Our baby boy was born on September 2, 2011 at 9:17pm. He was a "huge" surprise, shocking us all when he weighed in at 9 pounds, 3.2 ounces. He was 21.5 inches long and just about as precious as he can be!
A Labor of Love:
On Friday morning, I woke up at 1:45 am, not really sure what was going on but feeling "weird". After confirming with my mom that I was having contractions and that those contractions were about four minutes apart, I woke Travis up, and we all headed to the hospital. We checked into the labor and delivery unit at 3am and settled in for the rest of the day. We called all our family members around 7am and told them to start heading to Del Rio! The contractions (4-5 minutes apart) continued all morning, but around 10am, they started to slow down. The hospital tried to send me home, but I wouldn't go! I was still having contractions, but they were about ten minutes apart now, and I didn't want to go home just to have to come back again! So, with a little dose of pitosin, my contractions were encouraged to start up again. Finally, by 4pm, I was dilated 4 cm, received my epidural, and things really started to take off from there. 5 cm at 5pm, 6 cm at 6pm, 7 cm by 7pm... Then, my nurse who had been with me all day came in at 7:45pm to check me one last time before she ended her shift, and we were all surprised to find that I was 10cm!! The baby had settled into my back and pelvis, so no amount of epidural was stopping the back pain at this point. So, the nurse called in the doctor and we started pushing around 8:15pm. The nurses and doctor were great, all my family members had made it to town on time, and Travis was an awesome coach and support there at my side. After the long and exciting 19 hours of labor, Barrett finally made his appearance at 9:17pm! Travis was allowed to cut the umbilical cord, and our little boy had officially arrived!
Welcome to the world, Barrett Stephen Daniels!
We weren't expecting nine pounds!! :-)
Proud Papa
First pictures with Mommy
Our sweet little family!
Some pictures with all the grandparents:
Everyone was so excited to welcome Barrett to the world, so I'm glad we could all be there to celebrate his arrival together. (Auntie Katie was there too...I just can't find any of the pictures we took with her! Send them along if you have them...)
We are so blessed to have such a wonderful and supportive family, and we are so happy to have our little boy here at last! :-) We stayed two nights at the hospital, and then we headed home on Sunday afternoon. Travis has two entire weeks of paternity leave, so we have been enjoying that time together at home with Barrett.
The puppies and kitty have taken very well to our new little addition!
Rio guards and protects both me and the baby with some serious zeal. She follows me everywhere I go, and anytime the baby is taken somewhere without me, she is very concerned and isn't sure who to follow or where to be. Every time the baby cries, she runs over to him and then looks around to see who is going to take care of him. Percy was a little slower to warm up to the baby, but he now loves to lick the baby's feet and will sit and stare at him when he's quiet. Kitty likes to pretend he doesn't see the baby at all, but he follows us around too and likes to snuggle with whoever isn't holding the baby at the moment.
What an exciting time for our family! :-) Thanks to everyone for all the love and support!
