Introducing Aaron!

Aaron Reed Okelberry made his grand entrance 12 days early on Tuesday, July 31 at 3:54pm.  He weighed 7 lbs 14 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long.  He is cute as button, and we are so excited to have him here!

  Not as much hair is Emmy but more than Abby as newborns.  It's lighter brown than the girls.

The girls both ADORE him!  They are doing pretty well taking turns, but it often looks like this:

 Abby was convinced her baby brother would come in "Yaugust," so don't try to tell her he actually came in July.  She really loves him, but we haven't had much time at home with the whole family (thank you to our moms!), so the jealousy hasn't set in yet.

 I don't have a picture of Emmy holding Aaron on my camera.  But rest assured that she did!  She stayed longer than Abby right after his birth, and the nurse let her give Aaron his bath in the room.  She would sit and hold Aaron all day long if we'd let her!

I was anxious to leave the hospital and get to sleep in my own bed, so we left as soon as they could get Aaron's 24 hour blood work done.  Here he is all curled up in his car seat.

 And here are our THREE children all ready to leave the hospital!

We are doing really well.  Aaron doesn't know how to sleep at night, so I've had 2 nights with only one 3 hour stretch, but I'm sure he'll figure it out eventually.  We have a lot of help from our moms, so I've gotten a few naps today.  I am amazed at how well I feel.  My whole body is a bit achy like I did a huge workout a couple of days ago, but other than that I feel awesome. 

Eventually, I will write the whole birth story, but here's a timeline for those interested (and to help me remember).

10am Go to doctor’s appointment, dilated to 3 cm (1/2 cm change from last Friday), feeling really painful but short (15 seconds) contractions

11:30 Walk to deliver thank you notes (and to see if contractions slow down), contractions get longer

12:00 Making lunch for the girls is almost impossible due to pain of contractions even though they're still not very long

12:45 Call Brett, tell him I think it’s early labor and he should finish up the day planning to not be in tomorrow

1:00 Emmy goes to Kid Camp across the street and Abby and I lay down for a nap

2:05 Text Brett saying he needs to come home NOW since I started timing contractions and they're a full minute long and coming every 5 minutes

2:45 Brett arrives home, my mom arrives to watch the girls, I bark orders at Brett and my mom to gather last minute things

3:15 Arrive at hospital, barely make it from the car to a room between contractions, dilated to 8 ½ cm

3:54 Aaron is born

Yes, it was a whirlwind.  It was a very different labor from the girls.  The pain of the contractions started out at max; the only change was how long they were, and I wasn't sure I was in real labor because I hadn't had any bleeding yet which happened pretty early on with the girls.   

I'm just very glad that Brett made it home quickly and that we made it to the hospital in time.  I was starting to feel like I needed to push in the car!  While it was nice to have it over quickly, it was such an intense few hours that I don't know if I'd recommend it.  (Not that you get to choose or anything...)  I was in shock that our baby was actually here for the first hour or so after he was born.  

We love our baby brother so much already!  I'll try to take and post more pictures soon!