us, give us something to stop labor and send us on our way.

We arrived at the hospital, got hooked up to the machine that measures contractions - and yes, indeed we were having contractions every 3-7 minutes or so. We thought our plans had changed and were adapting to this change. We were ready. Unfortunately, even though I was in the beginning stages of labor - my progress was not enough to warrant an emergency c-section instead of the one I had scheduled for the next day - so we were sent home. We spent the night taking care of last minute details and snuggling our Jack.

The next morning we took it nice and slow. My mom arrived to take care of Jack, we took one last "belly" shot, and off we were to the hospital to be prepped for surgery.

Can you believe how big my belly is?? And the funny part of this is that this is not nearly as big as I was with Jack!!!

Off to the O.R.

Jeremy is ready for surgery in his fancy space suit!

God blessed us tremendously on this day. Not only were we blessed with a new son, but we have been taken care of so well. We love my doctor. He did such a great job. We have also had the best nurses and assistants caring for us too. Oh, side note on that - From the moment we arrived until the middle of the night last night - most of our nurses and their assistants have looked very similarly to someone in our lives. Our first OB nurse looked just like my grandmother Angie; one of the O.R. nurses looked just like my good friend Amanda who is in China; the nursing assistant who helped me later in the day looked like my cousin's wife Erica; and finally, my overnight nurse the past two nights looks just like my friend from church, Tanya. Neat, huh?

Surgery went really well too. Here are a few peeks:

Our Baby On His Way Out - He cried right away! Good lungs!

It's A Boy!

Clean Up Time

As soon as Mitch was all cleaned up our nurse took him and Jeremy back down to the Maternity Care Center for weighing, bath time and shots. Unfortunately, I had to finish up with surgery and have recovery away from my boys. This was the only rough part of the day. I actually didn't get pain medication until my spinal block began to wear off (which is why I felt like a truck ran me over on Monday!)

I was glad to finally be reunited with my boys and thankful for the nurses who were on top of helping me feel better.

So, How is Jack doing??

As I mentioned before, we are so blessed to have such a loving and supportive family who is willing to help us out as much as we have needed. Jack has been cared for by his meima, nana, aunties, grandpas, and even his good friends. He has been loved a great deal through all of this.

Here is our first official new family portrait:

Jack held his baby brother Mitch for a little bit, but then he declared, "Mama, I all done holding Mitch!" It was so adorable! I love it. He is honest, and we are glad that he is able to express his needs to us. Anyhow, who would want to hold a baby when there are so many other things to do like blow bubbles, play with toy cars, go on walks through the hospital with daddy, and even get special juice boxes from the hospital!

Just for fun: Can you believe Jack actually fit in one of these just two short years ago??