Aaron Paul Arrives!

We are so excited to announce the arrival of our newest family member, Aaron Paul. He was born July 14 (2 weeks early) at 4:13am Tuesday morning. He weighed in at 6 lbs 1 ounce and 19.5 inches long. Needless to say, he's a small guy! We have lovingly nicknamed him Small Fry. Monday night I was having some strong contractions, but that has been normal for me lately. It wasn't until 9 that I decided to start keeping track of them. For an hour they were 10 minutes apart so I went to the basement and told Chad. I kind of got the "yeah, okay" look b/c this is pretty normal lately. I headed back upstairs and tracked them for another hour and they were still 10 minutes apart and were getting a lot stronger and intense. I started getting stuff ready just in case and got the laundry finished up, picked up around the house, and dishes done. Chad came up a little before 11 and I told him he should strongly consider finishing up what he was doing and take a shower b/c they were still 10 minutes apart. At 11pm they started coming every 2-5 minutes so I called the OB but got transferred to another department b/c no one was in the OB - crazy! The lady called me back after calling the on-call OB nurse and told me to head into the OB at midnight. I called my Mom and she headed into town to stay with Nathan for the night. Off we went!

It was very strange heading into the OB in the middle of the night being the only patient there. It was certainly nice and quiet and peaceful. The nurse hooked me up to the monitors and checked me and I was dilated to 6 cm already! Wow! Needless to say, we were staying. I was in my room by 1am and the anesthesiologist was called. I got the lovely intrathecal by 1:30 and rested until 3 when Dr.Bruxvoort showed up and he broke my water since I was dilated to 9cm. By 3:50 he said it was time to start pushing so they got it all ready and by 3:55 I was pushing. I felt a whole lot more this time around than with Nathan! It wasn't terrible but I don't feel like doing it again! I was put on oxygen b/c both of our heart rates were dropping, especially Aaron's. At one point they got out the vaccuum and Dr. B said that if I couldn't get him out very soon they were going to have to use it. Well, that was motivation! I pushed 2 more times and he was out at 4:13 am! Chad describes him as looking like a little California raisin. They put him under some oxygen for a little while to get his breathing under control. He had a little fluid in his lungs but it didn't last long and he was good to go and nursing like a little champ. I was so incredibly shocked by how small he was! I quickly noticed his very long feet and toes and big hands and long fingers! Boy did I ever feel those feet.

Aaron means Light Bringer - Radiating God's Light. The verse with his name is from Isaiah 60:1 "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you."

We are so amazingly blessed with our Aaron Paul and can't imagine life otherwise. Nathan is enamored with Aaron and loves to hold him, touch him and give him kisses. He's been getting to play with Grandma's and Grandpa's this week and weekend so life is pretty awesome for him!

More pictures to come with the computer is behaving :)