Meet Aaron

Aaron Robert Thomas graced us with his arrival at 12:02 PM on Friday, February 11, 2011. He weighs 8 pounds 6 ounces and is 20 inches long.

I arrived at the hospital at 6 AM and by 6:40 I was in bed, hooked up to the IV, and had answered the hundreds of questions presented by the nurse. Andrew dropped Logan off at school and was with me just before 8 AM. From the start Aaron's heart rate wasn't very steady. I spent most of my laboring on my left side where he seemed the most comfortable. Because of his behavior, the nurses waited until after 7 to start my Pitocin. My doctor also showed up to attach some internal monitors - one on his head to more accurately measure his heart rate and one in my uterus to measure pressure during my contractions. Dr. Robbins had just broken my water and finished all this when Andrew walked into the room.

Labor progressed pretty quickly and I requested my epidural around 9:30. Even with the epidural, I felt the pressure of my contractions more than I remember with Logan's birth. At 11 AM I was at 5 cm and when they checked me again at 11:30 I had jumped to 8 cm. Dr. Robbins, whose office is just across the street from the hospital, arrived 10 minutes later and confirmed I was fully dilated and ready to push. Push 1 - head. Push 2 - shoulders. Just like that!

We were out of labor and delivery and into our cozy room by 2 PM. With Logan it was late at night before we were settled in so it was nice to have the afternoon to relax. I forgot how annoying it was to have nurses checking in constantly - Aaron's nurse, my nurse, the vitals technician. After feeding Aaron at 3:30 AM I was ready for a few hours of solid sleep. Not 45 minutes later the lab showed up to draw my blood. Really? This couldn't have waited until 6 or 7?! Then every hour following I was woken up for something else. So when my nurse asked Saturday morning if we were planning on being discharged that day I got excited to be home. I knew there was a lot that had to be done including Aaron's hearing test and circumcision, and didn't want to rush it all, but boy did I want out!

By 5 PM we were ready to go. We picked up pizza on the way home and got to have dinner as a family. I got to give Logan his bath and put him down, too.

We are so excited to have Aaron in our lives. Well, two of us are. More to come on Logan's opinion of his new brother.

Welcome to our team, Aaron!