Our Blessing!

Introducing our little bundle - who is now not so little anymore :o)
Austin James Thompson was born on July 9, 2011 at 1:18 in the afternoon. He weighed 8 lbs 10 oz and was 20.5 inches long. He was born the day after his daddy's birthday!

At 4:30 in the morning on July 9, I woke up to what I thought was me having gone to the bathroom in the bed. I had not done this at all throughout the entire pregnancy or through Liam's pregnancy, but I had heard that it happens. So I got up and went to the bathroom and quickly realized that I hadn't peed - my water had broken! So I calmly, but excitedly went back to the bedroom and over to Josh.

"Honey, my water broke." Josh's eyes popped open so wide and quick! :o) "Ok, let's get going!" was his response. He immediately got up and we started getting things together. I started laughing because the situation was just so cute! We got the last few things put into our suitcase and Liam ready to go. After loading the car, we got in and headed to Grandma's to drop Liam off. My contractions had started by then and were coming every 5 minutes.

By 6:30am, we were walking into the ER and letting them know I was in labor. We walked down to the Labor and Delivery section of the hospital and got things started. To keep things shorter here, I will just skip through the next few hours of contractions and pain! However, through the entire labor process, I was telling my nurses that I had a history of fast labors - once I get to a certain point, everything goes quickly! No one really believed me, so when I went from a 2 to a 7 in about an hour to an hour and a half, they were rather surprised. Finally, I got to a 10 and said I needed to push. No one could find my doctor, so I was told to breath through the urge.

My nurse checked me and said something to the effect "oh, we need to get the doctor in here now or I am going to have to deliver this baby. It's literally going to be one push and he will be here." Another doctor was brought in because they still couldn't locate my doctor. As he was introducing himself, my doctor walked in. They told me to breath through another contraction or two because he didn't have scrubs or gloves on. I said I needed to push and he nodded his head as he got his gloves on. I pushed twice and the doctor had time to put his gloves on, turn around and catch Austin as he was coming out. I wasn't joking when I said I had to push! :o)

Needless to say, he is perfect and things are going very smoothly. We have had our moments and yes, I am sleep deprived, but it could be worse, so I can't complain! Josh was SO lucky to be able to take the first 2 weeks off to be with us and it was amazing! When he went back to work, we quickly realized how much we had all been spoiled by him being home for those two weeks! I wouldn't have traded it for the world though. He is such an amazing father and fantastic supporter for me.

At Austin's, two week well-check appointment, he weighed 10 pounds! ...yes, I said 10pounds!! And he was 21 1/4 inches long! In less than 2 weeks, he had gained almost a pound and a half and grown 3/4 of an inch! He has his 4 week appointment tomorrow and I am curious to see how much bigger he is. The weight gain and growth was a reassurance for me as a breastfeeding mama. I have been so determined to breastfeed and have it work this time that I did so much reading and gone to classes. I wanted to prepare myself as best I could, so his gaining has been a weight off my shoulders! Obviously I am doing something right if he is gaining that much! :o)

Josh introduced a bottle for the first time yesterday evening when he got home from work and it was amazing! It went so well for the two of them! I was not in the room as I wanted to make sure that my little one didn't hear, see or smell me. My sister-in-law, Natalie, had given me that advice and it went so well! It was such a neat experience for my husband to be able to feed his boy since that is what I had been doing from the beginning.

Well before this gets even longer, I will save more little updates for another time. This is the first time I have been able to take a break and write (my head needed to catch up with my body - lack of sleep will do that sometimes!). All I know, is this little guy is truly a blessing from God. He is amazing and perfect! We have loved watching him grow and develop over the last (almost) 4 weeks and can't wait to see the rest!