Aaron's Birth Day Morning

My alarm went off around 6:15 on May 6th and I got up to take a shower for work.  I started feeling a little bit of pain, but thought it must just be gas pains.  In the shower, the pains started to get a bit more noticeable and regular, and I started to think that maybe these were contractions.  With both Cameron and Leah, my water broke and then contractions started, so I kind of figured it would be the same for baby #3.  After my shower, I whispered to Tim that I was pretty sure I was in labor and that he should probably wake up, take a shower and get Leah to school.  I helped Leah get dressed, then Cameron woke up and he got dressed too.  We all went downstairs to get some breakfast and Tim took Leah to school.  Before they left, we took a few pictures of the kids and I.

Mama with Cam and Leah.  Leah was grumpy because she wanted Mama to take her to school, because I normally do on Mondays.  She was very upset that we were varying from the routine and Daddy was taking her.  We didn't want to tell the kids I was in labor so when she asked why Daddy was taking her, we said "just because" - and that answer didn't sit right with her!

But she was still happy to give Mama kisses

And kisses for Sweetie too!

Cameron gives Sweetie some kisses

Tim took Leah to school and came back.  It wasn't quite time for him to get on the bus yet, so we did some piano practice.  Cameron wanted to play for Sweetie (something he did quite often), so I sat on the bench while he played.  In this picture he is asking Sweetie what he thinks of the song.

Cameron got on the bus and before we left for the hospital, we took one more belly picture.  I'm smiling here, between contractions!

Around 9am we called Mom to let her know we were leaving for the hospital so that she could meet us over there.  On the drive to the hospital, we had the very important discussion: What to Name the Baby.  We came up with two finalists for each gender and decided to wait until we saw the baby to make the final decision.

We arrived at St. Joe's and since I was feeling pretty good, we parked in the parking garage and walked over to the hospital rather than use the valet parking.  I figured that extra walking was good for me to keep labor moving along!  We went up to the Labor and Delivery triage area where they checked me out and decided that at 8cm, yes, I could be admitted.  We went over to the Birth Place, where Cameron and Leah were both born.  We ended up in the same room that Leah was born in, Birth Place A.

Mama and Daddy, waiting for Sweetie's arrival (again, between contractions... I was not smiling so much during the contractions!)

That picture was taken around 10:40.  My labor progressed pretty quickly and around 11am I was ready to push.  After a few minutes of pushing, our Sweetie, Aaron Timothy, entered the world at 11:06am.

Right after Aaron was born.  Tim got the first glimpse of him and announced to everyone "It's a Boy!"

Mama snuggling with Aaron just a few minutes after he was born

Daddy looking at his new boy

Such tiny hands!!

What a sweet face, cuddling up to Mama

Such tiny feet!

Aaron decided to peek one eye at us.  It took Tim about fifty rapid fire shots to get a picture of Aaron's eye actually open!

After an hour or so, the nurses took Aaron to get cleaned up, weighed and checked out.  Here he is on the scale - 8 pounds, 7 ounces.

Clean baby!

Aaron's first check up

He did not like his first check up

Measuring his head - 35 cm

All dressed in a hat and onesie.  AND, the pouty face that we saw him make on the 3D ultrasound!

Daddy finally gets a turn to hold Aaron

Can't take his eyes off that sweet boy

What a cute little bundle

Nana's turn!

A picture of Mama, Daddy and Aaron

Mr. Aaron in his bassinet.  We put pictures of Cameron and Leah on the sides of it so that he could see his big brother and big sister whenever he was in there (which actually, was pretty much never - we just wanted to hold him!).

Aaron's bassinet sign

Mama and Aaron

Eyeballs!  Aaron peeking over Daddy's shoulder

All of these pictures were taken before the kids got up to the hospital.  Around 1:30, Nana left to go home for a bit and then pick up the kids so that they could come meet Aaron.  Stay tuned, that will be the next post!

The Evolution of Sweetie - Baby Bump Pictures!

As we get close to the impending arrival of Sweetie, here are some pictures of the progression of Sweetie growing inside Mama's belly!

Week 24

Week 25

Not much of a change over the next few weeks, so we'll skip those.

Week 30

Here comes the true bump - Week 32

Week 34

Mid-April - Week 37

And now a few outtakes from pictures with the kids.  They LOVE Sweetie and they love my belly!!

Kisses for Mama's belly

And snuggles from Leah

Love these kiddos - all three of them!

Hello in there Sweetie

Hugs for Sweetie

Love for the belly

They were trying to make a heart with their hands.  It didn't work out very well and there were about 20 pictures of them making a triangle on my belly!!  Very cute effort though. :)

We'll add more pictures as the belly keeps growing!

Peeking at Sweetie

We are all so excited to meet Sweetie that we decided to take advantage of the 3D ultrasound option that my OB's office offers.  We also did this with both Cameron (first child - have to!) and Leah (we thought Cam would be interested in it and also didn't want to shaft the second child), and it was so neat that it was an easy choice to do again.  As you can see in the link (on Cam's name), Cameron showed us his face pretty well.  Leah, on the other hand, was not interested in showing her face to us at all, so we don't have any 3D ultrasound pictures of her.

We took Cameron and Leah with us to see Sweetie - we have been talking about the pregnancy so much so we thought it would be fun for them to get an early look at our baby.  When the 3D ultrasound first started, it looked like Sweetie was going to be hiding just like Leah did.  The first few pictures weren't too great and we couldn't see much because Sweetie's face was turned toward my back.

Regular ultrasound picture of Sweetie's face - kind of creepy

Since Sweetie was hiding his/her face, we looked around at the rest of Sweetie.  Here is a foot.

And a video of Sweetie's heart beating

Here is a video clip of the first part of the 3D ultrasound - pretty neat but not the great pictures and view of Sweetie we were hoping for.  It is cute though because you can see Sweetie moving his/her lips around.

Then Sweetie decided to turn and show us his/her face.  We got some great pictures and videos!  Here is one of Sweetie with a hand by his/her face.

You can see two hands here.

Cute profile

And the best of all - Sweetie with eyes open!!!  It was amazing, we didn't know that babies opened their eyes in the womb, and it was so awesome to see.  We were very happy that the ultrasound technician caught this picture!

This video is pretty cool - you can't see Sweetie's face all that well but he/she is moving all around and doing cute things with his/her hands.

And another cool video - Sweetie pouts at the beginning, and then rubs his/her hand and nose using a hand.

The videos and pictures are so neat, and the kids were really interested in seeing that Sweetie looks like a baby even inside my tummy.  Tim and I loved getting a sneak peek at our littlest one, and it was awesome to see Sweetie with eyes open and doing adorable things like pouting and sucking on a fist.  We are so excited to meet Sweetie in a few months!

Introducing: Sweetie!

I think everyone who reads this blog knows that we are expecting an addition to our family in May - Baby #3.  It is about time we actually put up something on the blog about it though!

A while ago, we asked the kids what we should call the baby.  We didn't want to always say "the baby" so they brainstormed for a while and came up with Sweetie.  So Sweetie is the name we use when we are talking about the baby.  We don't know if Sweetie is a boy or a girl, so we go back and forth on pronouns.  For a long time, Leah was convinced that Sweetie was a girl, but now she goes back and forth.

Here is the picture that we used to introduce Sweetie on Facebook:

They are so beyond excited to be a big brother (again) and big sister!!  I'll add some more 3D ultrasound pictures and pictures of my belly soon.