He's Here!

Well, the last 24 hours have been quite eventful. Last night around bedtime Emily started feeling some mild contractions. The contractions increased in frequency and intensity throughout the night. Between the discomfort of the contractions and the nervousness about the impending birth Emily hardly slept a wink (I managed to get about 3 hours – so I was tired, but well rested in comparison). The contractions really started getting pretty strong by early in the morning, so we left for the hospital about 7:30. We were in an examining room by 8:00. The midwife examined Emily and she was 4 cm dilated. She told us it usually takes about 1 hour to dilate one cm, so we could probably expect about six more hours of labor. What she didn’t realize was this kid was ready to come out! We got a birthing room after that and by 10:00 the pain was excruciating and she asked for an epidural. The midwife said it was no problem she just needed to examine Emily first. No go – she was already at 8 cm. Thirty minutes later we had a kid. When Emily got to the pushing stage, all it took was three pushes and he was out. It was so quick that Emily’s obstetrician didn’t even have time to get to the hospital (he had an operation that morning at a neighboring hospital). Luckily we had an awesome midwife who did an amazing job. I don’t have anything to compare it to, but I was really impressed with the level of care.

(Sidenote – wow did I underestimate how painful this was. Emily did fantastic, but boy was it tough. Note for future moms – get the epidural and get it early!)

But all’s well that ends well. And we were so happy to see our boy come into the world. We named him Enoch Elian. Enoch is derived from Hebrew and means “dedicated,” and Elian is derived from Latin and means “light.” Enoch is also a character from the Bible – “Enoch walked with God.”

He’s a little guy – 6 lbs, 2.5 ounces, and 18.5 inches long. We can see features of several people from both sides of the family. Sometimes when we look at him and we see my brother Michael and sometimes my brother Eric – but the most striking resemblance is to Grandpa Greg – in fact, he looks so much like him we might have to give him the nickname of “Little Greg.”

As of 8:00 tonight when I left the hospital he had already nursed twice and pooed twice – so he is wasting no time in getting started with life. I’m proud to say that I changed his dirty diapers – it was disgusting but I thought it was the least I could do under the circumstances ;-) Anyway, he and his mom were just laying down for some sleep when I left - both exhausted.

Here are some pictures from the day (Don’t worry, we don’t go for the gory stuff):

Emily pacing the house all night with contractions.

A just born Enoch with his proud Mama

They even let his Pop have a turn

Hello world!

Enoch Elian Mullins