Noah Adam: The Day You Were Born

Well, to my surprise, everything went as planned. Noah stayed put until our scheduled induction, at 38 weeks, and my labor could not have gone any smoother.

We arrived at the hospital at 4:45 am on December 19, 2011...

The nurses got us settled in... put in a couple of IV's... and started pitocin around 6 am. I started contracting regularly... Noah tolerated the contractions beautifully... and I even got to walk the halls of L&D. (Check out my cool stockings ;)

The contractions started getting wicked nasty around 11 am...so around noon, I got my epidural! (Why anyone does this naturally is beyond me!?!?)

At 2pm I was ready to push... but had to wait a few minutes until the doctor could get there!

10 centimeters and feel good :)

At 2:26pm, after 2 quick pushes, Noah Adam Hanson was born!

Andy and I were relieved to hear he was healthy and a BOY!

(Although, I think some of our family was a little shocked to find out it was a boy.... a lot of pink had to be returned to the stores!)

It was love at first sight!

Noah weighed 6lbs 6.2 oz and was 18.5 inches long!

Noah's first picture with his Mommy and Daddy!

Grammy was also there to welcome Noah Adam into the world!

Later that evening, we got to introduce big brother Gabe to his baby Noah! He kept asking us where Adaline was! For months he talked about his baby sister... and was thoroughly confused as to why we kept calling this baby Noah!

Our first official "family of 4" photo!

Gabe was briefly interested in the baby...and then he moved on to the cool gift his brother gave him...which consisted of a Chipmunk coloring book, crayons, and snacks....such a thoughtful baby!

Shortly after Gabe left (to go home with Grammy), PPJ and RB came to visit!

After we got settled into our new room on the "mother/baby" unit...and the visitors left... I took some time to snuggle with my baby! I did a thorough NICU nurse assessment on him (he checked out ok!) and I just took every ounce of him in. I was just so relieved that he was here AND healthy!

As with Gabe, Daddy had the honors of changing the first poopy diaper :)

Mommy was very excited to play "dress up"!

And 24 hours after Noah was born, we were ready to head home :)

Let the real fun begin ;)