Tristan Arrives!

I am SOOO glad to be back at home. It feels like forever since I've posted to the blog because so much has changed in our lives since my last post! I wanted to do a blog on Tristan's birth through my eyes, so I might repeat some of the pictures, but I felt like I needed to include them for completeness. We are so excited and blessed to be the parents of two wonderful children. Tristan is such a beautiful addition to our family and we're already so in love with our sweet little son. He is so whole, healthy and perfect and we know that we have been truly blessed by God to be entrusted with such a wonderful little boy. We pray that we can be the parents that God means for us to be so that we can raise him up to be a strong, bold man of God. We thank all of our family and friends for all of the love and support they've given us and shown to Tristan already.

I love this picture. When we were in the hospital with Maura we only took one picture where we were actually posing for the camera and the top of Brent's head is cut off! So, I was so happy with this picture. This is about two hours after he was born, so you can see I recovered from the delivery a little more quickly this time around!

OK, here's the story of the delivery. We arrived at the hospital at about 12:30 am for the induction. We did all the preliminary stuff and they finally started my IV Pitocin at about 1:15. WELL, it really intensified my contractions, which I was already having when I got to the hospital. They gave me some morphine and phenergan and I slept until about 3:30 and woke up with really strong contractions. I thought I could breathe through them, but by 4:00 I was really uncomfortable. I asked for my epidural and the anesthesiologist took his time getting there and finally grudgingly arrived at 4:45. By then I was shaking and nauseated and convinced that natural childbirth is NOT for me! I had a WONDERFUL epidural and was so much more comfortable for the remainder of my labor.

By 6:25 I was about eight centimeters. At 7:20 the nurse broke my water when she checked me and all the trouble started. Suddenly the baby's heart rate started dropping with each contraction. My OB came in soon after and I could see the concern on her face. She was really worried about the baby. She did an infusion of fluid BACK into my uterus to give the baby some room and they put the oxygen on and turned me. The OB told me that if that didn't work, I was heading for a cesarean section. I was NOT happy. A c-section is that last thing I need right now. Thank God, his heart rate improved a lot and we were able to avoid surgery. The doctor had me start pushing soon after, saying that she just wanted to get him out and breathing air. I started pushing at 8:46 and he was born at 9:09. Let me just say, nine pounds eleven ounces is no picnic to push out. I was really not sure if I was going be able to get this baby out.

Tristan's first breath. When he finally made his appearance I was so relieved. He was pretty blue at first, as you can see. My first impression was, "Oh, he's here! He's so big!" We all speculated about his weight while they got him cleaned up. I said I thought he was nine pounds, and the doctor said, "I think he's closer to ten!" She's right!

Because of his issues with heart rate I didn't get to hold him right off. The OB held on to him while Brent cut the cord and then held him out so we could see him.

I got to touch my little boy for the first time. I was so overjoyed to see and touch him and realize he was out safely. It made me cry to finally meet my sweet boy face to face. That was all the time we got--he went straight to the baby nurse, who had the largest hair I've ever seen. You can see her in the background. I think it's a little traumatic to see that as your first sight here on earth.

Sweet little man. Tristan Wesley Allen 9 pounds, 11 ounces, 20.5 inches long. Born at 9:09am. His name means bold.

Big sister Maura meeting Maura for the first time. She smiled really big and said "Oh, the baby Brudder, I yuv him." I was so glad their first meeting went so well.

One of Brent's coworkers made a Big Sister Bag for Maura and we filled it full of goodies to play with at the hospital. We told her that the baby brought her a present. She loved all the fun things!

Holding Tristan for the first time. Brent and I had been deliberating between Tristan and Garrett for names for this guy. For the past few weeks, though, I just started to think of him as Tristan, so when he was born and looked like a Tristan we went ahead with that name for him. I thank God for my healthy, sweet, huge baby!

Brent and his son. He is so excited to have a son. I know that he would have been just as overjoyed with a baby girl, but I think there's something about a man having a son that's just so special. I know that Brent is looking forward to all the fun things he's going to be able to do with his little man.

Aunt Lorie and Uncle Micah. Lorie actually got to be in the delivery room to photograph the delivery. She's been at both children's birth to take pictures. Thanks, Lorie, for taking the time off work to be with us.

I'm so happy that Brent's parents, Chuck and Sherran, were able to come up and be part of Tristan's birth day. They live close to Nashville, so it's a sacrifice to spend the time and effort to be here and we were blessed by their presence. They really enjoyed getting to meet their first grandson.

Big Sister! Maura was loving all the attention she got as the big sister. She got lots of presents too!

Maura's favorite game to play with her Aunt Katie--upside down!

Aunt Katie and her boyfriend Scott. Both of them took the day off work to be there. It was so special to have them be a part of the big day.

Little man. Some babies look like babies, and some babies have that "little man face." I think Tristan is one of the latter. He's so sweet. Notice his eyelashes--very blond. I think this little guy is going to end up being a blondie like his big sister.

Maura LOVING the pull out couch. If I could only get her as interested in a toddler bed I would actually consider moving her! This was day two of our hospital stay and I just had to have my girl come and visit. I missed her so much!

Grammy is just completely in love with her first grandson.

Maura on her "yittle seat."

My sweet babies. I love holding them both in my arms. They make me so proud to be a mommy.

I love holding my baby boy, but we may be paying for it now. If he's awake, he expects to be held. Thus, I am currently typing with one hand.

Sleepy boy. I realized in hindsight that I didn't take many sleeping pictures of Maura. It was hard to convince ourselves later that she had ever slept!

Aunt Lorie visiting on day 2.

Brent enjoying father son bonding time. No, we didn't usually have a half naked child--I was trying to get him to wake up so I could feed him. Whew! That was a marathon post. It's taken me three days, but I think I'm finally done. It's not like I'm busy these days or anything!